Visitors returning but challenges still ahead
(CNS): The Cayman Islands’ tourism sector is beginning to recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with stay-over visitor arrivals in April reaching over 25,000, which is around 55% of 2019 numbers. But the signs of recovery are still beset with challenges, from airlift to the cost of living, according to both industry and government officials.
Speaking at the Cayman Islands Tourism Association AGM last week, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan accepted that COVID regulations are creating barriers to potential travellers and said he was keen to see them lifted.
The minister promised that he would fight hard in caucus for the tourism sector and put the case to his government colleagues about relaxing regulations, including mask mandates and the travel clearance process. But he warned CITA members that they had to convince the wider community as well and urged them to lobby for lifting restrictions. He said he believed it was now time to relax the travel restrictions but he asked them to “shout a little louder”.
CITA President Marc Langevin, the GM at the Ritz-Carlton, said there are positive signs of recovery. But he pointed out that members of the sector are all still worried that there will not be enough airlift to Cayman for the winter to ensure the real recovery for the high season.
Several CITA executives outlined other challenges regarding recruiting and retaining staff, as well as the increase in the cost of doing business and supply chain issues that the sector is now facing.
The cost of living for staff as well as businesses was also raised by the CITA treasurer, restaurant owner Markus Mueri, especially where new staff are going to live, given the cost of rental apartments and transport challenges.
Bookings for the summer are mixed but the hope is that there will be much more last-minute bookings to boost the sector through the slow season, where workers will all need support from government. Troy Leacock, the VP for Watersports, argued that there was a very strong case for maintaining the tourism stipend and other support for the sector through the summer because the low season is looking very bad and staff have not had the chance to boost their earnings in the first part of the year, as would normally be the case.
The stipend payments are due to finish this month but Leacock urged government to reconsider that issue. He said it was critical to keep training and retaining Caymanians in the industry, otherwise they would be lost from the sector.
Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Chris Saunders offered his support to the sector and suggested that, given the challenges faced by the financial services industry, tourism could become Cayman’s main economic pillar in the future.
“Financial services has constantly been under attack for decades. It’s just going to be a matter of time before something is going to happen and the only industry we are going to have is tourism,” he said, adding that within the next decade or so it could be the only pillar of the economy. “We can’t wait ten to fifteen years when things go south to start building tourism; we need to start laying the groundwork from now… This is the second pillar of our industry today and in ten years it’s going to be the number one pillar.”
Offered the support of the treasury, Saunders said spending money on tourism was an investment because, aside from being an economic arm in its own right, it was an important driver of other parts of the economy.
See Bryan’s presentation outlining tourism numbers for the first four months of the year
in the CNS Library
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I miss the times when tourists weren’t allowed to come to island. There were fewer people from abroad assuming they knew better than we do about how we want Cayman to be.
It’s being reported that the USA is dropping the pre-arrival test from Sunday. If Cayman doesn’t follow suit, the Americans currently not travelling because of this will be going somewhere they don’t have to test at either end!
I believe Biden wants to change the law in the USA that Americans will only be allowed one passport. That means all Americans can only be US citizens, no second citizenship to another country. You can’t get an appointment if you want to give up your citizenship. The Democrats need US dollars to come home. Why would Americans be resident here after that? Real estate will be another wonderful thing?
We need other industries to grow quickly, maybe recycling plastic into new products like building materiels or pavements.
Total B.S. Americans are taxed abroad regardless of their citizenship and residency to another country (FACTA) , so the Treasury is getting their taxes from these individuals regardless. The I.R.S also has tax reporting equality with select other jurisdictions for this purpose. There is nothing in the works to restrict Americans from holding an alternate citizenship/passport.
Many people are choosing destinations that don’t require covid tests because they don’t want to risk having to cancel their holiday because they tested positive. Most people that travel a lot are vaccinated anyway so they don’t care about that requirement. And of course Travel Time is ridiculous at this point. It seems like a make-work project at this point.
The only places that US Travellers can go to that don’t require USA border re-entry testing are cruises and domestic travel. CBC and CDC require a verified USA re-entry test and attestation before the air carrier will check you in. It doesn’t matter which foreign country the US traveler flies to, if they want to come back, they gotta comply with their own USA border rules. Agree that Travel Time is useless, and mask mandate here is not enforced, but let’s not add to the problem by making up stuff.
USA just drop the testing requirement.
*Dropped!
Not from Sunday.
It’s not making stuff up. Many people would rather choose a destination that doesn’t require a covid test to enter, myself included. You don’t risk having to cancel your holiday and it’s just easier. Even if you do need a covid test to return. And of course now Americans do not need a covid to test to re-enter the U.S. so unless you own a holiday home, you’d be crazy to come here when there are so many equally beautiful, safe etc destinations not requiring a test or permission from the government.
I am a paper Caymanian residing in the UK with my two sons. Myself and one of my sons are unvaccinated.. Did you watch the Queen Jubilee Celebrations over the week-end ? It was a success without any problems whatsoever. No Covid restrictions, I am still to see anyone wearing a mask. The UK has lifted ALL restrictions, also your neighbouring countries. It is now time Cayman get on board and lift all restrictions, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson says we will have to learn to live with Covid, so Caymam needs to face this reality, Even though crime is high in Jamaica, I can tell you flights are booked. out with tourists and returning residents. Wake up Cayman, stop being stubborn, let’s try to get back in the race with normalcy.
I’ve spent £000’s on my trip to Cayman this summer (first visit in 3 years!). It’s too late to cancel everything now but I wouldn’t have booked it if I’d known pre-flight testing would still be required at this point, and I won’t be booking another one while it’s in place. I could go to any number of lovely European destinations for a third of the price and hassle. Have to do the tests in the early hours of the morning because of the flight times, and they mean nothing as we’ll then be in busy airports and on planes for the next 36 hours!
I totally agree!! The answer is not draining the government by paying out more money in stipends. This just indicates for we meant wants more control. If they are handing out the money they get control!!’ Same as the cruise ships coming in. Locals don’t benefit much from that but the government sure does. Why do I need a Covid test 24 hours before but cruise people do not need one to disembark in Cayman. Have you seen any negative effect from the thousands of cruise people walking the streets? No you have not! So lift all restrictions for tourist who actually stay on island, spend their money and put money I. The pockets of the PEOPLE!! This is almost beyond ridiculous. Cayman is losing a lot of the tourist business to other islands and may take years to recover. Please just drop restrictions and open up!!
Chris Saunders comments re the FS industry are actually shockingly misguided and uncouth towards what makes Cayman so prosperous… if there is one guy that needs to be fighting for Cayman globally, it’s him. Unlike my armchair expertise, he actually has the power to keep Cayman relevant and competitive.
Title does not alone confer power.
Is this guy serious? Tourism replacing FS in ten years…how would that work? FS is about 90% of caymans government revenue and economy. You’d have to remove most of the population, turn all the offices and homes into hotels, and charge 50 grand a night average room rate to achieve that. What an absurd comment from a minister,
Absurd yet not surprising. Sad.
Revoke all regulations and let’s get the economy back to work before we have a hurricane that shuts us down again for real! These stupid LFT tests done online are a joke and are essentially useless so you aren’t really giving up any “protection”. By removing regulations.
You can cheat them easy too.
Most of us read the announcements pretty early on in 2020, during the opening uncertainties, that there was no value to support the pedantic and useless wiping down of surfaces and packaging, yet our government has since then spent countless millions on “sterilising” and “sanitisation” of surfaces, airport luggage, door knobs, handrails, when confronting an airborne virus. Even now, dare I suspect all international mail and packages are put into some kind of multi-day quarantine holding – such is the slowness of clearing packages right now. Certainly feels that way. What else could be the reason for it to take 2 weeks to clear mail and packages?!?
Has Chris Saunders actually stopped to think about how much the tourism sector would have to expand to replace the government revenue financial services generates? How many more hotels and other accommodation would be needed? How much additional airlift into the islands? How much additional infrastructure needed to service all those additional tourists, from electricity to water and sewerage? How much that would all cost, and how he proposes to achieve that when our road system can’t even support our resident population and WORC can’t even process enough work permits for the existing tourism and hospitality sector. I am not even sure it is physically possible to squeeze in all those extra people. And has he considered the consequences of that – that government expenditure would have to to be radically cut back? We had all better hope that Chris Saunders is wrong about the financial services sector, because tourism cannot by itself maintain the CIG and its enormous civil service at the standard of living it has become used to with the bottomless cornucopia that the financial services industry has become.
In its best years, Tourism was <25% GDP. Cruise <$3mln annual. Not a typo. The entire year of cruise industry brought in less to CIG coffers than what was spent on a 2 week Christmas NiCE trash cleanup. The inequity in these stats might even be funny if it they were not so sad. It is illustrative of how perennially disqualified our government helmsmen are to equate one industry with mental parity to another bearing a quantum more value. They must run out of fingers to count on.
I’m not understanding the whining…my places are having the best year ever!
It’s definitely PAST time to remove mandates. Tourism is BOOMING everywhere else because there aren’t all the burdens we have with testing and masks and, worst of all, Travel Cayman!
Chris, Chris, Chris, stop jabbering nonsense. Think before you speak. Are you trying to cause a crisis, how irresponsible. Wayne, please tell your deputy to try not to dissuade investors into this country with his baseless sweeping statements.
I fully agree that our visitors are not having an easy time getting here and I for one would like to see travel restrictions lifted especially for fully vaccinated residents.Yes getting and LFT done for entry into the USA but make it easier for local returnees to get an LFT done in a USA pharmacy or the like
Who can certify its authenticity.I for one will continue to wear a mask when flying and when going to our local supermarkets.My choice.
It’s not so much the regulations, although that is a piece, but the price of airfare and hotels to Cayman is outrageous!! Can travel anywhere else for 1/2 the price, so unless you have family or friends in Cayman, it’s better, cheaper and easier to go elsewhere.
Tbis. The world is not the same. Many travelers have likely curtailed their vacations and discretionary spending.
There are many destinations that are not only much more economical, but offer much more to do and see.
Travellers can get a verified LFT done anywhere they verify LFTs, including pharmacies, or online using Azova or similar. It seems people are making up imaginary problems that don’t exist. Worth mentioning also that every single USA-bound passenger, vaccinated or not, still needs a clear negative test to check in for their flight!
Removing select nonsensical unenforced mandates, even if they were well-intended at one time, is long overdue for residents.
For visitors, the fact is the Cayman Islands is at CDC’s LEVEL 3 Caution for High Levels of Community Transmission, and anyone who risks coming here, may find they can’t fly home to the USA.
So either we tackle seriously the local transmission numbers to make this an acceptable place to risk visiting (maybe once a week mass LFTing), or continue to pretend any of these partial measures are effective.
Cayman has no say over USA repatriation policy in any case, so the USA positives will be stuck either way. We might as well let them fully relax and enjoy themselves, seeing as nobody serious is writing tickets.
The UK has just removed its mask madates for doctors’ clinics and hospitals!
Get rid of the restrictions! Enough is enough.
they probably think that is 7 mile beach lol
Saunders….that didn’t make you sound too with it. Think twice…before you decide to speak ‘ol Premier wannabe.
Saunder’s comments about only 10 years left for the FS industry are incredibly irresponsible and potentially very damaging. My god who have we got running this country.
Most other Caribbean destinations lifted restrictions upon entry and those who did have record numbers, go figure what’s holding us back Einsteins
https://www.travelweekly.com/Caribbean-Travel/Caribbean-readies-for-a-wave-of-reopenings
I’m still seeing solo drivers, windows down, wearing a mask. We really need are up against it.
Scrap all the rules, like the UK. I mean, it’s about the only thing they got right, but it’s all overdue here.
Except the best vaccine roll out on the planet after Israel.
Ask civil servants about the mandates and we will have them forever, they got so used to these special paid sick days/weeks
If you include all residents – the overwhelming majority wants all mandates removed. Get rid of masks, disband Travel Cayman, etc. If you only look at the voting base – there is still fear of COVID and wanting to cling onto these so-called “safety” measures. Time to move on.
I dont recall you being elected to represent the majority of residents, but you do you.
You just made that all up.
So here’s an idea. Why don’t CIMA and the CI Gov stop attacking the financial services industry? This is largely a home made problem. Just get some people who understand financial services regulation and problem solved. Or maybe Saunders doesn’t like the FS industry and only wants tourism?
Sounds to me like Saunders and Kenny are telling you indirectly to expect the cruise berthing facility discussion to be resurrected in the short to mid term.
#war
End Travel Cayman yesterday
I would really like to know who still honestly believes Travel Cayman is doing anything to help prevent the spread of Covid?
Is Saunders simply speculating / sharing his opinion here, or is that actually based on something?
great question…cannot believe he has said what he said regarding FS
he either knows something we don’t or he is talking nonsense….which is it?
The world has changed, priorities have been reset, inflation is raging, and our traveler demographic is not the same as pre-COVID. Very likely a recession in the works, and at least one world war coming. We shouldn’t have to subsidize the slow minds that aren’t willing or able to adjust to the new reality and outlook. Should have pivoted and retooled in early 2020. Every industry has endured challenges, but no other expecting the scale of handouts as CITA. Sink or swim.
It is beyond crazy that having seen the damage a pandemic causes to tourism to say that tourism will be the number 1 pillar of the economy. Pandemics have been threatening for decades and finally one did shut the world down. It is impossible to think that it will not happen again at some point and multi-sector development should be under way already.
When someone tells us that they can’t do their job or don’t want to, we should believe them.
I think the pandemic has well illustrated the damage that tourism causes.
Wasn’t it nice for just that brief moment to see just how the natural resources of the world were able to recover?
Remove all mandates now
so our minister of finance say our financial services industry could be done in 10 years?????
and this is not making news???
It’s great that it’s not making news!
Stupid comments from uniformed individuals is best left out of mainstream media.
More like Saunders is done in 3.
Fixing to build that new port.
The current travel process fills the traveller with confusion and anxiety. I know this personally and from friends and relatives who visited this month. It’s much easier to just pick a pretty beach in the US.
Its also much cheaper all around.
“…But he warned CITA members that they had to convince the wider community as well and urged them to lobby for lifting restrictions…”
Sounds like politics, rather than science is driving these restrictions.
No shit Sherbanks
Duh! Do ya think?
It took you this statement to work that out?
The vote buying shall continue because it turns out there were more tourism-associated constituents in PACT districts than previous realized.
There aren’t. The electorate has more than doubled after 2004. Added are a new generation of Caymanian voters plus an unaccounted surge in legitimate professional Status Grant earners and career-contributors. The latter are educated, professionals with democratic expectations and have been in successive leadership blindspots for years. See how far that shortsightedness got PPM the last two elections. The port petition. Any politician calibrating only for select theological backers, old lady pensioners, or tourism interest group, will get their hat handed to them, as they should. Maybe an investigation too. The LA, seeing McKeeva in a wig in the big chair, still can’t register the lateness of the hour on these antics.
*whoosh* as the comment flies over your head while you diligently seek to respond on its merits
“Financial services has constantly been under attack for decades. It’s just going to be a matter of time before something is going to happen and the only industry we are going to have is tourism,”
What a flippant remark by the minister.
Does he think that we will just roll over and allow this industry to be destroyed?
Truly this is not the attitude I want to see in our government.
It may very well not be our choice (own goals by government bodies and regulators excepted, as someone else has already commented) whether Cayman’s financial services industry thrives or dwindles. We don’t control the legal regimes in our biggest user jurisdictions and there is only so much the lobbying of a small territory like ours can achieve. A change in the law somewhere else could remove the benefits of using a Cayman structure in a transaction. Deal flow could just dry up.
I don’t think a flippant remark like this at a public event is helpful or appropriate from someone in the minister’s position, but I would be extremely disappointed if our government were not engaged in contingency planning of this nature behind the scenes.
What contingency planning? They’d need to increase revenue from tourism ten fold to replace FS. Their covid nonsense and focus on trashy cruise numbers is having the exact opposite effect!
The issue is the global push for a minimum tax rate on corporations. If this concept gets enough support it will crush Cayman’s competitive advantage in FS. In case there is any confusion….Cayman’s FS industry thrives due to the ‘tax neutral’ system. just like other regulations, a country that doesn’t adhere to a new ‘global’ policy will get blacklisted, so we will be forced to comply, and there goes our advantage. I like the old days…
Honestly so careless and SENSELESS of him. What is he even basing this off? :/
The beatings will continue until the asinine pre travel testing is dropped and the masks are removed.
Agreed. It is a pain travelling here having to arrange for that test, especially if you have to overnight on the way here.
..But it is a pleasure leaving.
It’s time we had a Minister of Accountability.
no such thing as accountability in cig or the civil service.
You spelled “with” wrong…
We already do, in short form it is MAC.