DoT to spend $40M promoting Cayman
(CNS): The Department of Tourism will be spending close to CI$40 million over the next two years in an effort to attract back the more than half a million stay-over guests that were visiting the Cayman Islands before the COVID-19 pandemic struck and the tourism sector collapsed.
Tourism Director Rosa Harris has said she doesn’t expect the number of visitors in 2022 to exceed more than 40% of those who came to the destination in 2019 before the borders were closed. Appearing before Finance Committee on Monday, Harris said the predicted air passenger numbers for 2022 are just over 200,000, largely due to problems relating to airlift.
She said the new variant has already impacted the first quarter when it comes to flights, and while there is high demand from travellers who want to return to Cayman, the difficulty for them is finding a seat on a plane.
Things should start to improve in the middle of February with the return of American Airlines, she said, but her department would be monitoring the return of tourism on a month to month basis, as the pandemic will still be impacting the situation.
Harris said that almost all of the money that will be spent trying to attract wealthy travellers over the next couple of years will go on digital advertising because of the need to be flexible and targetted using the data collected over the years from previous travellers.
“Our investment of these promotional dollars will shift from very traditional print, radio into a full digital mode,” she said, noting the need to change where money is spent with little notice because of changes caused by COVID. Most of the money for TV ads will go into addressable TV, she said, as she explained the targetting of audiences based on their viewing.
To address the up and downs throughout the year, some money would be spent on attracting guests from new markets, such as Latin America, where winter is opposite to North America, and Europe, where people travel for longer. DoT will also be working with Cayman Airways to connect to new US cities.
She confirmed that the ‘Dream in Cayman’ promotion and related advertising is continuing and the creative agencies are currently filming a new digital video for that.
The tourism ministry will be sucking up a significant amount of the near CI$1 billion expenses in the first year of the 2022/23 budget, given that Cayman Airways will be getting a $9.1 million cash injection and the Cayman Turtle Centre will be getting $2.5 million to cover some of its losses.
The CTC will also be taking out a new CI$7 million loan due to the collapse of tourism.
Watch the Dream in Cayman video ad below:
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Business, Government Finance, Politics, Tourism
Just saw the first tv ad with the flying turtle. I liked it. Liked the music “Beyond the Sea”.
Ad was sponsored by United Airlines with a tag that said “Welcome Back Non Stop flights from Newark”.
Imbeciles! https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/covid-4/coronavirus-cayman-islands
https://suntci.com/turks-and-caicos-islands-experience-recordbreaking-summer-for-tourist-arri-p6700-129.htm
Worst government in history, worse governor ever!
Go woke, get broke morons!
NEW Policies are killing Cayman
IDIOTS! https://suntci.com/turks-and-caicos-islands-experience-recordbreaking-summer-for-tourist-arri-p6700-129.htm
The Department of Tourism will be spending close to CI$40 million over the next two years…Should one safely infer that in the next 2 years there will be more multi millionaire politicians in addition to the current ones or the current ones will be fattening more their fortunes?
DoT is a known liar
You can’t ride Iguana for hire
Even though you are a trier
Or even a real high flier
DoT hiding Dump’s 🔥 fire
From its 💰40M desire
To attract back the buyer
For its vanished ⛱beaches, what a 😂rire!
Is that supposed to be Cayman in the video?
Spend spend spend. Remember when you voted? the grass isn’t always greener. The government blowing money left right and center and the future generations will be paying this money back. Need to get these clowns
out before we all sink.
To replace them with the PPM and Co to restart their SELL OUT of every Caymanian since 2017? Sorry to tell you bobo, PPM is so far from its own internal self to ever regain control of these islands. The new Caymanite Rocks are in control. PPM couldn’t hold a wet paper bag if you gave its wasted 6 pk leadership a plastic bag to hold the bottom. BTW, WELCOME MP John Seymour…..PACT #13 to the FOLD. OVER & OUT
You are probably benefiting from PACT runaway, socialist, hand out, welfare spending.
9:15, And replace the clowns with who from our talented pool?
More free advertising for Dart.
If nothing else it will certainly raise curiosity, the problem is there’s a proverb about cats, killing and curiosity, – I’m just not sure yet which symbolises the DOT 🐈