PACT seeks consultants for new cruise policy
(CNS): The tourism ministry is looking for help to come up with a new long-term cruise strategy as well as a new policy on public transport and its connection to the cruise business. A request for proposals from consultants with a “track record and proven experience in assessing the cruise tourism and public transport sectors” has been opened, and according to the document, the government wants to “reimagine the country’s cruise industry” and shift to a more sustainable volume of visitors.
Last week, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan revealed that George Town Harbour will reopen to cruise ships for the first time in two years. They were banned after the coronavirus arrived in the Cayman Islands via a cruise ship on 21 March 2020.
In what is being described as a phased approach, around 75,000 passengers are expected to call on Grand Cayman over the first four-week period, after which the situation will be re-assessed. This is around half the number of passengers that arrived in the four weeks right before the cruise ship ban. Nevertheless, as many as 11,600 passengers could arrive on three ships on 6 April.
This has drawn considerable criticism, fuelled by a growing backlash against the cruise sector as the public begins to seriously question what the benefits of this side of tourism are for the wider community. In recent years the darker side of the cruise industry has been exposed, from its exploitation of workers to its appalling environmental record.
The COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted cruise ships’ susceptibility to outbreaks of contagious diseases, adding to concerns about the detrimental impact cruise tourism was having on Cayman.
Since its benefits are confined to a limited number of stakeholders when compared to the benefits of overnight tourism, many in Cayman have been pressing for a re-think and there was hope that the pandemic offered not just a pause to cruising but an end to it.
However, Bryan told CNS recently that the idea of a permanent end was not a realistic option, but a long-term review and a phased transition to a new approach was required. Since taking up the job of tourism minister, Bryan has committed to reviewing the policy and opening up a public discussion on the future of cruise ship tourism.
In the bid document, the ministry said, “It is imperative to reshape the current approach to focus on quality, sustainably manage capacity, traveller traffic flow, and impact, as well as design new and innovative destination experiences.”
It said it is looking to design a strategy that reduces cruise tourism to “a sustainable volume while offering a fair opportunity for the cruise industry partners to re-establish their businesses successfully”.
The ministry also wants to increase the earning power of businesses in the Cayman Islands that cater to the cruise industry and “design a negotiation strategy approach to allow operators to maximize each contracting opportunity”. The successful consultants will be asked to come up with “authentic destination experiences to diversify tour offerings”.
An important element for many people will be the number of passengers and ships. Public opinion was made clear during the successful campaign against a cruise dock, when well over 25% of voters signed the petition for a referendum. But campaigners had to force the PPM government into court to stop it from pressing ahead with the project even before the vote was held.
But since it is now obvious that there is very little public support for cruise berthing, even the PPM is now supporting the call for a new approach to cruise tourism and cutting the number of arrivals. Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart recently said that Cayman “should have a national discussion on the direction we want to take” on cruise tourism before the ban on ships is lifted.
The RFP shows that the government is considering a significant change to the sector.
Tourism as a whole represents around 20% of the country’s GDP and Cayman “isn’t overly reliant on tourism”, the ministry said in the document. While the figure has not been broken down to distinguish between cruise and overnight guests, it is well known that the money generated by a stay-over visitor outweighs a cruise guest by three to one.
In 2018 stay-over guests spent over $680 million in the Cayman Islands, while four times as many cruises spent just $200 million. However, officials said that most of the cruise industry players are Caymanian-owned businesses that affect a wide community of family members and employees.
The ministry stated that it wanted to stop the undercutting of local operators by the cruise lines by establishing a base pricing model for popular beach breaks, island tours and attraction stops.
The RFP also outlines expectations for proposals about public transport, which the ministry said is linked to the cruise sector. Consultants must outline their proposal for a review and assessment of the current public bus system and for recommendations on a “strategy to transition to a National Government-run Public Bus System” or a community entrepreneurial system.
The RFP is seeking a way to restructure the elements of the current public transport system and better manage the public buses alongside the tourism-related transport, such as taxi, tour, watersports, and limousine services.
See the RFP in the CNS Library.
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Category: Business, Local News, Tourism, Travel
With no disrespect. Maybe our own consultants such as. Mr. Webster Webster’s tours and Mr. Ellio Solomon one of our past MP’s. They suppose too have had a plan and maybe they suppose too still have that plan.
Webster’s is part of the big problem.
Why you think Caymanians can’t start a career here.
The law should Not allow permits for Guides and Drivers when these are tourism entry level posts for many Caymanians.
Also the pay, hours, benefits and grats for the staff are a huge issue.
Any bets that the FCCA have a business “consultancy” preferred bidding consortium ready to answer this call? Round and round we go.
Mr Ernie took all those businesses from the locals
People. He brought in his own busses his own boats and his own staff from overseas! The Caymanian locals got very little of it and that was wrong and he paid very little!
True.So shameful!
Only CI tolerate dis ya
But he had low friends in high places, and they bought his land..
Pleasae, please stop commenting!!!! All these good ideas are what we are going to pay the consultants for.
There is this report A REVISED
NATIONAL TOURISM
MANAGEMENT PLAN
2009 – 2013 that is very interesting: https://www.planning.ky/wp-content/uploads/docs/NTMP_2009-2013.pdf
But that’s not Kenneth’s PLAN!
Can we just say how really scary it is to witness how foreign the construct of going upmarket is to all of the full-time staff involved this profession in the CI government.
It’s not rocket science: the Cayman Islands should simply be closed to mass cruise tourism, and accessed by invitation only to those invited. Period. We should then reinvite all the premium qualifying liners carrying monied guests, who are currently repelled by decades of mass cruise tourism policy. There should be incredible incentives offered to all super-yacht vessels registered to our flag, and reduced landing fees to private planes carrying passengers with vessels registered here. Guys, it’s literally the number one yacht registration on the planet!
These are the folks that splurge on a pretty diamond necklace on shore leave without batting an eye. They buy million dollar condos for fun. They deploy their personal submarines and visit our seawall!
Some of them sold their own personal yachts to go on these ones without the hassles. They should also be invited to spend the night, enjoy (much better) double tours, and our restaurants. All our offerings would need to improve, including how the guest experience at CI Port and private terminal.
Cayman should follow Bermuda and establish a territorial gaming commission that can license these boats to keep their floating casinos open while in port for an annual CIG fee, and/or percentage of house. These facilities can also be open to locals and stay over guests feeling lucky, by mutual CIG-liner agreement, and ferry schedule. Win-win-win, with a net increase in traveller appeal, CIG revenue without any congestion issues. You want to re-invigorate George Town? That’s how we do it properly. Buskers, jazz clubs, handsome cabs, all that stuff.
That ship sailed 25 years ago.
What on Earth are you talking about? Cayman has an opportunity to re-cast it’s operational future and you surrender to the ineptitude of 25 years ago?
Super yachts don’t come here. They need to be on the path of other islands. That is the purpose to be able to sail to different ports. If they come here they have us and….Jamaica, Honduras and maybe Cuba if they are not American. Not a great selection beyond Cayman.
We are perfectly positioned in between Panama Canal and Fort Lauderdale.
How any super rich go to the Canal and Fort Lauderdale? And being halfway is irrelevant when the guests fly in to get on the boat. But Antigua, or St Marti – 10 different islands all a days sail apart, and harbour and yacht service capacity.
Let’s not confuse Below Deck yacht charter episodes with actual privately-owned and directed boats which aren’t tethered to charter routes. Many of the yachts in the Pacific owned by Silicon Valley Tycoons (for example) seasonally transit the canal to get to Atlantic, Caribbean, and Med. 14,000 crossings a year with 2000-4000 of those private boats, and perhaps several hundred high-end motor and sailing yachts 60 feet+. Piracy risks from Quintana Roo south through Honduras and Nicaragua have forced these mariners to haul-ass at near flank speed, and some are ready for fuel and rest by Grand Cayman. Fort Lauderdale and Colon Duty Free Zone (daytime only) are well-established to service and are replenishment hot spots. Panama City’s yacht club regularly hosts super yachts with security. The top deckhand, steward, and captain schools are in Fort Lauderdale, along with the dry dock facilities and many clients have estates in South Florida. Not only should CAL be flying to Tocumen airport, but we should be seeking a reciprocal trade agreement with the Panama Canal Authority (who unlike our own SAGCs, actually file a public Annual Report with detailed accounting and supporting statistics).
Actually the reason they don’t come here is our reputation among the sailing community.
They area treated very poorly from the beginning with our customs and border control officers that treat all of then like drug runners.
You can probably find past stories on blogs from sailors.
I know one that was forced to dock at the customs docks in rough weather allowing his boat to be bashed so much he had to leave it and come back for repairs. They did not allow him to properly tie it down nor would they allow him to anchor on a nearby buoy. True story as I am the travel agent that got him his flight out.
It’s actually worse than that. The CI Port Authority, DoT, CITA, Chamber, MRCU, and successive Cabinets have not taken the simple steps to populate the important basic data fields for “the Cayman Islands” on the most popular Caribbean Navigational platforms. There’s no link to entry protocols or phone numbers, or yacht club/service directory, contacts, rates, or numbers. Talk about clueless.
I was the manager of diving for the old Beach Club and Spanish Bay Resort. The owner Mr. Ernie Smatt was a legend, his knowledge of business and hotels was exceptional. I also had the honour for working with Sol Kerzner The famous South African business man and a visionary in 5 star hotels (Sun City and One and Only). Ernie Smatt was of the same calibre. We did the cruise ship excursions and it went like clock work, running Sting Ray City trips, Scuba, Resort courses, Beach party, Largest Glass bottom boat parties etc.
What Cayman Islands should do is allow the more expensive cruise ships like Holland America, Princess, Norwegian and limit Carnival. Create a theme for Cayman in music, 7 mile beach should have Caribbean music played at different spots, Band at the harbour, All cruise ship passengers should be offered a good discount for coming back for a week or more eg hotels, restaurants, scuba operations, car rental, shopping, etc. Turn them into customers for life once they come back. Its only a flight away. People look for value, if I came on a cruise and had a great time in Cayman Islands, I would like to come back, especially if I got a discount package as a day visitor, Your prices today for hotels is way too high. It will not be affordable for most of the cruise ship passengers.
Righteous talk my bredren. Hail de Man. Bless up. A so me say.
The liners we “invite” are: Viking, Seabourn, Regent, Azamara, Crystal, Silverseas, and maybe Virgin, plus all the thousands of private yachts registered with our friggin’ flag (duh)! We close our port to all the FCCA cabal who treat this place like third world garbage. Buh bye. We inaugurate a Territorial Gaming Commission, overseen by the Governor, and license select floating high-end ships for stay over casino sleepovers. They go to restaurants, maybe we get music facility and regular flow of high end entertainment and amusements to go with their new diamond necklaces and gucci gowns. Residents and guests can purchase a ferry pass to visit the casinos. Positive synergy.
You’re quite right, Ernie Smatt did indeed have many businesses…
The majority of cruise passengers want to see the beach.
We have given the beach away with effectively no return as it’s clogged up by 2nd home owners that spend minimal time here and a few permanent residents that can’t believe their luck.
I would ask that for once some long term thinking is exhibited by an elected administration –
Don’t ban cruise ships but limit them, whether by size or capacity, but limit them to reduce the congestion we witness when they all arrive together and also to improve the cruise tourists experience (they’ll then want to come back, they won’t remember spending 1 hour in a bus up west bay road because we’ll limit the numbers)
Most importantly, give them some beach. The only way to do this properly is to stop giving the beach away and to use what is still ours – we should relocate the Governors residence (can go anywhere, why not buy the White House in Bodden Town our original capital) and we should merge the governors house property with public beach, properly landscape it for parking and leave it untouched for ever for the people. Make trading on it completely illegal, no chairs, nothing, no water sports…just raw beach for the people.
You’d be amazed how thankful residents and tourists would be.
Of course, this is far too logical a suggestion to gain traction with government. There’s litttle chance of corruption here…
With you right up to moving the Governor’s house. That relationship, and the prestige properly afforded it, is the foundation of everything.
Wait for it, and their first recommendation will be, you guessed it, you need a new cruise port. Mr. Premier, if you want to be the people’s champion on this then let it go to a referendum.
For far too long we have been open to the wrong kind of cruise visitor, mainly due to past leaders without the class or mental acuity to understand the alienated higher tiers within that industry. More was always thought to be better, and we know now that’s never been true. Fortunately there are higher-end cruise liners 10 or 15x ticket cost of the FCCA liners, that have been repelled from the Cayman Islands due to our embrace of mass cruise tourism. If we are changing the program,,we should consider inviting these smaller higher-end liners, instead of throwing them out with the bath water. Liners like Viking, Seabourn, Regent, Azamara, Crystal, Silverseas, and maybe Virgin. These are our kind of visitors. They can spend the night, will happily tender, and open their casinos for a Cayman Islands Gaming Commission fee. Win-win-win. Ignoring facts and deciding to adopt an absolute end to all cruise is overly facile, and spoils a real opportunity to get it right.
Cayman is just overpriced , NOT high end!
A symptom of inviting the wrong people. We can fix it.
LMAO Foofoo, NYC and Miami as examples are just as high!
And Miami and NY have so much more to offer.
Different, not necessarily better.
The real problem that I have experienced for 40 years is greed. The Cruise line beach should of been somewhere between Bodden Town to Frank Sound. Gov’t should buy 1 mile of beach along Frank Sound on both sides of the street. This would end the traffic problem and help also with funding the road East. The beach property could be leased out for different activities. Such as Bars, restaurants, pools, watersports ( Hobie cats, wave runners, parasailing,etc.)and operated outside the reef),pools,shops, volleyball,children’s playgrounds and charge an entry fee to everyone. Cruise ship passengers and locals. Solves many problems hatred for crowds of people. Even tho we all go to concerts, shopping in Cayman and USA, Jamaica etc. We increase revenue for ships coming in by doubling port fees. This will bring in higher end of tourists because they won’t mind paying for exclusivity in port.That solves you’re volume of tourists.
Planning has to stop putting attractions that need higher volume of tourists in West Bay, period. That’s what causes the problem. I knew this because I did tours going east and west. When we go East there is no traffic in the morning. When we come back to Spotts or town in the evening again no traffic. Tourists use Spotts beach and have no place to sit. The sand has dropped down 4 feet and Gov’t back filled it. But it went down again. There is no ladder to bypass turtlegrass. They heard turtles are there and they don’t care about no facilities. The benches are gone, no one has said if they will fix it back again. I mean really, we need better maintenance for such public properties. What about Spotts dock, it could be fixed and another public beach could be created with leased shops or attractions. Watersports with rescue on property. Fishing on the dock would have to stop. Government would have to build a fishing dock outside the reef? They could charge for fishing? That’s how we could make money for these problems at the same time. Too many wealthy people on the west side want more privacy but they will have to pay for it. Make them buy the beach access to help pay for a new lengthy beach elsewhere.
How about using the cliff diving or snorkelling in the bay at Pedro St James? All it needs is a floating platform that could be moved in bad weather. Of course a ladder to climb back, rescue people on a drivable platform? These are my ideas to improve and create jobs that Caymanian youth would ENJOY doing. D
Hey Bredren great suggestions Minister the Zhon Kenneth Bryan listen to ya people on the ground sah ya getting consultation and loads of ideas free of cost.
Hats off to you Breda
The only thing our top heavy civil service can do is hire consultants to tell them what to do and how to do it. Why then do we need all of these senior positions within the various government ministries, authorities and departments?
Tried to price out a trip and it’s over $1200. per person just for airfare x that for a family of four. Ridiculous!
Hotels running $400-800/ night.
No thanks!
Can take the family anywhere else for 1/2 those prices, stay at a 4 star accommodation, with a REAL beach and nightly entertainment.
More like $1600 for airfare if you have children and need to travel during a school vacation week.
Over the top. For what?
Bermuda!
It seems like weeks since I was able to post that, but the Kennybus system will cost much more than the millions Bermuda has spent on their new electric busses.
Kennybus will also be great for the economy because we will have to import more people to drive the busses, and to maintain them.
Total costs should be about the same as giving everyone who rides a minibus to work their own car and doubling their tourism worker stipend.
Every road will have a lane down the middle called the Kennybus Lane. All hail King Kenny!
And the beat goes on but don’t stop the carnival.
How many more consultants do we need to hire?
Two…
Did you use a consultant to come up with that figure?
Quite frankly you all don’t get it. Cruise Tourism plays an important part in the overall Tourism strategy, I.e. if it is carefully developed. Everyone in North America has seen thousands of adds on the Caribbean and wistfully think of traveling there. Cruisers are the means for these dreams to be fulfilled as they present in many cases an affordable means to see other places. Every adult and child on a cruise ship is a potential a future stay over visitor and this is what is not being carefully nurtured. There are no incentives/ promotions to garner these numbers, we do not seem to consider that not everybody stays at the same economic level and that one good experience begets another. Isn’t that how we built our tourism product initially, with thousands of people who wether they came by plane or cruise returned to experience our welcoming nature unspoilt beaches and good old cayman hospitality.
Sadly we have made our prized beach facility into an everywhere Miami, rio etc type of attraction with concrete and more concrete and diminishing sand. What can i say. It’s true that the traveler off today is more demanding of things to see and do and in that respect we are sorely lacking as well. The Ministry therefore is right in pursuing external help in determining what else can be offered as attractions. We here really can’t see the forest from the trees anymore and while many locals have been on cruises, there are even more that have not so we don’t have a rich source of ideas from which to draw from. We must be careful however that in the recommended designs that we do not destroy our environment nor sacrifice natural elements which we have grown to love.
The transportation equation of this project is without doubt a challenging peace, given our helter skelter planning or lack thereof and travel by road at this time with the numbers of vehicles on the road as well as the hundreds of New Non Drivers as well as drivers who are frustrated at these will I predict see a lot of rage cases ensuing in the not too distant future. It is not pleasant driving on the streets of cayman today. Imagine tourist transportation being hit by one or more of these Johnny come lately drivers and resulting injuries and law suits.
The solution to the tourism transport maybe to move the traffic thereof to our waters rather than roadways. I know this has been talked about ad infinitum, but clearly the time has come to do something bout it. This type of transport will not only keep the tourists off the road obviously weather is a great influencer in this, however, it will Create a different ambience and attraction itself if done smartly and efficiently as time from dock or ship to attraction(s) can be more effective.
In terms of buses presently in use to carry passengers in general, a general upgrade and standardization is needed to put us in a different category and visitor experience. Some time ago there were buses that were carrying tourists where the floor board had holes, where there were kept not clean and were smelly etc. the pursuit of new buses all off a similar type to be financed through a government entity or by the local banks at decent rates and registered in governments name until paid off will create the means for proper monitoring and regulations on the driving and upkeep of the vehicles. The present mechanism for licensing these buses also needs to be reviewed for there is a lot of nepotism and bredrenism and whatever else you want to call it that goes on in this sphere.
Cruise as said before is an integral part of the overall tourist offering whether some like it or not, it provides work for Caymanians and yes a lot of immigrant workers too. It also provides revenue to government in the form of the tax that is paid for each person on the ships manifest, so it is wrong fo ourightly discard this sector of revenue. Improvement thereof is a must but let’s not be suckered into some grandiose schemes that we half heartedly take on try and then drop after a few months throwing away our money. Public consultation will be of utmost importance and moreover our acceptance of the project and willingness to cooperate where needed will make for a successful revamp of which we can all be proud. So all hands on deck.
Jay Dread
You are too angry a person for sensible persons to pay you attention.
Clearly you are invested heavily, being bribed heavily or working for the CIG propaganda machinery.
Get lost, won’t you!
PS. You are not a true believer, by the way – Jah children don’t get involved in the Babylon system.
I rebuke your words but not you brother man, for it’s obvious the evil one who speaks through you. Jah Bless you and yours. I do not support any government but I like you have the right of free speech under the Constitution.
Cruise industry troll…
You don’t get it. Things have changed. There is almost zero overlap between people who are paying for carnival cruises and who can afford to be stay over visitors.
You said it yourself, even these cruisers now demand more than schlocky souvenir shops and cheesy jewelery. And the presence of those stores, which are of no use to any local or stayover guest after 3pm has rendered George Town a ghost town.
This is not what we need anymore. The revenue it brings and the job creation is negligible.
To the 17 dislikes to I and I post . Jah Bless bredren and Sistren your prerogative. To the Zlikes Jah Bless give thanks and praises to RastafarI. Selah.
Did anyone see the line up of Cruise Ships? Carnival Paradise? Omg this was a crap ship a decade ago. Clearly we are not going for any high end customers. Maybe are only requirements are that they have 50% of their teeth.
I agree with Opposition Leader McTaggart. We should have had a public consultation on what we wanted from the cruise industry before re-starting. Yes of course we want Caymanians to have a proper share of the cruise spend, but we should have also had a say on what types of ships, number of people, and what attractions were available for cruise visitors so we don’t overload the beaches again. Instead, Kenny and PACT are making decisions without asking us and we won’t know what they decided till they tell us. Remember when Kenny wanted to do a survey for everything?
Not only did he not talk to us but he could not have talked to the cruise tender guys either – they say they only have the capacity now to do about 3000 passengers a day. More than that is coming on those ships? What a bunch of clowns Kenny and his PACT are. God help us.
You Oldboy are a super clown tell me why didn’t your Mctaggart snd cohort PPM not address cruise tourism with the people during their 2?terms?. Yeah they were hell bent on a terminal that would benefit the cruise lines, their supporters in the waterfront and who knows their bag men.
Cayman Nice… I suspect you have a job sitting on your couch! Great syntax.
Simply cap the daily cruise visitor number at 8000. Then let the ships spread their visits such that they can be accomodated within the daily limit. Policy done.
They get the tour businesses to roganise such that they do not need people with signs, etc. It looks awful and does not give a proffessional impression to any guest.
You would probably love it if we’d settle for your lame proposal. No dice. We don’t want any of them. NOT the huge ones, NOT the rich ones, NOT the small ones.
“… Not the ones who will pay my rent.” I’ll take the customers as I have children to feed.
No. I disagree. We do not need garbage ships. No Carnival, no Holland. Only decent ships. We do not need Customers that spend nothing and waste our time. Sorry…we don’t need them. Not worth it so that a few already rich tour operators can bloat their wallets.
Can you imagine if Walmart started saying that?
Yup. I might actually shop there if they did.
Obviously not needing to pay your bills from tourism. I suspect you get your income from West Bay Drunk wallets. I need tourists. I need income that doesn’t come from bribes.
You REALLY need to change professions, should have started 2 years ago…
Moe we need to bring the Harlem Globe trotters back, great supporters of the trashing Carnival boats.
So it’s taken 2 years to think of this! No wonder they need consultants.
Do they mean that they need to hire a consultant to show them where the last 20 reports are that they previously provided on this very subject?
Sounds like KB/PACT is clueless. More consultants! This is the most inept government in Cayman’s history. Thank you, Wayne, this is the price we all pay for your desire to be the Premier.
So we couldn’t have done this in the months leading up to now so that it could be incorporated into the process to re-establish some level of cruise tourism?
PACT showing they learned Fire-Aim-Ready from the UDP playbook quite well.
Millions to be paid out again on “Consultants”.
Darnnn!!!!
The first thing we need to do is severe our subscription to FCCA’s peddling interference and form a Caricom destination lobby group. Shoe is on the wrong foot.
Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.
Complain about politics; but WE Elected them! Want to make a change – elect ethical ministers.
Like we have a choice ? No matter who you vote for it’s the same thing.. an it wasn’t a complaint just a statement
Got a feeling you’ll find the two Carnival cruise ships in that photo may have been retired and rendered to scrap by now.
Another shiny report costing us a few $100k ready for the shelves to collect dust! Oh wait, it might be in digital form to save paper cost, then filed in the file folders with other like reports. Frustrating!
Cruise ships are terrible for the local reefs and waters, a massive nuisance for already heavy traffic, awful polluters, unethical businesses and they put very little money in the pockets of local tour operators and businesses. Their return is not to the benefit of the Cayman Islands.
@ Anonymous 3:27 pm, Friend, you are 100% correct! I hope every Caymanian sees …….. and agrees with you!
DeBeers Model: Limited supply and high prices for luxury and exclusivity.
Walmart Model: Super low prices to attract the masses.
Which one is best for Cayman?
At the prices of your airfare and your hotels, you may be praying for cruise ships cuz not many people will be paying those outrageous prices to stay over.
Cayman is very low end, low quality, low experience. Be grateful our rock is between Mexico and Jamacia. No other reason for a cruise to come here.
Low end for everyone except the wealthy visiting or buying property here.
A true haven paradise for them. No property taxes, no income taxes and one can buy their status.
No worries though, there will be ample low wage service industry jobs as the gentrification increases.
Are we?
PACT looking for new and novel ways to waste our money. I’m sure some ‘consulting’ firm on the cruise industry’s payroll will be happy to further drain the coffers and do a report.
Oh why not ask Jane? Aren’t you paying her six figures for nothing?
“PACT Seeks Consultancy for Everything”
At today’s Cabinet meeting, the PACT Government made a unanimous declaration that it will, going forth, require consultancies on everything it will approach over the rest of it’s term.
At a press conference after the meeting, Deputy Premier Saunders, speaking on behalf of the Premier and the rest of Cabinet, said that when they added the T for Transparency to the PAC vision, they were not joking! It is in the spirit of transparency that they’ve taken the decision to outsource all of Government’s required advising to consultants. Hon. Saunders went on to say that the decision was taken ‘reasonably easily’ (after convincing a few Ministers) when it was agreed by majority that, as most Cabinet Ministers are absolutely green and lost in their respective realm, others with tenure have repeatedly failed to deliver, most of their primary advisers i.e. Department Heads and Chief Officers are also clueless, lazy or otherwise useless, it stood to reason that to get anything done in it’s remaining three years, PACT must get advice from people who allegedly know, regardless of the subject.
Deputy Saunders agreed that this is a costly approach but mused that it will be worth it in the long run.
CIG and long term solutions seem like a wee bit of a contradiction in terms . If any of our elected luminaries would actually give a damn about our little island they would enforce existing MARPOL regulations for commercial vessels onto the cruise ship industry and most probably never hear from them again . Trust me as soon as they will be presented with a bill for the remediation of their garbage dumping at sea , they will put their sour crude fed engines into full overdrive just to avoid our waters. For decades our dear DEH and coastguard did not flip an eyelash to them on the subject despite having access to tonnage data from satellite data and on ship transponders. Once this happens and only then we can expect those unscrupulous companies to propose smaller , friendlier to our ecosystem, type of vessels. Keep in my nd the industry has been offered every opportunity to change its habits for over 20 years , without any effect. Methinks it is high time to take a stance that will force them to reconsider what kind of traffic and service they want to provide as far as our little water slabs is concerned.
I’m excited to see the outcome of this assessment.
On a personal level, I’m opposed to cruise tourism based on the value. Their spend is so minute in comparison to stayover, yet their environmental footprint is huge for the few short hours they are here. The writing has been on the wall for 2 years now that cruise tourism is a dinosaur. It’s time to move on folks…just as travel agents have all but disappeared except for a handful. Sad I’m sure for those who depend upon it for the livelihood, but they can be re-trained. Some have made an ENORMOUS amount of money over the years and have successfully invested it and could and should probably retire. The younger ones, have plenty of time to re-imagine themselves as many of us have done and will do when changing careers. Support them for a little while with training during there transition, but it’s time to move on…
Support those that need tourism, not those that ‘in the past profited from tourism.’
Completely agree. There are a few that have managed to amass million dollar condos and vacation homes in other countries. Their gravy train is over, but they should be thankful for how tasty it was whilst it lasted.
It is INDEED time to move on.
Why doesn’t the government use the consultants most accessible to them – the people of these islands! Why waste public money on consultants that have no interest other than making money for themselves.
Methinks our presently elected luminaries are DEATHLY afraid of the result it would lead to especially since we witnessed the benefits of not having to cope with cruise toilets impact on our beaches , marine life and general quality of life. One just has to see how active the sea has become since they stopped coming
It’s probably because the Cayman education is sub-standard.
TRUTH!
FAKE!
Because it’s not their money. The more they spend the more admin eg. Payroll and expenses are available to them, their relatives and friends.
No kickbax.
That I will never believe!
I’ll do it for nothing! No cruise ships.
1:18pm
The problem with your answer is that it is the correct one and one that greater than 80% of the population agrees with.
PACT and its hangers-on are driven by personal interests so your recommendation will not be followed.
Hiring consultants is just another way of buying time, milking the cow, with the hope that we forget about it.
So sad that you are out of the loop!
9:05pm. Don’t want in the loop old fella.
I believe in earning an honest living.
Don’t sit on the backs of hard working people.
So with ships arriving again we must be doing away with ALL pre testing as of the 21st and we must be doing away with the travel cayman as well?
Can’t make residents and overnight guests go through the hoops of pre testing and travel approval when passengers off a ship don’t have to pre test 24 hours before arrival!
Glad we are moving on.
Amen! But that would be the sensible approach. 🧐🧐
The mask mandate MUST go!
@1:16 we air arrival, stay-over visitors can only wish for the hoop-jumping to end but I don’t hold out much hope.
Logical, but our ministers are NOT logical.
associating our little island , our politicians and logic all in one sentence is quite the leap of faith , but then again the Lord moves in mysterious ways . We can only hope that the CIG will come to its senses and listen to the clamor of the locals which don’t want to see the cruise ship and their pollution back on our shores . Cayman’s future lies in promoting sustainability and the floating garbage barges are anything but a symbol of responsible, sustainable tourism model ! Of course cayman needs to redefine its tourism product which none of our officials were paying any attention to. I fondly remember a time when you could come out of your Sunday brunch and start your crawl to the Calico Jack (Marriot , Royal Palms , Coral beach club , Henningways , beach bar at the Ritz-Carlton , Grab another one at the Westin for the last stretch to the Calico Jack ) . That product is gone now and will not come back for at least 5 years if ever coming back due to short term vision that makes of all things Kirk Mac Batcave look like an altruistic visionary ! Cayman , to offer a better tourism product takes effort and so far there is no effort planned to upgrade the experience.