Cayman’s tourism and transportation minister, Kenneth Bryan, has acknowledged that the Cayman Islands does not have a policy to keep its hotels small but small hotels “definitely work well with our market.”
He told the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) “Destination Media Briefing” that the British Overseas Territory will continue to shy away from all-inclusive accommodation as new investments in the tourism sector are being planned for the island.
“As you can tell, we’re a very expensive destination because we are the cream of the crop. And the expectation and delivery come with a special title or approach. And sometimes the all-inclusive element is not something we want to deliver; so more private, intimate service is what we always try to give our guests to make sure that their memories are never forgotten,” Bryan said.
He said between January and June 2022, the Cayman Islands welcomed over 114,000 stay-over visitors, accounting for 63 percent of 2019 pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic figures.
He said judging by the numbers and how they’re trending “I am confident that we are on target to deliver over a quarter million visitors by the end of this year.”
Kenneth Bryan said the Cayman Islands’ tourism performance must be considered particularly against the backdrop of the pandemic.
He said because of the swift and decisive actions taken to combat the spread of COVID-19, the islands became known as “having the strictest containment policies within the region, if not in the world”.
Bryan said the government’s policy was to protect lives more than anything else, adding that the economy survived for over a year without tourism, because of its financial services.
“Looking back, we were one of the first islands to close our borders and among the last to reopen,” he said, adding that all of this changed a few weeks ago when the destination dropped all COVID-19 protocols.
The minister said the data showed that 48.1 percent of the destination’s stay-over guests are repeat visitors, 3.5 percent higher than in 2019
Further, hotel room rates in the destination have returned to the peak pre-pandemic levels.
He said the data also showed that the average age of visitors to the Cayman Islands was 43 years “which is aligned with our more affluent target audience.
“Though we have a long way to go to get back to our pre-pandemic arrivals, the month-on-month increase demonstrates that for every key performance indicator, the needle is moving in the right direction.”
The authorities said there are nine properties in the pipeline, which include five completion dates ranging from 2023 to 2025. When completed, these new properties will add several new international brands for the accommodation sector and will provide jobs in the industry.
CMC/
