January guest numbers grow by 7.7% over 2024
(CNS): Overnight visitor numbers got off to a good start in January, according to the latest figures released by the Department of Tourism. The number of stay-over guests was 41,418, an increase of 7.7% from January 2024, making it the second-best January in recorded history and setting the pace for a strong 2025, officials said.
“January’s record numbers demonstrate the resilience of the Cayman Islands tourism industry and we look forward to seeing an increase in visitation throughout 2025,” said Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan.
The number of visitors from the United States continued to show steady growth, increasing by 8.8% when compared to last year. Visitor numbers from the Northeast, Midwest and South all increased, a result of growth in airline capacity in the key markets of Miami via American Airlines, Boston via JetBlue and Chicago via United Airlines, as well as new flights from Orlando via Southwest and Minneapolis/St. Paul via Delta Air Lines. The DoT credited its airline advertising and campaign strategy for boosting the guest numbers.
Canada remained a key market, with visitor numbers increasing by 10.3% compared to January 2024, representing more than 10% of the total stay-over arrivals for the first month of this year. But arrivals from the UK and Ireland declined by 7.7% and the number of visitors from the rest of Europe fell by 6.6%, though there was a slight increase (1.2%) in visitors from Latin America.
“This achievement is a testament to our strategic and steady approach to rebuilding visitor confidence and demand through our marketing and business development efforts,” said Tourism Director Rosa Harris.
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I can’t see why anyone comes here nowadays. We’ve lost all the charm we used to have. Concrete, cars, burgers, receding beach and little or no scenery.
Keep those airfares down & people will come, but hotel prices are still overpriced for those that know Airbnb’s exist on the island. Only a fool would pay the $$$$ hotel prices especially for where beach is gone if they knew other options existed.
7:36, So true. Why would anyone want to pay ridiculous hotel prices when great AirBnb’s are available at 30 to 40% less than hotels in the Seven Mile Beach Corridor.
My American friends always go with AirBnb’s.
How many of those ‘tourists’ came from Cuba, Honduras and Jamaica?
This is positive news as the country continues to improve post COVID. It’s not an easy bounce back especially when travelers decided to go elsewhere when we were on lockdown and getting them back or new people continues to be a challenge. Keep up the good work DOT!
PS – DOT not responsible for people not using indicators, pronouncing the “Caymen Islands” with accent or otherwise nor elected officials decisions and priorities
Yeah. Awesome for Air B&B owners and terrible for renters!
8:57, But renters don’t need to live in the Seven Mile Beach Corridor.
Special Thanks to the great services of the few Locals who are still able to get a foot in the door!
The few friendly Caymanian faces at places like Sunshine Suites front desk are an exemplary example of Caymankind.
I operate a small business of 40 years which is heavily dependent on our tourist season. Our tourist season is heavily dependent on the US. By November my bookings stood at a handful…even Thanksgiving was slow. Then by the last week of November, bookings flooded in for December.
However, I was surprised when January became almost fully booked. Usually November and December are the travel months, January slows down and it picks up again in February and goes through to May/June.
My explanation for this, this season is the US election last year. Americans (and maybe some Canadians) were holding their breath and their pockets.
From the various reports from DoT over the past few months it seems my experience reflects the general situation. As I recall, DoT reported some months were less than the year before.
So Spinister Bryan, it cannot be growth if earlier months were slower than usual and January was better. It simply was late spending by our biggest market.
But you know Kenny is going to take the credit for this… he’ll find some slimy way to make this about himself.
Airfares were way down for Cayman ( at least from the Northeast US). Never had a cheaper flight down and I booked late and flew down for the holidays.
I do see prices are on the rise for April, so heading elsewhere, but they do drop again for the summer.
The Canadian numbers are resilient given the forex spread.
I am interested. Would you please expound upon your statement?
No, I will not. Google isn’t your enemy you know.
11:19, Has a lot to do with Canadians boycotting Florida, Arizona & Las Vegas due to the Trump tariff lunacy.
Until such time as the serving international airlines properly list the name of the destination, how to pronounce it, and what paper forms are required to be completed on board, it will be impossible to understand what the DoT does with all of their time and funding. Rosa and Kenny need to be fired.
AND THAT IS THE TRUTH
When will we get the AA late flight/early departure back so that you can get to NYC or US East Coast by early afternoon.
The most maddening part of the fake ‘we have to save the tourism industry’ line from certain politicians and individuals is that we act as if there is not another more sustainable alternative staring us right in the face that we could and should shift toward, if we had been laying the groundwork for a focus on stayover visitors from back during the pandemic we could now have been starting to reap the benefits.
Instead, as usual in Cayman, we did nothing proactive, planned for nothing new and are now being told we have no choice but to do the thing they originally wanted to do but couldn’t convince the country on – the Cruise Port.
Funny how that works
As Cayman had formerly been a superlative global dive destination, with associated financial benefits of overnight stay, wouldn’t the recovery of precious corals, fish resources, natural undersea attractions be a legitimate effort worthy of immediate serious consideration, effort, planning, and financial commitment?
CIG and in particular DOE have treated the dive industry very poorly. Just look at the public docks that have fallen into total disrepair. Not only are they an embarrassment but are extremely dangerous and a serious accident waiting to happen. And to top it off Port Authority has closed off the parking at West Bay dock causing huge parking issues including parking now that blocks off sight lines to Northwest Point Rd. Read they’re going to fix the public docks. My question, what year? 😢😢😢
“We have to save tourism” is also coming from those that were knighted for shuttering it for years of border lockdowns and Cayman Airways hijinx. Where are our Sir Turtle points and flight credits?
and just look at the photo…their first experience is to stand outside in hot waether to wait for a 3rd world taxi system…and then only to be ripped off with an outrageous fair 30 mins later.
welcome to wonderland
thanks to expats and their visitors mainly
You sure it isn’t from Caymanians visiting ourselves to artificially bump up our numbers? 😂
Maybe that two massive captive insurance conferences were held on island with over 1500 invited members booking out two major hotels for two separate weeks had something got to do with it.
And definitely nothing to do with KB or the ministry of tourism as they decide where to go and when.
Cayman Captive was in December not January. and Reconnect is in April. If you’re going to be negative at least be accurate.
Who said cayman captive and you are wrong !
Quite obvious due to rental car drivers not using indicators, nor using roundabouts correctly, and empty shelves at Camana Bay Foster’s.
This also ensures Air B&B rentals keep long term rental prices high.
Long term rentals will continue to be high and even higher as soon as we all start to receive the increase in insurance that will be forthcoming.
Without AIRBNB we would hardly see as many tourists spending in our restaurants and supporting our local tour operators instead of being ripped off by the cruise ship operators.