Bonaire Launches Facebook, Twitter Pages to Promote Bonaire’s Dive into Summer 2009

Tourism Corporation Bonaire launched its new interactive fan pages on top social network websites; Facebook and Twitter.

Bonaire’s Facebook and Twitter pages were created to support Bonaire Dive Into Summer 2009 and the Celebration of Bonaire’s Commitment to Conservation, commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Washington-Slagbaai National Park and the 30th Anniversary of the Bonaire National Marine Park.

The pages feature links to the calendar of events for Bonaire Dive Into Summer and Bonaire’s Celebration of its Commitment to Conservation, plus links to the TCB website, various island images and more. The sites will encourage Facebook and Twitter users to follow the island’s updates on Twitter and invite them to add Bonaire to their fan page on Facebook, which will then provide access to the features and information available on their page.

“The timing was perfect for us to become active participants in both social media networks,” commented Ronella Tjin Asjoe Croes, Director of Tourism for Bonaire. “Now it will be easier for us to connect with past and potential visitors which can only contribute to the communication of key highlights of this year’s Bonaire Dive Into Summer Program and continued Celebration of our National Parks.”

While Facebook started out as a service for university students, at this moment almost one third of its global audience is aged 35-49 years of age and almost one quarter is over 50 years old. Considering 56% of Baby Boomers aged mid 40’s to early 60’s visit and engaging in social media, Bonaire is reaching the right audience. Facebook boasts more than 175 million active users as of February 2008, with more than 45 million actives users in the US alone and more than 3.5 million active users become fans of pages each day.

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as “tweets.” Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them. Twitter is the third most used social network and has 55 million visits per month.