Bryan denies any failings over tourism policy

(CNS): In parliament last week, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan denied that there are any issues relating to the UPM policy on tourism or that the decision to enhance and continue with the existing National Tourism Plan was a shortcoming on his part. Hitting back at the opposition for their criticisms of how he is handling the country’s second economic pillar, Bryan said the government and his ministry were working towards a balanced and sustainable industry. He said recent comments by Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart were “grossly misleading”.

Bryan said the current plan guiding the government, which was originally drawn up by the PPM-led administration, has been updated to reflect the current government’s policies to expand markets and gateways, continue to implement the National Beautification Plan, increase the number of events and expand sports tourism.

He accused McTaggart of deliberately taking Chief Officer Stran Bodden’s recent comments to the Public Accounts Committee out of context. Bryan said that Bodden had spoken about extending the current plan as a one-year bridge to take the ministry to the end of the year. He said the twelve-month extension was a “robust plan” that included the airport upgrades.

He said the new plan included a number of his ministry’s policies, which were documented in the government’s most recent strategic policy statement. But he said the opposition leader had implied there was a “void or gap” in the government’s tourism strategy, which was an attempt to mislead the public and worry the industry.

Bryan said the ministry and the Department of Tourism were working hard and were deeply committed to the stakeholders in the sector. “I’m doing everything within my power to ensure the tourism industry continues to grow in a way that is socially, commercially and environmentally viable,” he said, adding that the enhanced tourism plan would be in place to guide the tourism sector.

In the first of several statements Bryan delivered during last week’s parliamentary meeting, he denied that he was neglecting the sector in any way.

In a second statement about the work at the DoT, he said that the accommodation fees collected in the first half of the year had broken records again at 9% above projections, bringing in $25 million. He said there was a “steady uptick” in stay-over arrival numbers, which totalled 250,699 between January and June, up 6.5% compared to last year.

However, this is still far fewer than the first six months of 2019, the pre-pandemic yardstick, when 280,704 overnight guests visited Cayman in the same six-month period.

Bryan said that cruise passenger arrivals had significantly declined, and since 2022, when ships began to return after the pandemic, the numbers had been the lowest for two decades. He said so far this year, 634,212 passengers had come to Cayman, which is a further 14% drop from last year, and June saw a decline of some 26.5% to 56,114 people.

He said the government was working on optimising the number of overnight guests by focusing on an increase in airlift and new gateways. He also revealed the details of some of the additional flights that will be coming online later this year, including new direct flights from Minneapolis and increased capacity to and from Toronto.

The Cayman Islands now has more than 8,000 rooms available for overnight visitors, a record room stock level due to the opening of new hotels, which he noted had begun under the last administration. He pointed out the positivity of continuation as he again took aim at the opposition for criticising him. Bryan said there had been significant strides in tourism and his ministry’s strategic vision for the future.

See the first of Bryan’s six speeches on tourism delivered in parliament last week below on CIGTV: