Stay-over numbers climb ever higher
(CNS): Following a record breaking June for stay-over numbers this year, July was also another stellar month for overnight guests visiting the Cayman Islands, according to statistics from the tourism department. The latest numbers show that 51,590 visitors stayed in Cayman in July, which was not only the highest number of guests for that month since records began but it was the second highest number this year and one of the highest months ever.
After seven months of this year, the DoT has already recorded 332,294 visitors, putting the numbers on track for another record year and what would be the tenth year in a row where overnight guest numbers increased. Last July was already a record breaker, with 47,084 guests, especially for a month when the visitor numbers traditionally begin to decline but this year has seen a more than 8% increase on 2018.
Meanwhile, there was a near 12% decline in numbers at the port, with arrivals falling from almost 135,000 passengers last July to 118,453 this year. But despite the dip, more than 1.1 million passengers have already called on Cayman in 2019 and the figures still remain on track to match last year’s record breaking total of 1.9 million cruise visitors.
Then why are the Government so hell bent on building something that will destroy the biggest inçome of the economy ? Is it to have big project and say look what I did ?
That is a very good point .
What is the return stats in the overnight Tourist? If 10% is repeat that could say that advertisement is working , but if you have over 40%repeats that would say you have a good product.
That’s weird, we’ve been told over and over that the more Dart and others destroy the island that fewer people would want to come here..yet they keep coming in larger numbers.
how many are returning visitors?
me for one
I don’t know, but the net is more.
Look at the picture above, there are more overnight stays because the departure lounge is too full for them to depart :))
Or is the departure lounge just small making the numbers look bigger?
I wonder what the stats are for return visitors?
There are a lot of off putting experiences on Grand Cayman currently.
You might get a visitor once but are they coming back?
A lot of visitors will NOT return because of the overcrowding of damn near everything here on Grand Cayman. I, for one, will not. It’s just too crowded!! I expect the terrible misfortune for the Bahamas will make it even worse.
Horses for courses. For each person who wants unspoiled (ie primitive) conditions, others want exactly what 7MB is. You can be a snob about or not, the tourist has his/her own ideas.
11:59, Your point might be correct, however, with your perspective we are headed towards a lower end stayover market not high end. A sort of Negril, Jamaica Cayman style.
We should have built a larger and better airport rather than focusing on the Port. Cruise Passengers do not spend anywhere near what stayover customers do..We are now in the process of building a Port that will destroy many of our dive sites and possibly our Seven Mile Beach not to mention, run away the cash cow of the stayover business to prepare for the herds of low income cruise shippers…the writing is on the wall..
“When there is no vision my people perish…”
We should have built a larger and better airport built by the Canadians. Yes, it would have cost more, but it would have been a first class product run in an efficient manner with Caymanians trained to manage airports in Cayman. It would also have met today’s needs.
We now have to start looking again at expanding the airport and more building. Dumb.
This is going to end in disaster for the CI tourism product. We already have too few affordable hotel rooms, too many private and rental cars, no credible roads infrastructure, absolutely no integrated transport system, an appalling Georgetown experience at night, (and day) an over crowed Sandbar, the continuing mistreatment of Starfish at Starfish Point, and an under funded EMS, DOE, Police and Port Authority.
Add into the mix that the new airport terminal is already too small and CAL don’t have enough planes and the cost of living is one of the highest in the world.
I’d like to know how on earth CITA plan to service such a growing market whilst rents are going up by 20% and how service staff will be able to afford to stay on the disgusting wage they are expected to live on. Caymanians won’t take their place, it’s too menial and it pays too little, they also don’t have the population to match the numbers needed.
What an absolute clown show the government and CITA are, they cannot see the obvious and it’s going to end badly for all.
Or in simple terms – How long before the bubble bursts?
You forgot to mention the Dump
I wonder how many stayover tourists we get once we concrete over the reefs and herd another 3000 cruise shippers onto the beach and sandbar!
The Bahamas have always far outranked us in tourist arrivals. The tragedy that unfolded in the last few days will undoubtedly boost our visitors even higher, one more reason to give them all the aid we can.
I wish there were 4000 local people working in the stay over tourism sector as are in the cruise tourism.
7.55am You are so short sighted you need an eye transplant.
Did you get hit on the head? Seek medical attention quickly!
Whilst the number of KX planes actually able to fly drops even lower….
CAL airfares have gone up.
JetBlue from JFK non-stop as well, is more cost effective and on time!
doesnt matter
More demand than supply on routes to Grand Cayman from the U.S. and Canada so airlines can keep increasing their prices.