Stay-over spend eclipses cash from cruisers
Cruise ship and tender in George Town Harbour
(CNS): Figures from the Department of Tourism based on exit surveys taken by overnight and cruise guests through 2018 has revealed the money spent by stay-over visitors is, more than ever, eclipsing cruisers’ cash contribution and calling into question, yet again, government’s insistence that without a cruise berthing facility the tourism sector will implode. Last year stay-over tourism increased another 10%, with a whopping 463,001 guests arriving who between them spent over US$680 million, or almost 14% more than they did last year.
Cruise numbers reached a decade-long high, with over 1.92 million passengers and an 11% increase in headcount on last year. But the overall spend grew by only 8% to 199.9 million, indicating that each cruiser spent less than passengers in 2017.
Overall, tourist arrivals increased by more than 11% to 2,384,058, reflecting another fantastic year for the sector as a whole. It surpassed all previous years of recorded figures, including 2006, which previously held the record for the highest number of total visitors in a calendar year.
But it also emphasises the more significant contribution to the economy that overnight tourism continues to make when compared to the cruise sector. The statistics suggest that overnight guests still represent less than 20% of the visitors coming to Cayman but are responsible for 77% of the more than $880 million that was injected into the economy here last year.
However, cruise ship arrivals have a much greater negative impact on infrastructure and increasingly clash with the needs of Cayman’s stay-over guests.
Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell welcomed the increase in tourism and the resulting boost to the local economy, saying it was the mandate of the Ministry and Department of Tourism to facilitate annual growth in visitation and economic contribution.
“Through creative promotions, partnerships, and continued collaboration with our industry stakeholders, we have maintained the significant accomplishment of continuous record-breaking years,” he said.
“Our government has committed to investment in our points of entry at the cruise port and airports. These much-needed upgrades will benefit tourism operators, businesses, visitors and residents. My focus is to ensure that all subjects in my ministry portfolio operate efficiently and effectively to support the tourism sector. These results are an excellent indicator of the work accomplished in 2018,” he said.
The success of overnight visitation was driven by visitors from the North American market but also less common places such as Argentina and Bermuda, where visitor numbers grew more than 17% and 21% respectively.
The record-breaking December, the best in Cayman’s history, saw guests grow by 6.15% on last year, driven largely by people visiting from the United States. December 2018 was also the 21st consecutive month of growth, which included an increase in capacity by Cayman Airways from JFK, with daily flights that month.
“The Department of Tourism goal of source market diversification coupled with the ongoing development of new routes to the destination and innovative marketing plans has continued to drive the record-breaking successes for the Cayman Islands and will continue in 2019,” said Tourism Director Rosa Harris.
“Aviation is vital to driving visitation. Our global team remains committed to increasing capacity and we are particularly excited to be officially opening the Denver, Colorado route in March with Cayman Airways. As a gateway for the West Coast, we look forward to welcoming many new visitors from Colorado and new cities from the United States in 2019 to add to another year of success for the Cayman Islands.”
I work with both stayover and cruise and for sure most of the people that are repeat hotel guests now came on a cruise ship here first.
90% of that stayover spend is to the actual hotels, which are either owned by DART group or foreign corporations.
At least the cruise spend on island is with local businesses and small entrepreneurs.
Stayover totally depends on cruise. Most people that stayover came here on cruise first. There’s also plenty people with lots of money on cruises. Without cruises all tourism suffers.
Fake news
12:37 There’s absolutely no evidence to support that claim – ask anyone who works in the hotels here.
Your an idiot, no truth to that statement other than speculation
Hmm. The data seems to support scrapping the cruise project and focusing on stay-over (unless of course you own retail outlets on the waterfront). ANY business person would be able to easily decide on which group to focus on if the sales figures were: ships = $200, planes = $688. Yea I think I’ll go for the $200 (and trash the natural environment and increase the strain on the already fragile infrastructure). A no-brainer really!!
ANY business person would know its never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket!
Think about the millions that DOT spends every year to get people to come here and take that away from what the visitors spend.
Government doesn’t spend a dime advertising to cruise passengers!
Ahh, one of the Kirk or Dart minions. I agree with not having all eggs in a basket BUT CRUISE visitors and PLANE visitors are still VISITORS. Maybe you were thinking of tourism vs. finance (different business lines ergo not all eggs in a basket).
What is stupid is you appear to support one form of tourism (cruise) that will destroy the environment (i.e. one of the things visitors come for) due to the vast numbers, and by extension, kill the other stream of tourism (plane).
You’re mistaken if you think its only ‘Kirk or Dart minions’ that support the port. I have no affiliation to either and work in the financial sector so I don’t depend on Kirk, Dart or cruise passengers to earn my crust.
CRUISE and PLANE visitors are all VISITORS but 463,000 PLANE visitors (roughly 38,000 a month) are not enough to sustain the tourism industry and provide jobs (absorb) all who would lose their employment if cruise disappeared.
I support both forms of tourism. The port will affect less than 1% of the Islands marine environment leaving plenty for ALL visitors AND residents to enjoy.
So the cruise tourism vendors don’t bank with you??
Is anyone looking into the highway robbery that is happening with the Kaaboo Festival? The room rates are off the charts, blow your mind, astronomical.
Cruise shippers will be the only saving grace in Cayman in February.
Frye Festival 2019 in the Cayman Islands. Wait and see.
i feel sorry for you.
Good newsfordruggies and imported low life.
I saw there were more headliners pulling out this morning. Speaks volumes.
Really? Who pulled out so far?
Comedian David Spade replaced some time ago with Norm Macdonald.
David space pulled out because he booked a movie and has to film. That’s not out of the ordinary with shows booked almost a year in advance. 1 person being REPLACED doesn’t have anything to do with the failed fyre fest.
Per today’s (Jan. 30th) Compass: Los Lobos, Tom Green and English Beat.
I’m sure there will be more.
Who?
I’ll be off island purposely avoiding this mess
There is a great documentary on netflix about the fyre fest, you should watch cause clearly you don’t have the facts.
Saw the Fyre festival documentary and almost right down the the crappy website and people pulling out, Kaaboo is starting down the same path. We’ll see but it looks ominous. Even if it does fly the line up is a dud with washed up 80s groups, one hit wonders, or people just thankful to have a paying gig somewhere warm.
I wonder how many people will be flying in without accommodations and tenting it on the beach?
And what about the Brac? What are the stay over figures? Cruise ship figures?
Did the Alexander hotel ever reopen? How about the Divi Hotel – has that been fixed up and reopened? The Minister of Tourism is from the Brac, but doesn’t even mention it.
moses has being giving the same brac non-update for the last 15 years.
the brac is a testatment to his failure as a politician.
Case in point: nobody in our Cabinet or at MoT/DoT knows what the “Teignmouth Electron” is, where it is, or why it should matter historically in relation to Brac history. They lack the cultural refinement to tell the stories that ignite the imagination of our guests. They don’t know who Donald Crowhurst was, or what the race of the century was, or why that should matter to tourists to the Brac. There is no plaque or directions. Rather than preserve her as a monument, they broke her apart with an excavator to dig an airport drainage trench! Looters have stripped the rest. True dunces in charge.
Assuming they can’t read, or attend plays, so here are some of the movies on the subject:
The Mercy (2018)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3319730/
Crowhurst (2017)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4791984/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Deep Water (2006) <– on Netflix
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460766/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3
Disappearance at Sea (commissioned by UK's National Maritime Museum)
The Two Voyages of Donald Crowhurst (1993)
Race of the Century (1986)
Les Quarantièmes Rugissants (1982)
Shoestring (1979)
Alone (1979)
Horse Latitudes (1975)
Donald Crowhurst – Sponsored for Heroism (1970)
CNS: Apologies if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that the land that the Teignmouth Electron sits on was purchased by Moses Kirkconnell at some point, and I happen to know that he is well aware of the story. Most people on the Brac know about the Electron and there are still one or two who worked on it when it was used as a dive boat. For those who don’t know, it was purchased by Winston McDermott in Jamaica after it was salvaged and brought to the Brac to be used as (I think) the first dive boat on the island.
Sadly, it was badly damaged way back in Hurricane Andrew and has been slowly rotting ever since. Twenty years ago it might have been salvageable but I interviewed a bunch of people about it over the years, including one of the directors of Deep Water when they came to film shots of the boat, who all said it was way beyond restoring.
It would also have been a fairly expensive enterprise which may not have had the returns you believe. Despite all the movies, articles and books, including the one by the artist Tacita Dean, who came to the Brac to film the Bubble House, there was no corresponding furry of visitors to the island. And in my experience, visitors who are sailing enthusiasts (which are few and far between on the Brac) get excited about the Electron but most, if told about it, show a fleeing interest only.
FYI, here’s a piece in the UK National Gallery which shows what the boat looks like now – see here.
Dean’s sentiment in this article – She feared that it would be tampered with by others drawn to the story, and she hoped that the boat would “remain what it is, and not be dully transformed into what it is not” – was the same as Crowhurst’s family, according to the Deep Water director when I interviewed him.
So I agree with you that it’s a huge shame it wasn’t preserved while this was still possible, but the door closed on that a long time ago.
I worked in hotels from South Church street to 7 mile beach. I have never made enough money to pay for a new car. I didn’t take my wife every weekend to a restaurant. I certainly couldn’t go on vacation once a year. I didn’t send my kids to a private school. So as much as you think stayover tourists benefit Cayman. It doesn’t benefit Caymanians. Beside if the merchants are pushing for Cruisers isn’t it obvious that the stayover tourist are not really spending money that much. If it benefits Government then why is CAL still needing a handout since inception? This negativity is not from people who work in the cruise ship industry. This is people who are stuck in the past. Did anybody hear if Bodden shipping wants to close down the tender service because its not making a profit. What about the environment? Surely all those tenders create pollution? Why don’t we cut the nonsense, Cruise ship business creates stayover tourist business since 1937. If you want more cruisers to eat and drink more, stop charging the ridiculous prices for food or drink. US$25 for a mojito? What are you insane?
Well. There’s some more flavor to the stew!? If Bodden Shipping is sick of being ripped off by the DoT and cruise ship lines, like the tour operators, and they are thinking of packing it in, then that’s a whole new spin to this mess, isn’t it?
I agree and disagree on various points you stated but I 100% agree with the ridiculous prices being charged for food in George Town and the hotels especially.
Let’s clarify this… the data doesn’t lie, it shows cruise ship passengers do not spend anywhere close to stay over visitors. Why is government so inclined to get this cruise port developed you may ask? The answer is greed, corruption and personal agendas put before the people of the Cayman Islands. To hell with this unity government fiasco. The data speaks the truth, I just wish the politicians would do the same.
Personal gain and greed, alongside a misguided and arrogant belief that they know better than experts and the people they are appointed to serve.
Comparing cruise ship visitors and stay over visitors is like comparing chalk and cheese. But cruise ship passengers provide about 6000 jobs and most of the money is spent with the local vendors not the Marriott, Westin, Ritz, Kimpton and car rental agencies and restaurants. So cruise ship passengers are even more valuable than stay over visitors. Please be careful what you wish for .
What 6000 jobs? Those 6000 are not all Caymanian so local vendors run by a few rich families?
Again with the 6000 jobs from cruise passengers. Where? I’ve said it before that if you remove all the jobs that both cruise and over night guest effect you will NOT have 6,000 jobs that deal only with cruise passengers. It’s no where near that high so please stop throwing that number around like a ball.
Actually your comparison and reality are like chalk and cheese. Firstly the facts and these published figures don’t support your lame argument. Cruise ship passengers do provide a limited number of jobs, but most of the money is spent onboard ship and not with the local vendors, as evidenced by these figures. So you are asking for more of less. Please be careful what you wish for and don’t expect the rest of us to pay for your whims.
There is literally no business case for this dock. The only people who will benefit are the corrupt, greedy MLA’s pushing for it!
If CHEC gets the contract I will agree with 4.47.
Doesn’t matter who gets it.. They are corrupt as can be!
I don’t know why the Government is blind to these facts. Of course stay-over tourist are going to project more funds into the economy. Instead of focusing on the Cruise Ship Port (which is not needed), they need to focus on getting the financials on the Airport upgrade back on track & finalize all details to make it one of the best in the Caribbean.
I believe there’s a term in law for this. It’s called ‘willful blindness’. Look it up. 🙂
Was inflation taken into account? A nice dinner and movie on island for a couple is about $150 now.
I reckon the pier will reduce passenger spend ~ easier to get back on the ship and eat that already paid for food.
My whole opinion on this cruise ship pier , is that it not going to be done for the benefit of Cayman , but for other interest .
And authentic Caymanian or Caribbean food is hard to find for locals, how the heck are tourists going to find it? Hell, the first thing I look for when I travel is good authentic local food. I definitely don’t want European or North American food when I’m in China.
Most of my excursion guest said they came here first on a ship and liked it so much that they can came back to stay over. point being the cruise dock is more important than you all may think….
We are still getting record number from cruise ships. The dock isn’t needed!
Its very much needed my friend.
No it isn’t and we aren’t friends.
No it isn’t, my friend.
Jedi mind tricks wont work sith.
And that is not the dock you’re looking for. *waves coconut at you*
That’s been disproven many times!
As stated in early 1990s: we need to build the permanent cruise ship and super yacht SPM moorings off western side of Grand Cayman to avoid anchor drag, chain sweep, and allow ships to mostly power-down. We shouldn’t want to go anywhere near the cautionary risks and stated marine degradation associated with dredging a port expansion, when the reasonable alternatives are a particle of the cost and eliminate all of the irreversible downside.
I’m almost afraid to ask this but didn’t anybody at CIG already know this was the case and if not why not?
I’ve been visiting these islands long enough to remember when cruise shippers came ashore, hit the bars, spent money (more than a few got so drunk they missed the boat!) and generally made a day of it but things haven’t been like that for at least the last 10 years.
During my last visit there were four cruise ships in one day but I was in one of the well-known waterfront bars and the place was empty. Now I can remember that same bar packed with cruise shippers buying drinks and food when there were just two ships in.
I’ve never been on a cruise but my guess, based on my business experience, is that what’s happening now is the cruise lines sell the cabins for rock bottom prices (under $600 pp for seven days!) and then make up the rest with charges for onboard services. That’s great for the cruise lines but leaves the passengers with nothing to spend ashore.
The math in this story is pretty impressive. 463K stayover generate $680m while 1.9m cruise passengers (about four times as many) bring in less than a third of that amount. If I was in the hospitality business on Grand Cayman I know where my money would be going and that wouldn’t be a cruise dock.
Drop the pier and focus on the real cash cow. The stay overs. “463,001 guests arriving who between them spent over US$680 million” compared to “1.92 million passengers and an 11% increase in headcount on last year. But the overall spend grew by only 8% to 199.9 million.”
So overnight spend 77% of the $880 million brought in. Solution is simple, increase overnight stays by 29.4% *see math at bottom of my post* and you equal the combined spending of the current cruise and overnight guests. Then you can drop the number of cruise passengers or keep the numbers the same. Think of how uncrowded our beaches would be.
MY SOLUTION
Build more hotels not condos or homes.
More hotels equals more jobs, more opportunities for locals to take the tourism hospitality course UCCI offers to get good jobs in these hotels. More LOCALS employed equals even more money injected into the economy as opposed to WP holders shipping money back home. More water sport, restaurant, car rental options and retail options. Think of how less crowded of the beaches would be.
Now I know there are those that will argue about the reduction of cruise passengers coming here is loss of revenue and to that I say.. to who exactly? Kirk stores? Taxis? Tour operators? Even if the numbers dropped 10% or 20% or even 30% they will be just fine as they are right now. I have spent time in town on the busiest cruise days and have personally watched people *creeper stalker moment here* leave the cruise terminal, walked in and out of stores without buying a single thing and going back to the ship and I’ve done that many times because I personally wanted to see how tourists spend their time in town. Don’t get me started on how ridiculous the prices of t-shirts and other stuff they look to buy and I’ve over heard MANY times, those sames thoughts coming from tourists.
This solution injects money into the economy, creates jobs and doesn’t destroy the wildlife and seabed in George Town harbor while saving the taxpayers $200-$300 million in the port project.
Careful. Math below.
Average over night guest spending = Amount/guests or 680,000,000/463,001 = $1,468.68 average per person.
Number of stay overs to make up cruise guests spending = cruise spending amount/over night average spending amount = $199,900,000 / $1,468.68 = 136,109 overnight guests
Percentage of needed over stayers = 136,109/463,001 = 29.4%
+ As I said elsewhere on here, build an airport in the East so more/bigger planes can land here. CIG’S logic and math suck!
What 10 people hated math in school?
Please could we stop praising the department of tourism for awhile?We all know that these numbers are because of the U.S economy and sadly to say the damage caused to our Eastern Caribbean friends that have been unable to welcome guest.
$200 million from cruise passengers is still a big chunk of change. Just because its less than stayovers doesnt mean we can do without it. $200 million is almost a third of Governments operating budget? Think of all the services that $200 million provides, from education to roads to NAU, instead of pretending it has no value and we can do without it.
And how much trash do the cruise shippers leave and how much damage do they do our environment? Simple answer to both questions – a lot!
Do you think the Hotels that cater to stayovers don’t produce any trash?
12.25pm $200 million (over$100 a head) spent by the cruisesheep is a fanciful figure. I travel through the harbour area daily and hardly ever see any of them with purchases. A large number cannot afford the $2 bus fare to the beach and walk. As for those buying landside packages most of the money goes to the cruiseships.
Does Moses read these numbers? Why is a Cruise Port necessary if we are getting more people cluttering up our infrastructure but giving us less than the stay over visitors?
He did read these numbers. More cruise passengers equals more potential Kirk store shoppers.
Almost all of the stayover guests came to discover Cayman by cruise ships first. There would be no stayover without the cruise ships.
Very questionable conclusion. I’ve never met a stayover who first came over here on a cruise ship, most of them wouldn’t even consider it as a vacation option.
That is true, 150% true but building a pier to increase the number of tourists coming off the ship is unnecessary. We already have record numbers coming in and crowding the beaches for those over night stayers. I would dare say building the new pier will destroy our overnight tourist segment and then we WILL be screwed.
Cruise shippers already cram our entire beaches, in tightly packed rows of beach chairs right up to the waters edge. There is no room left for us, the people who live here, even on weekends these days. I think we already have too much cruise ships. I would like to remember how it feels to spend a peaceful afternoon on the beach with the family again. There’s very few places left safe for kids to paddle and swim. It’s like Brighton beach in the summer and that’s not a good look for a Caribbean island.
B.S fake news.
For one… Scuba divers do NOT travel by Cruise ships to check out their next diving vacation.
I am just playing devil’s advocate here but they might: https://www.carnival.com/shore-excursions/grand-cayman
10:09 I’ve worked with divers booked by the cruise ships and most of them are what we call in the trade ‘tea bags’ – drop them in the water, swirl them around for a bit and then dump them back ashore. In my experience many of them are a complete liability with no buoyancy skills and kicking the c*** out of everything.
One of the most serious issues with them is that their dive package and their paperwork is booked by staff on the cruise ship who don’t have a clue about dealing with divers. Their attitude is ‘sign here and give me your money so I make my commission’. I’ve had customers who by rights hadn’t dived for so long they should have done a check dive but they were pre-booked by the cruise line so we had to take them out.
Also, lots of cruise shippers don’t even get off the boat as the view from the ship is usually enough to turn them off.
“Oh I didn’t realize Grand Cayman has a mountain?”
“No, dear, that’s not a mountain that is their garbage heap….”
“Wow! It’s like Mt. Kilimanjaro in the Caribbean!”
“Amazing when we’re in 2019, isn’t it dear?”
Give the pier to the Brac
Build two docks!
No, no, a thousand times no! We don’t want a dock!!!
Yes, we do!
This article is quite clear, stay over tourists are valuable, cruise visitors are much less valuable, and their presence inhibits the enjoyment of the stay over variety. Thats it in a nutshell, quite simple, and indisputable.
If this was a new message you might understand why it is so hard for the LA to absorb it, but it isn’t new, so WHY will they not do the obvious, the reasonable, the least expensive and for this Island the most beneficial?
One possibility would be that the members of the LA have interests that are not those of this Island. I cannot believe that that can be the case, but as Sherlock Holmes used to say, when you have eliminated the possible, and are left with the impossible, then maybe the impossible is the solution! Leaves you wondering doesn’t it?
As a long time stay over visitor…..I can’t go downtown on cruise ship days..which means I only have a day or two out of the week to shop downtown. The last few trips i haven’t even gone downtown. I don’t go to Cayman to fight the crowds. You can’t drive through Georgetown on cruise ship days because of the foot traffic.
Try getting to work when you live in the east side of the island & work on 7 mile strip. Traffic crazy even with 2 ‘small’ ships in & not the mega ones they want…
No more cruise passengers clogging everything. Please!
Nice to see the numbers no we can extrapolate data.
So cruise shippers spend on average $104.11 each while on island. Compare with stayover guests who spend on average $1,468.68 each. That means that one stay over guest is worth 14 cruise ship passengers. You can fit up to 215 people an a 737 and 3000 on a cruise ship. Therefore one plane full of visitors is worth $315,766.62 and one ship is worth $312,330.
Seems to make far more sense to cater to stayovers considering the damage and pollution 3000 people bring vs 215 people. Why is the government spending $300M on this port again? Seems like it’s not worth it considering the opportunity costs of losing $400M in revenue while port is being built plus you lose another $300M building the port.
Let’s say you increase the landing fee by $3 per head. It would take 121 years to make $700M to offset the costs haha. Such a stupid idea…
Typical CIG economic growth view point.
@10:49 a cruise passenger spends $104.11 in 1 day. A stay over spends $1468.68 in 6 days.
I find it very hard to believe that every man woman and child who visits on a cruise ship for 4-5 hours spends $104.00.
Me too. I can only surmise that most of that is entrance fees to the turtle farm, Stingray City trips and the like. I am betting most of it isn’t spent on diamonds or the tatt downtown.
These guys are just so smart. Who knew that stay overs would spend more money than a $500 all inclusive cruise ship passenger.
But sadly it took Dart to see the market opportunity that had collapsed after Ivan and exploit the hopeless tourism planning that still exists to this day.
Where are the small affordable resorts we once had, 5 star everything isn’t the answer.
Why does BA still have the European monopoly?
And most of my guest say they came here first on a cruise and love it so they came back on a flight. Build our dock!
10:20 That’s BS and you know it.
Its not BS its facts unless your calling my guest liars?
It’s not all your guests it’s some and Cayman not having a port didn’t deter them from flying in and visiting. The port is not worth the money. It’s so plain to see much like Trump’s wall.
We’re not talking about eliminating cruise ships all together, we’re talking about not building a dock. Cruise ships will still come and some of those passengers will come back as stay over tourists. We don’t need twice as many cruise ship passengers to overrun the attractions and ruin the Cayman experience for stay over guests who will then spread the word to stay clear of here.
Nail on head.
How about that traffic this morning? It’s going to get a whole lot worse after Govt throws 500mil into the sea on this foolishness!
@10:18 No traffic wont be worse. George Town is being pedestrianized so you wont be driving through crowds of cruise shippers. See, problem solved!
I wonder why those people and politicians can’t see that by building that cruise ship pier is going kill the Golden Egg /Stay overnight Tourism that provides more money into the Economy .
That is greedy stupid thinking that cruise pier is needed in Cayman Islands.
Cruises are like a sampler platter. You get to experience a taste of different varieties. As such less money is spent per destination.
Offering a great sample is a great way to encourage them to return and stay-over once they get a demo of the island.
Of course, balance is key.
Simple fact – cruise shipper pays $600 for a seven day trip and there’s no way on this planet that they’ll pay $200+ a night for basic hotel room plus their air fare and spending money. Cruise arrivals = stayover business is pure fantasy.
No surprises here.
Already known.
Not an eye-catching headline.
But also know that the on-island spend from cruise ship visitors go mainly into the local economy, affecting a lot of small businesses.
With limited repatriation of profits back to the head offices of the global hotel franchisees located in Cayman.
And what about the way local businesses are being ripped off? I’m told that Stingray City trips are being sold for $80-$90 on the cruise ships but the local operators only get paid $18-$20. A friend of mine says they’re struggling to pay staff wages and fuel costs but are scared to make a fuss because if they do the cruise lines will cut them off.
Here you go, some facts to back up your cruise ship prices: https://www.carnival.com/shore-excursions/grand-cayman
So what are you going to do?
Tell the cruise lines to pay you more?
Get all Caribbean ports to band together and fight the cruise lines on their pricing?
Try your luck with all of that.
It’s like saying to the Westin, Ritz Carlton, Marriott, etc to ensure that their guests only buy watersports packages from small Caymanian-owned and operated businesses.
It’s the way of the business world @ 3:49pm and 5:46pm.
It is up to your government to lower the costs of small businesses operating in Cayman.
And up to these businesses to run their affairs as efficiently as possible.
Hey, I posted the link to be helpful so the guy could see how much Carnival charge. I can’t help but notice all the diving and snorkeling tours which kinda explains why the majority of cruise shippers I meet on SMB are horrified and do not support the port plans.
5:26 You must be an ex-pat because no born Caymanian would write s*** like that. I know several small businesses that simply stopped working with the cruise lines because they were losing money on it and not one of them has regretted making that move because they’ve since picked up so many stayover customers. If a few more did it maybe the cruise lines would get the message. I suspect what’s ultimately going to push this issue over is when one of the larger watersports companies doing business with the cruise lines goes belly up and trust me that’s coming.
There’s nothing stopping anyone from competing with the global franchises (as opposed to grudging them for being commercially aware).
Which tourist wants to spend on overpriced items which they can get in jamaica. We dont need to destroy marine life for that sh*t. Hopefully they can train some of these people that are in customer service and the “Tourism Ambassadors” to make these visitors atleast come back. Dont get me wrong there is some that are good but alot of these ambassadors are just looking a paycheck and cant even smile or say good morning. They just want to take you on an overpriced tour or sell you a rum cake and call it a day, deep down they dont care about who they are or where they are from.
Duh