Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan has said government will be looking at the viability of installing floating piers to help move the recovery of the cruise tourism industry forward.
However, the minister, speaking on Radio Cayman’s ‘For The Record’ programme on Wednesday morning, hastened to add there is no formal position regarding the installation of ‘SeaWalk’ piers here, like the one used in Jamaica’s Port Royal.
“I want the public to know, as minister I will be looking into that, [but there are] no commitments at all,” he said, adding government will examine floating piers “to see if it’s something that is viable”.
Bryan ‘blown away’ by piers in operation
He said, while on a trip with Acting Premier Chris Saunders and officials to Jamaica last week, the Caymanian delegation visited the Port Royal cruise port to see its floating piers in operation, at the invitation of Jamaican Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett.
He affirmed that the government remains opposed to new fixed piers anywhere in Cayman, but added that cruise is still a key component of the islands’ tourism product “and a pier is definitely something that will help enhance that in many ways”.
Bryan said the Jamaican port director shared that the cost was US$8.5 million for the floating pier.
By contrast, the cost of a fixed cruise pier in George Town had been estimated to be $200 million.
Bryan said Tourism Director Rosa Harris had indicated that the cruise lines had been following the Cayman delegation’s trip to Jamaica, and “were quite excited to hear about the fact that we went to visit it and that we were pleased with what we saw”.
He said two of the cruise lines have offered to come to Cayman and do further investigations in respect to the mechanical pier.
“I want the public to know that I would like to, on their behalf, continue to improve our cruise tourism product to examine [floating piers], because, from what I saw, it’s something that can be an option for Cayman at a very, very good cost,” he said.
This is not the first time the idea of floating piers has been raised in the Cayman Islands.
Back in 2015, when the Progressives-led administration sought to construct a cruise-berthing facility, the idea of floating piers was put forward.
However, Baird, the lead consultants on the environmental impact assessment for the now-abandoned cruise-berthing project, questioned the technical viability of the piers since, at that time, they had not been used in any hurricane-prone locations.
The SeaWalk had been hailed as a development that will revolutionise “ship to shore” travel for the cruise industry.
It was installed in Jamaica by Norwegian company SeaWalk in 2019, the first in the Caribbean.
During the Jamaica trip, Bryan said the group went to visit the piers out of courtesy to his Jamaican counterpart, “knowing full well that this government’s viewpoint is that we are comfortable with where things are”.
However, he said, “Obviously, if there’s opportunities to see improvements in respect to our product, we will examine them, so we went down there, and we were, at least me as minister, quite blown away.”
According to SeaWalk, the piers can accommodate up to 6,000 passengers at a time; can be used in worse weather than tender boats can handle; and cost less than half the price of fixed piers, with no environmental impact.
Having seen the pier in operation in Jamaica, Bryan said, it looked “pretty solid and pretty functional”.
Back when the floating piers were first proposed in Cayman, SeaWalk said, given the relatively short distance between the cruise ship moorings in George Town Harbour and the Royal Watler dock, the walkways could be a good fit for Grand Cayman.
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Here we go again.
We don’t need more cruise ships, we do need airbridges for our visitors who spend far more than cruise passengers.
Perhaps Cayman should reconsider having cruise ships in the first place, like the Turks and Caicos. T & C have decided that the small economic benefits derived from cruise ships is not worth it. The public beaches on the T& C are not over crowded with cruise ship guests who don’t spend their dollars on island anyways!
Great idea till the first big storm. Then they end up in Cuba or in Seafarers Way.
I am in support of “thinking outside of the box”, and exploring other options which do not involve: massive dredging on our coastline, or destroying coral reefs and dive sites and potentially compromising our beautiful world renown beaches in the Cayman Islands, or upsetting the North Sound, or negatively impacting our coastal integrity, or risking our natural water lens inland. So, that does not leave us with alot of options really. However, if we are to remain a competitor in the cruise industry, we need to explore Capital and Non-Capital/financial solutions. Of course, all of this would be subject to public consultation and support from all stakeholders.
This idea of the floating and mechanized ” Sea Walk” sounds good in principle. I recall that it was also suggested about 4-5 years ago my Mr. Reginald (“Choppy”) Delepenha, and at that time the objection from the technocrats was that those systems are best used in protected harbours, on Rivers, or other protected water basins. Of course the Hog Sty Bay area enjoy non of those characteristics. The other issue was how and where to store and protect the physical infrastructure/plant for the Sea Walk when it is not in use, and more importantly how to protect it from being damaged or destroyed in Storms (“Nor’westers”) and, more critically, passing hurricanes.
However, if we put our collective brain power together, and examine options which are suitable, feasible, and environmentally sensitive for these Islands, there is nothing that we cannot achieve.
Is this guy serious? What a terrible, idiotic idea. When will our politicians realize that tourism revenue and the image of Grand Cayman will actually benefit by eliminating cruise ships? The tourists with deep pockets fly to their destination for a week or so, rent a hotel room, rent a car, and spend lots of money on island at restaurants, shops and activities. Those same tourists find cruise ships and their passengers distasteful. On the other hand, cruise ship passengers come on island for a few hours, crowd the public beaches and maybe buy a cheap trinket or a hat in Georgetown. Does St. Barts have cruise ships? How about Turks & Caicos? St. John? These are all the nicest destinations in the Caribbean along with Cayman. Now let’s think about the islands that do allow cruise ships – Jamaica, Bahamas, St. Martin. Come on – it doesn’t take a genius to recognize the right path here. Eliminate cruise ships in Cayman once and for all!!!!!!