Tag: stay-over tourism
Stay-over visitors increase but still short of 2019 highs
(CNS): At the end of May this year, the Cayman Islands had welcomed 209,135 stay-over visitors, which is around 90% of the headcount during the same period in 2019, the last year before the global tourist market was struck by the global COVID pandemic. Officials from the Department of Tourism said that there has been […]
2024 stay-over visitors still below 2019 record numbers
(CNS): Over 137,000 stay-over visitors arrived in the Cayman Islands between January and March of this year, which is the second-highest figure for the first quarter of any year since records began and a 13.4% increase over the 2023 figure. The numbers were boosted because Easter was in March this year, leading to a standout […]
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 […]
Tourism on road to recovery with one million visitors
(CNS): Official figures released by the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism show that 284,274 people vacationed here last year and 743,394 cruise passengers called at George Town port, as the tourism sector began recovering once the borders opened, cruise ships began returning and all restrictions were lifted by the summer. The figures for both sectors […]
Peak-season visitors approach 2019 numbers
(CNS): The number of overnight visitors arriving in the Cayman Islands in October and November reached around 90% of the record-breaking numbers of 2019 before COVID-19 turned the tourism sector on its head. The recovery of tourism for the peak season means the year-end figures for 2022 are going to be far better than predicted, […]
Cruise lines still refuse to tender mega-ships
(CNS): The number of cruise passengers expected to visit the Cayman Islands in future years is predicted to drop significantly, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said following recent meetings with the cruise lines. Without a cruise berthing facility in George Town, Carnival and Royal Caribbean are still refusing to tender their larger ships, and as they […]
July visitors reached over 60% of pre-pandemic year
(CNS) The Cayman Islands welcomed 32,411 overnight visitors in July, which is 63% of the number in 2019, the record-breaking year before the COVID-19 pandemic closed local borders. Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said that the original target for visitor numbers for the end of this year was 40% of the more than half a million […]
Airlift predicted to increase for 2022 high season
(CNS): The Cayman Islands is expected to see a 1% increase in its airlift capacity during the last quarter of this year when compared to the last quarter of 2019, which was the last high season period before the COVID pandemic decimated the tourism sector. Officials at the Department of Tourism said in a press […]
Stayover mainstay for most tourism workers
(CNS): A survey conducted by the tourism ministry has revealed that Caymanian tourism workers and small business owners who have been displaced from their jobs and living by the border closures and have been receiving the government stipend are much more dependent on the stay-over sector than cruise tourism. Despite claims by the previous government […]
Make stay-over tourism work for Caymanians
Mario Rankin writes: I am happy to see that more people are willing to publicly express their concerns with the premier on his statements made in a recent press conference. The statements were concerning the tourism industry and how, according to him, stay-over tourism wasn’t any great benefit to the local workforce.
Premier: Stay-over tourism a massive failure
(CNS): Despite record-breaking overnight visitor numbers in recent years that fuelled a massive boom in tourism, Premier Alden McLaughlin has described stay-over tourism as a “massive failure” when it comes to creating jobs for local people. McLaughlin said that 70% of tourism workers are expatriates, and while he accepted there “was an ugly side to […]
