Hotels and CITA chipping in to promote LA flight
(CNS): The Cayman Island Tourism Association has said that its members are “thrilled by the Cayman Airways announcement of their new LAX direct flight and eager to support the success of this new route”. CITA also said it would be chipping in to help promote the route and pick up the tab for familiarisation trips.
At a press briefing last week to announce the new gateway, CAL CEO Fabian Whorms said he had never before seen tourism stakeholders so willing to participate with Cayman Airways. “There is a paradigm shift taking place here which is causing the industry to put more skin in the game for their own benefit,” he said. “I’m seeing something special.”
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan also welcomed the input from CITA, which he said was partnering on this project throughout the promotion, both for entertaining in Los Angeles and with their own marketing programme, as they are the key beneficiaries.
CITA said the flight to the largest city in California was an extraordinary opportunity. “At a time when other carriers have reduced routes, it is a blessing that our destination has the ability and vision to open a direct flight to the LA market, setting a unique value proposition which will set us apart from all other Caribbean islands and compete even against the Hawaiian Islands.”
The statement continued, “We are hopeful that this extraordinary opportunity will allow us to help compensate for the loss of visitors we are still experiencing due to our remaining restrictive regulations for the unvaccinated visitors, including the children from 12 to 18 years old.”
The minister said the business case for the LAX route is expected to be released shortly, though the parts that contain commercial sensitivity have been redacted. The new direct route to LAX starts on 5 November, initially once per week.
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Category: Business, Local News, Tourism, Travel
Cayman Airways baiting the major airlines into taking over the route again, that’s the name of the game. It’s genius really. Fly for a few months, when the bigger carriers see there is potential they step in to compete then we have an established route and Cayman will look for another destination and so on and so on. After LAX it will be Vancouver which will be excellent.
If only they could make it to the Brac and back first without all the chaos around cancelling flights for a 20 minute flight.. We got planes to go to LAX< but, not the brac…
“There is a paradigm shift taking place here which is causing the industry to put more skin in the game for their own benefit,” he said. “I’m seeing something special.”
Little sensational don’t you think ? I’m waiting for the finance committee meeting two years from now when he explained a why it wasn’t such a great idea. By then Kenny will have made a half dozen family trips to Disney Land
As a tourist who has been coming to Cayman for 30+years I am so excited to be able to hop on a plane and land 5 hrs later in beautiful Cayman. The alternate routes through Miami or Atlanta have gotten ridiculous having to spend anywhere from 9 to 13 Hours getting there. My recent trip was through Denver with one of my flights be canceled already(not the Cayman portion) I am grateful for the foresight of Cayman Airways for seeing an opportunity and going for it. Congratulations!
Hollywood is back up and running again. Other international movie towns are back up and their production trucks and trailers are lining the usual backdrops at capacity. Cayman had a very unusual opportunity and made a few Nick Cage Hell Boy movies during the bubble. Now we resume our normal obscure ranking where Cayman holds no economic or scenic allure for non-diving or money laundering film-making. The LAX route isn’t the worst idea, but we need to stop this Tara Rivers/Joe Hew fantasy that we’ll be making blockbuster movies in Cayman – unless there is a meaningful inducement/public funds giveaway, which would be politically untenable. A proper music recording studio would be a better idea.
Boogie Nights in Cayman sequel now!
“At a time when other carriers have reduced routes, it is a blessing that our destination has the ability and vision to open a direct flight to the LA market, setting a unique value proposition which will set us apart from all other Caribbean islands and compete even against the Hawaiian Islands.”
This statement clearly confirms this route makes no sense and is not profitable.
If only the timing of the flights lined up with connecting flights to and from anywhere else. LAX is a hub for flights to and from Asia and western Canada (among other places) but the timing of this flight will mean an overnight stay on both legs which negates the benefit of if being a direct flight.
yawn. take another plane then and maybe use this when you are going to LA and not passing through.
theres many different airlines my dear.
Umm, so you don’t get it, typical.
So they will pick up the tab for the early boondoggle flights, then it will be up to the Cayman taxpayer to foot the bill for the rest of the losses. I always chuckle when CAL says the commercially sensitive information is redacted. Translation, we blacked out the part that shows how much money we are losing. Why not be honest and say we plan to lose $XXX and this will be made up through other revenues, passenger spend on island etc. They cant because the numbers will never add up.
“pick up the tab for familiarisation trips”, “entertaining in Los Angeles”. Says it all really. Who cares if the route makes money or not – Kenny gets a few jaunts to LA.
Caymanians should stay away from Blue States that are liberal S__ Holes like all Cities of California. The criminals, homeless problems there and other things like the highest gas prices in America is another reason this is a bad idea. How about Atlanta and other Florida Cities.
I too, am a f***ing idiot thanks to Fox News and Q-Anon!
Doofus MAGA, doesn’t realise Atlanta is a blue city, and not in Florida. Classic.
What about the “paradigm shift’ to Denver, what has the occupancy rate been on this route, time to spell it out Mr Whorms.
The flights to LAX are still not showing on Cayman Airway’s website. Who runs this airline ???
@2:28pm.. Did you not listen to the press briefing. The MD of the airline clearly stated that until they have regulatory for the fares filed they cannot enter the flights into the system..What good would it be to have the flights showing in the system without prices..Cayman Airways will be flying into a US city and prices have to be approved by the US Regulatory authorities just like on any route.
We are paying one way over 300 to tampa….how much is the LA flight gonna be???
Fabian Whorms must not have been around when Ron Kipp was alive. Bob Sotos Diving exclusively marketed with Cayman Airways for year to bring tourist to our beautiful island.
Legalize cannabis. We miss out on high net worth clients due to our old age laws
Stop vaccine requirements for entry. Until you do you can forget mass tourism to Cayman.
When USA removes their vaccine requirement.
@12:57pm We are not looking for mass tourism..Please go get vaccinated!
Oh for heavens sake, you already have mass tourism, what on earth do you think cruise ships cater to, have you ever been to GT or Stingray City on an average cruise ship day?Without it a huge slice of Caymans economy will be lost and business bankrupted.
Vaccines are not the solution as they do not stop infection, they are only effective to the vaccinated who will be protected from serious illness. The vaccines do nothing to prevent Covid coming in via tourists and to say it does is a serious untruth based on ignorance of the facts.
And as for the ‘when the US’ garbage, we are a British Overseas Territory, not a satellite state of the USA.
Get your heads around living with COVID, stop relying on 2020 fears, and get on with normality.
Cruise only come into port for a few hours and not everyday. Despite cluttering up our infrastructure for a few days, it is limited to a few days a week and mostly along the West Bay/GT peninsula. A necessary evil so to speak, although I am not convinced they give back to us anything other than to keep a few Caymanians employed in that industry a job.
As far as the vaccine, it has proven itself to lessen the symptoms and recovery time of people that get it. Cayman did the right thing even though we were ridiculed for it. We had about 30 people in total die from this horrible virus and we were able to keep us with the hospitalizations without having our health care system overrun with patients.
Please go get vaccinated.
I too,am an idiot who didnt pivot during the pandemic, and concur. Who cares if Covid is rampant as long as I make $?
Fundamentally, Cayman will need to become a much more appealing destination than the multitude of other better and much cheaper places to visit within 4-5hrs flying time from LA (that didn’t approve tunnels to nowhere without a qualifying plan). CAL’s business case will be predictably flawed since it’s betting on another flawed Rosa Harris dataset: non-dive and money laundering movie-making, which doesn’t happen during normal times in the Cayman Islands, and for good reason. Glamourous young A-list Hollywood actors are never going to be lining up for casting lounges hosted by Cayman’s quacky married Members of Parliament, nor for gross no-name pastel purses, or rum cakes, even if they are given away for free. So embarrassing that these are the “best” plans.
I’m not sure which decision makers have ever been to Hawaii, but there IS NO COMPETITION! HAWAII wins EVERY time!
ok
“The statement continued, ‘We are hopeful that this extraordinary opportunity will allow us to help compensate for the loss of visitors we are still experiencing due to our remaining restrictive regulations for the unvaccinated visitors, including the children from 12 to 18 years old.'” As long as unvaccinated visitors are required to quarantine there is little that will help compensate for the loss of families falling into this category. There is little that will compensate for all of the unvaccinated adults who are not allowed to visit without quarantine. IF the vaccine prevented the spread of Covid I might understand continuing the quarantine requirement.
I am also curious when CIG will decide whether those who were fully vaccinated in 2021 will be no longer considered vaccinated? At what point will proof of boosters be required to enter? I’m fully vaxxed, I’m boosted but I do not plan on getting a second booster. I am not anti-vax but I see no point in getting a booster that was formulated to work against a variant of Covid that is no longer being detected. As I recall we were told the mRNA vaccines could be quickly reformulated to target new variants…what happen with that?
I hope the NS flights from LAX are successful, it will be intresting to follow and see how many people take advantage of this new nonstop.