Cayman’s watersports businesses are still seeing more cancellations than new bookings, despite the announcement that the border will reopen next Saturday.
A survey of 33 operators illustrates that most of the businesses surveyed are likely to face ongoing hardship, even as tourists start to return.
The majority of boat operators in the survey indicated they had received substantial cancellations for the next three months – even after the reopening was announced.
Despite the border closure, many visitors had pencilled in trip itineraries for late this year, in hope that the rules would be relaxed. As the logistics of travel to Cayman started to become clear, some of those trips were cancelled.
The lack of airlift, quarantine requirements for children and uncertainty over guest requirements were cited by operators as the major reasons for those cancellations.
Relatively few cited Cayman’s current COVID-19 outbreak as the reason for postponing their trip.
Some of that was offset by new bookings, but most were from next February onwards.
Troy Leacock, owner of Crazy Crab private boat charters and a representative of the North Sound tour operators, said businesses would need continued support until tourism was back on its feet.
“The results of this survey are very sobering. The key observation is that in the two weeks since the reopening announcement, most operators have had more cancellations than bookings and cash flow continues to deteriorate.
“Bookings are an important forward indicator for our industry and unfortunately currently indicate that there will not be any meaningful resumption in business in the next three months. The path back to meaningful tourism recovery will be slow and our government must maintain all financial assistance programs for tourism businesses and displaced workers.”
Other operators responded to the survey with comments and concerns.
“It will take us several months, if not a few years to fully recover and pay back accumulated debts, once tourism returns. I do not expect financial security within the first 6 months of our borders opening,” said one business owner.
Another said they are ‘hanging on by a thread’ while others said they were not expecting any real business until the middle of next year.
“From what I am seeing with guests, they are not yet 100% convinced Cayman will stay open and they seem to be afraid to pull the trigger on bookings,” said one.
In the poll, operators indicated the continuation of the tourism worker stipend, the business stipend and grant and the stingray feeding program were vital income streams that they would need to continue.
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Probably the only one surprised by this news is our Tourism Minister who last week said people will come back. NOT HAPPENING!
As I mentioned last week that Government officials need to look at facts and not opinions. The PACT government has not been clear on its opening path which has caused tourists to travel elsewhere. Openings are announced but the tools to apply for travel were late, incomplete and the communication regarding these tools was poor. When you call travel Cayman they laugh it off. Government has gotten fat and lazy with budget surpluses this year due to the new financial registration fee. What happens in 2022 and 2023 when we have limited tourists? We will have budget deficits and eventually higher tariffs and fees for all Caymanians.
Let’s all challenge Government to look at facts and develop plans to address the concerns of tourists that support a vital industry to our Island.
Of course watersports operators have had cancelations.
It’s mostly younger people and families who will go to Stingray City and on snorkeling trips.
But families with children who CANNOT be vaccinated cannot come here.
This made perfect sense when we were coronavirus free and no one was vaccinated.
Now we are a world leader in infection rates and anyone who wanted to be vaccinated has been.
Makes no sense to keep out half our tourist customers, the half with children.
Add one more factor to the reasons for cancellations: the travel application process that is simply horrible.
We are trying to come to Cayman for a one-week holiday in early December and trying to apply for a travel authorization via the Travel Cayman web site that is just awful. The site gives the impression that it has been designed with a goal to frustrate people at every step. It is self-contradictory and next to impossible to use. I submitted an application a few days ago but I have no confidence it went in correctly. I received no confirmation email. When I called Travel Cayman phone number I was told my application is not in the system, but “another team” may be manually checking it. We’ll wait a few days and will probably have to cancel our trip.