Socio-economic ills world-wide have been blamed on the great global economic meltdown, yet not all nations have performed worst during this chronic recession. For example, Poland’s economic performance has been in line with their expectations. Why then are we in Cayman continuing to accept the excuses our unimaginative economic and political leaders give for our lengthy economic and social retrogression? Well the answer is quite simple: Caymanian’s socio-economic and political structures were built on the premises of dependency economics; that is that when America sneezes, Cayman catches a cold.
It is widely accepted here that there are two main pillars of our economy; one being tourism and the other international finance and banking. However, for decades banking and tourism were intrinsically connected. Wealthy company owners used time doing business in Cayman to also vacation here with their families. Thus it could be said that our economy like many past and present dependencies has not two but one economic product that acts as a foreign exchange earner.
The early Caymanian tourism product was a complementary part of our financial service industry and from the outset our directors of Tourism, who were expats, designed and promoted a brand of tourism that attracted wealthy and upper middle class families seeking peace and tranquillity rather than adventure and entertainment. This particular brand of tourism lead to real estate booms, which turned our valuable tourism lands into sites for private residencies that were occupied from Thanksgiving to late May or June.
The free publicity Cayman was given in movies like the Firm did the real branding of our tourism product thus most middle or working class tourist avoided our Islands and like black Americans sought places where they felt their dollars would have greater purchasing power and they got a more diverse native experience.
Thus part of the reason for the stagnation in our stay over tourist numbers might well be the result of the fact that Cayman is still regarded as a place that is affordable only to the very rich and of course less wealthy divers. One must only spend a short time in Nassau, Bahamas, to witness the diverse forms of entertainments available to middle and working class American and British tourist to recognise the grounds for my assumptions.
Those that have travelled on British Airways to Grand Cayman would have also noticed that except for the Caymanians returning home and British passengers visiting their relatives working in Cayman, everybody disembarks in Nassau because most British people still think Cayman is only for the very wealthy.
To me there has always been a recognisable danger in our tourism product being so narrowly designed around an economic group with so many vacationing possibilities; a class that in the early days was more interested in ownership and exclusivity then in being introduced to our clique experience. The Cayman Islands therefore did not brand its tourism product our product was designed by others; so much so that we were left out of the equation.
This alienation of things and beings Caymanian further made our islands into a place where black Americans and working class families and individuals felt they would feel out of place even if this is far from the reality. We just have to look at the international response to the Jazz Fest to understand where I am coming from.
Yet Grand Cayman has become more urban and cosmopolitan and although there are those that will no longer see us as their private paradise we can improve our economic performance by accepting that more Caymanians will have to be given an opportunity to make a dollar from stayover tourism and this will become possible only if we go fully into the tourism business. Paying hundreds of thousands to promote and produce an international jazz Festival only to tell the world and the lovers of music and a jolly time that we still live in a time and space where music cannot be played on Saturday night after 12am will not help to increase our stayover numbers nor to attract tourist from a diversity of classes and ethnicities. Perhaps those dealing with the open market need now open their minds.
Frank McField
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Some very good points but a couple of things that need clarifying.
The Nassau/Grand Cayman BA flights carry a number of cruise passengers joining vessels in Nassau, this is something that has been going on for at least 20 years and it explains the sudden exodus en route. It is also normally cheaper for visitors to fly to Grand Cayman from the UK and Europe via the USA.
And it is the question of cost that causes a lot of the problems addressed by this letter. It is not the perception of Cayman being an up-market (as in expensive) resort but the fact that it is simply pricing itself out of the current tourism market.
A return flight from London to Grand Cayman costs at getting on for 800 per person. Add to that over 1000 for a week in a basic hotel room and you already have an expensive seven-day holiday without food, drink, airport transfers or any other normal expenses.
For the same money two people can go from the UK for two weeks all inclusive in somewhere like the Maldives or Cuba. For around half that amount the same two people could go to the Red Sea for two weeks, also all inclusive. This is a no-brainer because you pay for everything up front, get on the plane, then just chill out for two weeks without spending any more money and it is definitely the way the UK tourism market is going.
The Cayman Islands needs to move into this market if stayover tourism is going to grow. To do that you are going to have to get some of the major players in the package holiday business on board and to do that you need to drastically reduce the current room rates and the associated taxes.