While Cayman’s tourism performance for the last nine months has improved on 2022’s statistics, the island still has some way to go to reach the highs it was experiencing prior to the COVID lockdown.
Those within the industry have welcomed the positive turn, especially the increase in visitors over the summer months.
Cayman Islands Tourism Association president Troy Leacock said the numbers are encouraging for the industry and its move towards full recovery.
“Even though visitor numbers are still down on 2019, it seems that the first visitors back have been a higher spending demographic.
“Many businesses are reporting higher average prices and stronger revenue for the past 12 months than would be indicated by lower arrivals,” Leacock told the Cayman Compass in an interview this week.
Though the numbers look favourable, Leacock said, Cayman is “still quite a ways off of the record 500K+ visitors we had in 2019.”
However, he said, visitor air arrivals have been steadily increasing since Cayman fully reopened last year.
“Advance bookings for the first quarter 2024 are strong and, with more airlift now scheduled, we are expecting a busy winter season,” he added.
Positive outlook
The latest statistics from the Department of Tourism show that the Cayman Islands recorded 323,038 stayover visitors and 930,621 cruise tourists between January and September 2023, an improvement over the year before.
Though those statistics only represent 83.6% of 2019’s visitation numbers, the DoT team welcomed the figures, saying it surpassed the visitation goal of 70% of 2019’s record numbers in the first three quarters of the year.
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, in a statement on the latest numbers, said, last year it was predicted that 2023 would be “a momentous year for tourism, and this year has exceeded our expectations”.
“Going into our traditional high season our accommodations, restaurant and retail partners are fully primed to welcome guests, and we look forward to stellar end of year visitation numbers.
“From a cruise perspective, we look forward to seeing a continued increase in the number of ships calling into Grand Cayman as we work with our local partners to deliver an authentic and memorable destination experience for cruise visitors,” he said.
The DoT, in a statement Thursday, said along with the rise in stayover visitors, there was an increase in the length of stay with an average of six nights on island.
This was the same as 2019, the department said, “showing a steady return to pre-pandemic nightly stays”.
“Tourism revenues were also buoyed by a 30.2% hike in the average daily rate (ADR) of hotel rooms from January to September 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, according to STR Inc, the major hotel industry intelligence database,” it added.
The total room stock for Cayman, it said, also increased, to 7,624 rooms as of September representing 10,410 beds and 21,516 bed places.
Apartments/condos, hotels and guesthouses accounted for 49%, 34% and 18%, respectively, of accommodation stock, it added.
Director of Tourism Rosa Harris lauded marketing efforts to pushed the destination overseas, saying that “we are pleased that our stayover and cruise arrivals to-date are well above our targets”.
“As we move into our traditional high season and close out the year, we will see an increase in seat capacity from North America as seasonal routes come online from the United States, West Jet and Air Canada increase their frequency from Toronto, and Cayman Airways starts twice-weekly service to Los Angeles,” she said.
She added that the DoT will continue to engage in strategic discussions with airline partners to ensure increased airlift to Cayman.
“Our goal is to maintain consistent performance throughout 2023, and we are confident that we will continue to reach or exceed our visitation target for the last quarter of the year,” she said.
Summer performance
Based on statistics published on the Department of Tourism website, Cayman’s air arrival from June through September improved on 2022 numbers for the same period, with June enjoying a 54% increase in arrivals.
The DoT figures show that June 2023 ended with 40,469 air arrivals compared to 26,116 in June 2022.
September, though higher that last year’s figure of 12,381, was the lowest recorded number of the available statistics at 14,720.
Both September and October are typically the slow season for tourism.
Leacock said the higher average prices and stronger revenue for the past 12 months have worked well for those rebuilding in the post-COVID climate.
“In my view, this is a reflection of Cayman successfully targeting the premium and luxury travellers who have returned to a favourite vacation destination despite having visited elsewhere while our borders were closed,” he said.
When it came to cruise arrivals, Leacock added, the numbers were “moderate and steady”.
There was a marked decrease of these visitors over the summer months, with June having the highest figure at 71,477, a 21% decrease over 2022.
Though September showed a slight increase over last year’s figures at 53,935 arrivals, it was still the lowest month for recorded arrivals.
“In view of the changing picture of our cruise industry, developing the maximum benefit from the cruise sector will require strategies other than reaching the peak numbers of 2018,” Leacock said.
Lat year, the Ministry of Tourism indicated that cruise ship passengers visiting Cayman would drop by almost half in the next two years, as cruise lines operating mega ships opt for destinations with berthing docks that can cater to the giant vessels.
Based on information received from cruise lines, the ministry projected that just 746,000 cruise passengers will arrive on island in 2024 – a drop of nearly half compared to the 1.4 million expected to land here by the end of this year, and a 60% reduction on 2019 figures when 1.84 million passengers arrived by ship.
Businesses on the waterfront say they have been feeling the pinch from the drop in cruise passengers, with Seafarers Way nearly devoid of tourists as only a few ships call during the week.
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There are several key reasons for the lower than 2019 numbers
1. Lack of quality, middle cost range hotels. You either have low-priced ones without traditional island features like a beach, or you have the top 3 (Ritz, Westin, Seafire) on the beach but with much higher prices. There is a big gap for affordable hotels on the beach.
2. The loss of the south end of Seven Mile Beach. You almost cut in half the hotel rooms on Seven Mile Beach.
3. Cayman was so slow to re-open, many tourists found other islands with a comparable experience. TCI is having record tourists.
4. The planned reduction in cruise ship passengers.
Now this may be a planned and beneficial shift to have less tourists but at a higher dollar. That may be what is best for the island given the relative small size and also the growing traffic problem with the natural bottleneck going from west to east.