The Cayman Islands government has approved 22 applications in its Global Citizen Concierge programme, accounting for 50 people. As of Friday, three applicants and their families, totalling 11 people, had already arrived on island, tourism officials announced Tuesday.
The digital nomad programme, as of 4 Dec., had received 60 applications, accounting for 114 people, according to Jane Scaletta, deputy director of the international marketing and promotions at the Department of Tourism. Successful applicants can bring their spouses or civil partners and other dependents with them.
The first family to arrive in Cayman as part of the scheme landed on 20 Nov., and has already completed the mandatory quarantine period. The two other successful applicants and their dependents remain in isolation, officials said during a press conference over Zoom on Tuesday.
So far, the Cayman Islands government has collected $41,000 in fees from the successful applicants. Another $112,640 is expected to be collected from applications that are currently being processed, Scaletta said.
The global citizen scheme targets high-net-worth individuals who earn at least US$100,000 a year. According to Scaletta, the average annual income of applicants is US$258,000, with yearly salaries ranging from US$100,000 to US$4 million.
She said 80% of successful applicants had indicated that they intended to arrive in the Cayman Islands by private jets.
The average age of applicants, the majority of whom come from the United States, is just under 45 years old, she said. Applications have also been received from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Belgium, she added.
Thirty-nine of the people who have applied have said they would like to move to Cayman before the end of this year, while 21 said they wished to arrive within the first three months of 2021.
“From the point of their approval of the application, they have 90 days to arrive in the Cayman Islands,” Scaletta said.
She said the response to the programme had been enthusiastic and had met expectations. “We were hoping for 50 applications a month, and we hit 50 in the first 30 days,” she said.
The majority of applicants are couples or families, she said.
The Global Citizen Concierge programme works on the applications with Customs and Border Control, Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman, and Travel Cayman.
The programme enables successful applicants to live in Cayman while working remotely for up to two years. Applications, for up to two people, annually cost US$1,469 plus US$500 per additional dependent. There is also a 7% fee for credit-card processing.
Department of Tourism’s promotions and events manager Gary Hendricks-Dominguez said of the completed applications received so far, one had been withdrawn due to time constraints and one had been rejected.
Ayanna Victorian, national marketing manager for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, based in New York, said the US marketing and advertising budget for the programme is US$100,000.
In her presentation to media, she described a ‘toolkit’ that partners such as real estate companies or restaurants are given access to, which outlines the mechanics of the Global Citizen programme.
She said based on the fact that the majority of people who had successfully applied had indicated that they planned to arrive by private plane, “we are leveraging that as an advertising opportunity to place in key markets where there is a high volume of private jets”.
Overseas advertising is also being done through print and other media, she said.
Applications are made through an online portal.
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