The Cayman Islands Department of Tourism is anticipating a strong 2012 following a good year in 2011.
“We had our best December since 2000 in terms of stay-over arrivals and posted 309,000 in total,” said Acting Director of Tourism, Shomari Scott.
“It has also been a year of many accolades for the Cayman Islands,” he said. “On TripAdvisor we were voted best in Caribbean and 22nd in the world, by users of the site. We also had the number one adventure tour and the Caribbean’s Best Resort for the Caribbean Club.”
In addition to this, Caribbean Travel and Life magazine will run a significant spread on the Cayman Islands this March. Cayman was voted best Caribbean destination by the nearly 150,000 voters and also picked up several honourable mentions in multiple categories, including Best Snorkelling, Friendliest Destination and Best Beach Bar. Grand Cayman also had an honourable mention for the Best Family Hotel with an award presented to the Westin Casuarina Resort and Spa.
“The award in the friendliest destination means a lot,” Mr. Scott said. “It is the culmination of a multitude of strategies in the public and private sector to give both good value and a great experience. It is all about customer service and giving our visitors a great time.”
Booking window
At the recent Caribbean Travel Marketplace convention in Nassau, the Department of Tourism reported that its wholesalers and online travel agents reckoned 2011 was up by 10 to 30 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Room nights and average daily rate have also increased, and significantly the booking window shrink of the past three years seems to be easing.
“It’s now 90 to 120 days and for the online travel agencies, 40 to 60 days in advance. People tend to book further out with travel agents,” he said. “This creep back out helps us understand which are our softer times so we can put on promotions to serve the best vacation demand and put promotions out there.
“These could be value added digital events, YouTube, social media – understanding how to work with our partners in their space; this positive conversation inspires visitors,” Mr. Scott said.
Events tourism has become important for the Cayman Islands, the director said, and during the times the destination may not benefit from high visitation, sporting events can assist.
“Visiting teams bring families, fans, friends and coaches – we see this for example with the beach volleyball,” he said. “It all helps our brand awareness. We seek to understand different markets and keep the brand aligned suitably.
“Something like Dive 365 entices divers to come back and dive the Cayman Islands again; Culinary Month highlights our 130 or more restaurants. Dining is a very important part of the target market and we are Culinary Capital of the Caribbean,” he said.
Consumer confidence
Ultimately the aggressive marketing tactics of the Cayman Islands during the past two or three years look like they are beginning to pay off as consumer confidence may be returning in the United States, Mr. Scott said.
“We are building demand for the future and the seasonal summer Panama flights enable us to look at locations such as Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires, both who have the right demographic for our target market. And because we have hoteliers and general managers from the Latin American countries it will make it easier for us to get access to speak to the right people and make these flights a success.
“It takes two to three years to build a route and awareness – we should be able to build this with our national airline,” he said.
Analysis of the planned Dallas route will also inform its possible start date, he said. Caribbean tourism in general was also doing well and the Cayman Islands is already pacing better on a year-on-year comparison.
“Group business is starting to come back and if we continue with the stay-over trend we are cautiously optimistic of a good year. We need to understand where the demand is and continue to grow business,” Mr. Scott said. “However if we are not constantly innovating and increasing repeat business we may get to a situation where we plateau out. We don’t want that; we want to continue to grow the peak.”
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