Tourism
CAL’s 2023 passenger load bigger than pre-COVID
(CNS): The national flag carrier of the Cayman Islands, Cayman Airways Limited (CAL), carried more passengers last year than it did in 2019, the last full year before the borders were closed in 202 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a press release this week, CAL said it transported 422,189 passengers in 2023 compared with […]
A ‘reberth’ of the cruise debate
Michelle Clark writes: It seems that the debate regarding cruise piers has opened once again. This is an emotive issue; there are many varied and nuanced sides to this, and I hope that any referendum question, and inevitably campaigning, addresses this. As a founding member of the Cruise Port Referendum movement, my intention was only […]
Guest numbers climb toward pre-pandemic levels
(CNS): Overnight guest arrivals in November 2023 reached 93% of the numbers for the same month in 2019, the last year before the Cayman Islands Government shut the borders to protect the country from COVID-19, according to Department of Tourism statistics. However, the pace of return was impacted by the borders here remaining closed longer […]
Bryan calls for cruise port vote at next elections
(CNS): Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan has said he would like to see a referendum on the idea of developing cruise port piers at the same time as people go to the polls for the general election in 2025 “to settle the question” once and for all. During his contribution to the budget debate on Monday, […]
October air arrivals reach 86% of pre COVID levels
(CNS): The trend towards a full recovery of the Cayman Islands’ visitor numbers in the wake of the border closures continued in October with 20,568 stay-over visitors representing roughly 86% of 2019’s record breaking year and 16 percentage points higher than this year’s target of 70% of pre-pandemic numbers. During the ten months of 2023 […]
Losses covered on CAL’s Barbados route
(CNS): Cayman Airways’ deal with Barbados to launch the route to the eastern Caribbean island guarantees the airline’s costs, plus a small mark-up according to documents released under a Freedom of Information request. The route ran at just 24% occupancy in October and although November is expected to be better when the numbers are in, […]
Tourism bounce back better than forecast
(CNS): The number of tourists visiting the Cayman Islands had exceeded the ministry’s predictions as of the end of September by more than 13% officials from the department of tourism have revealed. The destination is closing in on the record breaking arrival figures of 2019 as guest numbers have shown steady growth this year.
CAL launches new weekly Barbados flight
(CNS): The first flight of Cayman Airways’ new route took off Wednesday morning bound for Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados. The weekly scheduled service was launched after the national flag carrier received a request from Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. The details of the deal have not been made public, though it is understood that […]
Minister working on a greener tourism product
(CNS): Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan has said he is working on minimising the negative environmental effects of tourism. The theme for this year’s UN World Tourism Day is “Tourism and Green Investments”, and in his address marking the day on Wednesday, Bryan said that while tourism allows people to learn about and appreciate different cultures, […]
Liveaboard dive boat runs aground on Sandbar
(CNS): Aggressor Adventures, the owners of the liveaboard dive boat, the Cayman Aggressor IV, which ran aground in the North Sound on Thursday morning, have said it is no longer on the Sting Ray City sandbar and was being moved to her anchorage this evening. The owners said there were no injuries, everyone was safely […]
DoT drip feed disclosure unacceptable, says Ombudsman
(CNS): The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) has ordered the Department of Tourism to release details of the partnerships and sponsorship agreements it made with various overseas entities to promote the Cayman Islands to potential visitors between 2020 and 2022. More than 18 months after a local reporter made an FOI request for the records, […]
