Cayman looks to Texas, Ohio for new gateways

Government is looking into adding new gateway routes through Texas and Ohio, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said.

Bryan, speaking on the Cayman Compass weekly talkshow The Resh Hour on 5 April, said he was very excited about the launch of the upcoming Panama route in June, but the expansion of gateways will not stop there.

“We are looking at the Texas area and the Cleveland area because those areas fall right in line with our target market, that middle-class disposable income bracket that we need and that loves the Caribbean,” he said.

The Compass understands a Kansas City, Missouri, route is also being considered.

Bryan said it was too soon to officially announce the new routes, as these areas “are under consideration and, hopefully, we can say something at the end of this year”.

Cayman Airways previously operated a Dallas, Texas route, but in 2019 abandoned those year-round flights because of lack of demand in winter months. The twice-weekly flights out of Grand Cayman ended on 31 Aug. that year.

In February this year, Cayman Airways CEO Fabian Whorms, also speaking on The Resh Hour, said the airline was looking into two new gateways for travellers, one of which may start this winter.

“We have some capacity in our schedule to take on, certainly this year, another gateway,” Whorms said. “So we’re targeting a gateway for the winter season… we’ll be announcing that later on.”

He said, in addition, CAL is also looking at “marrying that [route] with a new summer gateway as well”.

Both gateways, he said, would be seasonal.

Tourism numbers on upward swing

The tourism minister noted that Cayman’s post-COVID recovery has been trending in the right direction, with January and February surpassing the budgetary projections of meeting 75% of 2019 tourism numbers.

Bryan said, based on the stats from the first two months of the year – March’s figures are not yet available – the “run rate is looking pretty positive”.

“For air arrivals for January, we did 74,000 [passengers], which was 84% of 2019. We were projecting for 70% of 2019 to slowly get there, so we’re already above our hopes and goals in respect to that,” he said.

When it comes to cruise tourism, however, Bryan said, for the first two months, Cayman recorded 311,000 passengers – considerably lower than in previous years.

Acknowledging the low numbers for cruise, the minister said, government knew there was going to be a drop in passengers because some cruise lines have decided to not call here because of the lack of piers.

He said, though he has been meeting with cruise line leaders recently, the position remains the same when it comes to a drop in cruise calls.

The statistics for January and February, he said, reflect a 35% reduction in cruise numbers when compared to the 2019 figures, which are being used as a benchmark.

He said the impact of this reduction will be seen within the community.

“We had 1.9 million persons for cruise in 2019. We’re projected to do about 25% to 30% less than that in 2023. That means that you’re talking about 600,000 people less per year.

That means 600,000 less people eating. 600,000 less people being transported… 600,000 less people buying T-shirts which we charge duties on,” he said.

He said while the drop helps with traffic and scaling back crowded attractions, he reminded that it also has a knock-on impact on people’s livelihoods.

Projects in the pipeline

The minister also said work on a waterfront tourism project, which will be a tool to help Caymanians in hospitality careers, is continuing.

“The waterfront project is also a priority because that’s a training opportunity, as well as a diversified product where we will have a craft market, but that is going to be just over $4 million to do. I want to spread that over two years – $2 million next year and $2 million the following year,” he said.

He added that some money has already been spent on the design stage and clearing of the site, “so, hopefully, there’s enough money from a priority perspective to continue that”.

Looking to the government’s planned Strategic Policy Statement, which is due by 1 May, Bryan said, he hopes plans for the airport expansion is added to the budget cycle.

Cayman, he said, has relied heavily on the North American market, but a bigger runway can bring more opportunities.

“The limitations that we have has always been due to the fact that certain flights can’t come to the airport because of the short airstrip that we have, and flights don’t come late or really early in the morning because we don’t have the bigger planes. I think if we accomplish that, then we can level out our tourism better on the slow-season months and have different routes, different markets, whether it’s the European market, the South Asian market, or even the African market,” Bryan said.