CITA denies airport concerns

| 16/07/2019 | 31 Comments
Cayman News Service
Flooding at Owen Roberts International Airport, 25 June 2019

(CNS): The Cayman Islands Tourism Association has accused CNS of misinterpreting a statement they sent to us after we put questions about the airport woes to the organisation, which is meant to represent the interests of the diverse range of businesses that make up the tourism industry. The president has said she believes her statement was in support of the airport, regardless of the recent “misfortunate events” and said the statement was designed to temper the “overreaction”.

Following the publication of the report last week, CITA President Theresa Leacock-Broderick now states that it would have been “more accurate to say that we are not concerned about these particular recent issue of flooding and cooling, ‘despite the public’s concerns’ and that we were ‘thankful’ of the timing under the circumstances”.

She added, “In fact, at the June CITA Accommodation Sector meeting, noting that this sector group works specifically with stay-over tourism visitors, these incidents were discussed and, in light of the CIAA press release on the flooding, the group’s opinion was that CIAA be allowed the opportunity to remedy the problems before CITA raise issue. We did not issue a media wide press release but responded to your request for a comment and did so to you alone as a professional courtesy. We did so with the objective of calming the overreaction to what we expect will be one-off hurdles and taking the opportunity to publicly express our support and encouragement to the CIAA teams. Instead you presented the opposite.”

CNS is happy to reproduce below the original statement in its entirety and verbatim, sent in response to our request for comment from CITA about flooding at ORIA, issues with the air-conditioning, the airport being jam-packed with not enough seats, and visitors fainting:  

“The recent series of misfortunate events at ORIA speak to the importance of the CIAA being thoroughly prepared and ready to rapidly respond to changing conditions be it from weather, flight operations or equipment failure. In reality, much of such preparedness and anticipation unfortunately comes from experience, be it related to facility management or operations management. With all due respect to the public’s concerns and everyone’s best intentions for the airport to be a fast, efficient and overall pleasant experience for all, given that it our island’s first and last visitor experience, we need to be thankful that these pitfalls didn’t occur during an emergency situation and, at best, that they have provided critical lessons learned to the airport authority teams. It’s an ideal time to learn the nuances of a new facility as temperatures climb and the storm season sets in.

“The CITA Directors have always maintained that expanded facilities is not the end all and be all to delivering on positive airport experiences and have advocated for better proactive planning with better agency staffing, technology applications and responsive operational monitoring; now, obviously, top-notch proactive facility management is also critical to on-going and long-term success of airport experiences.  With extreme highs in the peak periods coupled with continuing growth in stay over tourism along with continuing airport improvement works and the usual aviation disruptions, it’s safe to assume only that there will never be a dull day in airport management. Given the importance of its success to the tourism industry and to the country’s economy, we continue to stress to Government the necessity to allocate the necessary resources and expertise to the CIAA and, as partners in tourism, we offer our encouragement and support.”

CITA President Theresa Leacock-Broderick

See original article: CITA stresses need for well managed airport

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Category: Business, Tourism, Transport

Comments (31)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    CITA was and is still calling out CIAA management! Mrs. Broderick’s “revised” comments simply cloak the original criticism in more “diplomatic” verbiage buts says the same thing. Read between the lines!

    However, clearly Moses Kirkconnell and his “bots” in the Ministry and Department of Tourism put in a call to her to “tone” down her comments. That was after the CIAA Board and Management cried for help!!

  2. Anonymous says:

    She told the truth and then, somebody called somebody. Check Moses speed dial…

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  3. Anoymouse says:

    Having read CITA’s letter to CNS again, I somehow get the impression that the CITA and the DOT and CIG has never been on the same page and there are too many “Personality Disorders” lying around the place.

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    • Anonymous says:

      LOL

    • Anonymous says:

      Absolutely. One time I was in the DoT for a tourism related business. I asked them if our business should join CITA, and without a beat or hesitation the woman looked at me and told me, “We have no idea what they do…”

      Take from that what you may but it has long been touted that CITA looks out for their own, aren’t interested in the broad sense of tourism in Cayman and that it is a Lodge-like organization.

      We approached them, we never heard back.

  4. Anonymous says:

    I always get annoyed at that one guy that keeps calling Cayman Absurdikstan (or whatever) BUT OH LAWDY!!! This is defo Absurdikstan (or whatever… lol)

    Sounds like a teenager we’re dealing with here…

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Imagine spending 100k on a brand new car, drive it off the lot and then two back wheels fall off.

    Dealer looks at you and says, “ah, tis but a one off hurdle!”

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    • Anonymous says:

      CITA president not concerned that tourists and residents were wading through water ankle deep? We know that the Minister is not concerned about tourists and residents getting soaked embarking and disembarking. Seems like no one gives a hoot about tourism. No wonder they now want to destroy the Harbour in George Town.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Not just wading, but exposing themselves (staff and passengers) to electrocution risk. Electricity can travel short distances in water.
        Unfathomable that no one EVEN mentions that.

        4 Rules for electrical safety after a flood:

        1.Never go into a flood-damaged basement or a basement filled with water until the utility company, fire department, or a licensed electrician has removed the home’s electrical meter from its socket.

        2. Once the building is pumped out and you begin recovery efforts, keep in mind that all flooded electrical equipment is almost certainly ruined.

        3: Pay increased attention to grounding and bonding, and after the flood ask an electrician to conduct a thorough survey the system.

        4. Even after the building is fully disconnected from the grid, never go into a flooded building alone.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    The mangling of the English language in the CITA statement is excruciating. Surely there is someone there who can put a sentence together.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yeah, I’ve noticed that as well. And English is my third language after .German&French

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      • Anonymous says:

        God, I hate to think she could be a teacher. How boring can you be? She could have said all of that in 2 sentences.

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        • Anonymous says:

          She’s not actually saying anything at all. Scary the people they put in charge of stuff here.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Swivel chair jockeys typically specialise in waffle, they get medals for it too! Her response might have looked better written on toilet paper since that’s all it’s worth.

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    • Anoymouse says:

      The CITA statement was meant to be decoded.Sheeps!

  7. Anonymous says:

    Airport turns into Swamp Port and CITA is not concerned.
    Can’t make this $hit up, only in Cayman, hilarious but sad, SMH

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    • A word of sage advice for CAL says:

      Cayman Airways need to ditch the Max8s and buy a fleet of airboats or hovercrafts to shuttle people around Cayman. A flooded airport fits right in with this business model.

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  8. SKEPTICAL says:

    Do Theresa, CIAA, and CIG believe the public are completely stupid………..

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  9. Anonymous says:

    So correct 11:05 AM. Someone from the Unity Government got on her case, and she may lose her job if she doesn’t correct her statement.

    A communist government we have. Dictating to people.

    Everyone saw the pictures of the mess at ORIA.

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    • Anonymous says:

      You obviously do not know Theresa … her “job” at CITA is that of a volunteer and her personal integrity and values prevail. If she is “correcting” her statement it is because it needed to be corrected.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Just by being a part of “CITA” her personal integrity is in question!

        Theresa Leacock-Broderick should take several seats and resign immediately.

        Her statement was as clear as the water at SMB. To back pedal on her statement by somehow stating CNS got it wrong is appalling.

        If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

        Sad.

        At least many, good, constructive comments came out of the original article. I hope someone took them onboard.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Volunteer? Others who held that position were monthly paid. Theresa you didn’t do anything wrong. You told it as you saw it. Why are you back pedaling now? Always remember when you are ask questions by a reporter on a subject they are going to publish it. Next time if you don’t want your words published just say no comment.

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      • Anonymous says:

        It still needs a lot of correcting.

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      • Donald says:

        12.39pm Sorry to say, your statement is not correct.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Spinelessness and explainerisms… can we all agree that ORIA isn’t the first airport on the planet and that we could provide a passenger exit survey to instruct performance improvement? Let the airport users tell you that there isn’t a USB charging station, thermostat control, and drainage, if you need them to.

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  11. Bahzul says:

    What else are their going to do ? Own up to failures?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Knock on wood but if the airport caught on fire I bet next time they’ll sugarcoat and write:

      “We are NOT concerned at this time as there are fire sprinklers installed.”

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      • Screech! says:

        11.08am If it caught on fire, tough luck as the fire engines would be rolled over on the runway before they reached the terminal. Note – this is a traditional procedure for our airport firemen.

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  12. Abyss says:

    “it would have been “more accurate to say that we are NOT concerned about these particular recent issue”

    Alright Theresa, let’s see.

    “The recent series of misfortunate events at ORIA speak to the importance of the CIAA being thoroughly prepared and ready”

    Obviously concerned.

    “In reality, much of such preparedness and anticipation unfortunately comes from experience”

    Took that as you think that the CIAA staff are incompetent.

    “we need to be thankful that these pitfalls didn’t occur during an emergency situation”

    Obviously VERY concerned and want something done NOW before it too late.

    “It’s an ideal time to learn”

    But not an ideal time to be concerned?

    “we continue to stress to Government the necessity to allocate the necessary resources and expertise to the CIAA”

    We continue to stress that the airport is shit and staff are incompetent, which will in turn harm our tourism product. Gotcha Theresa.

    “we offer our encouragement and support.”

    Nice way to put a cherry on top of a mud cake.

    CNS, as members of the public take it from us – you didn’t misinterpret her two blocks. Someone in a position didn’t like that she aired out CIAA’s dirty laundry even more and now she’s trying to do damage control. Can bet on it.

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    • Anonymous says:

      And it isn’t like she did anything wrong pointing out the obvious that some serious overhauls need to be done now. In fact, it was commendable and the right thing to do as CITA’s president if something is threatening our visitor’s experience.

      On the other hand, the fact that they’re coming back to say “oh we didn’t mean to put CIAA on blast like that” is laughable.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Not just laughable, but really WEIRD! Clearly demonstrates that someone is pulling the strings. Nothing was wrong with the original statement.

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