CITA: Mask mandate, COVID regulations impeding tourism

Tourism chiefs are calling on government to drop Cayman’s mask mandate and a requirement for incoming airline passengers to obtain travel authorisations from Travel Cayman, which they say are a deterrent to travellers.

Speaking at the Cayman Islands Tourism Association half-year meeting on 31 May, the association’s president Marc Langevin told colleagues and government officials that there is “clearly a correlation between airlift, regulation and occupancy”, adding “none of those can be separated”.

Langevin, who is also the managing director of The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman resort, urged the government to remove restrictions – including the mask mandate and the need to obtain travel authorisation from Travel Cayman – that might dissuade visitors from coming to Cayman and airlines from expanding their airlift capacity and routes to the jurisdiction.

Referring to a presentation by Director of Tourism Rosa Harris that showed airlines were facing some major challenges in getting their seat capacity back to pre-pandemic levels, Langevin argued that fewer pilots and planes make it logical “that an airline is going to put their planes and their equipment in places where it’s easier to do business, where people don’t have any restrictions”.

He noted that many other destinations, including those in direct competition with Cayman, had relaxed their COVID restrictions.

This month, the number of inbound seats available to travellers is 25% lower than in June 2019, CITA members were told.

Langevin said he was concerned that airlines, when deciding on new routes or expanding services, or perhaps reducing existing ones, take into account that “we are not showing that we are progressing”.

In April, the Chamber of Commerce called on Cabinet to lift the mask mandate, citing Cayman’s high vaccination rate and low hospitalisation numbers.

“It is time to move to the next phase of the reopening plan,” Chamber president Shomari Scott said in a statement at the time. “Removing the indoor mask mandate for businesses and simplifying travel restrictions is the natural next step.”

The chamber urged government to remove the requirement when COVID regulations expired at the end of April. However, when those regulations were amended and re-issued, with limits on the size of outdoor gatherings abolished and the size of permitted indoor gatherings increased to 750, the mask mandate remained.

When the regulations were updated on 29 April, interim Chief Medical Officer Autilia Newton, in a statement, acknowledged that mask-wearing requirements had been lifted in other countries, but noted there had been an increase in COVID cases in recent weeks, adding, “We have to consider and assess the implications for protecting our population and healthcare system. Mask-wearing is still required for indoor events where a distance of six feet cannot be constantly maintained.”

In an online poll carried out by the Compass in April, 81% of the 617 respondents were in favour of the mask mandate being dropped.

According to a weekly update by Public Health, released on 9 June, the daily average of new cases of COVID-19 was 62, a drop of 23% on the previous week, when the average daily new cases stood at 81.

However, health officials stated in the report that there had been a drop in the amount of testing being done, and noted, “There continue to be encouraging signals of decline in the current wave of infection, however, the level of testing will need to remain sufficient in the coming weeks to confirm this.”

As of 7 June, Public Health said, there were 1,023 estimated active cases of COVID-19 in Cayman.

Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, at the 31 May tourism meeting, said he had been encouraging his colleagues in Cabinet to lift some of the remaining restrictions, but not all would agree, and he advised CITA members to lobby MPs on the matter.

“I am tired of masks myself,” he said. “I’ve done my part. I’ve been vaccinated. Even if I wasn’t, it would be my risk. It’s time for us to take on all of our responsibilities so that we can get back to business and provide for our families and take care of our businesses. … We’ve done two years of having those who don’t take responsibility for their own actions hold us back, and I think it’s time for us to make our own stand.”

‘Un-Mask Cayman’

Restaurateur Markus Mueri has been circulating an ‘Un-Mask Cayman’ campaign video calling for the mask mandate to be dropped. He says it’s time for Cayman’s leaders to let people in Cayman – both residents and visitors – make up their own minds about wearing masks.

“People in Cayman are smart, educated and have common sense; government should trust the people and give us the choice if we want to wear a mask or not,” he said.

He also queried why people flying into Cayman first must get approval from Travel Cayman, saying the process could be simplified simply by asking for proof of a negative LFT test at check-in at the airport, “vaccinated or not”.

“Travel Time [the original name for Travel Cayman] was effective and important, now it is only an unnecessary step to be permitted to enter the island,” he said.