VACATION COSTS
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from July 1993.
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But a Cayman vacation could well be one of the most expensive. Without the car rental price of US$90 for a three day lease (lowest in the Caribbean) factored into the total cost, Cayman would have topped the price list of the seven destinations in the survey.
Locations surveyed in addition to Cayman were Belize, Providenciales (Provo) in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montego Bay (Mo'Bay) in Jamaica, Cozumel and Cancun in the Mexican Caribbean, and the Bahamas.
The survey used "off the rack" prices as found, or available, in the 1993 Gold Book, the bible of Caribbean. hotels and travel destinations. The four major categories surveyed were airfare, hotel accommodation, car rental and Scuba diving for a mythical four-day, three-night vacation on 27-30 August from New York City.
Regarding airfare, one airline (American Airlines) flies to all destinations in the survey and this was the carrier used. In all cases, the lowest fare sold was obtained for comparison and all prices throughout the story are in US dollars. Cont'd on page 14 Cozumel from page 1
The most expensive airline ticket was to Cozumel because of the connections through Cancun. The Cayman Islands was exactly in the middle; fourth out of the seven destinations.
Airfare from New York
The next category surveyed was auto rentals. Surprisingly, Cayman was the least expensive place in the survey - and possibly the entire Caribbean - to rent a motor car, and by a wide margin.
The survey used the same major, international leasing company in all destinations except Provo, where that company does not operate. The test car used was either a Nissan Sunny, Daihatsu Charade or comparable vehicle, automatic with air. Auto rental (3 day lease) Cancun $207*
Bahamas $184 Mo'Bay $180* Belize $150 Cozumel $147* Provo $142 Cayman $90
*indicates applicable government tax of 10-12%. While Cayman was in the middle of the road on airfare and at the bottom of the pile on car rental prices, it did not fare so well in the hotel room rate category. In this portion of the survey, the same major, international hotel chain was used in each destination except Provo, where a similar property was quoted. The price used was the lowest given at each property for a single room. Cayman had the most expensive three-day hotel room rate, edging Belize by $24. It is only fair to note, however, that the 10% room tax in Belize would take that destination to the top of the list. A room tax of between 10-12% also applies in Cancun, Cozumel and Mo'Bay.
Hotel room
$237
The last major portion of the survey was Scuba diving, certainly the most popular water sports activity in Cayman and several other survey destinations. In all cases, the price quoted was for a two-tank dive with the diver having his own equipment. Cayman was right in the middle at $55 while the Bahamas topped the list at $60.
Interestingly, when the survey was done in 1989, the same shop in Cayman used for the 1993 survey quoted two-tank dives at $35. That means the cost to Scuba dive in Cayman has risen 57% in four years. During the 1989 survey, Cayman was found to have the lowest Scuba diving price among the surveyed destinations.
Scuba dive (2 tanks)
Using these four major criteria, the most expensive destination in the survey was Belize at $1034. It must
