Cruise tourism arrivals in Cayman have surpassed 1 million passengers this year, for the first time since the pandemic, tourism officials have announced.
In the latest round-up of tourism arrival numbers released on Friday, the Department of Tourism noted that, though cruise passenger numbers have been steadily improving, arrivals between January and November 2023 represented less than 70% of the arrivals in the first 11 months of 2019.
In the first 11 months of this year, 1,175,137 cruise passengers arrived in Cayman, compared to 1,618,950 during the same period in 2019.
According to Port Authority figures for cruise arrivals for December, another 161,084 passengers will have arrived in Cayman by the end of this month.
The Department of Tourism uses 2019 as a comparison year for tourist arrivals as it was the last full year of arrivals prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stayover statistics
Stayover numbers are also rising, the department noted, with Cayman welcoming 379,370 air arrivals in the first 11 months of the years, which exceeded 2022’s January-November figures, and represented almost 85% of 2019’s numbers.
A total of 35,765 visitors flew to Cayman last month, representing 93% of November 2019’s air arrival numbers, which the tourism department described as “the highest recovery rate so far compared to pre-pandemic visitation”.
Last month also saw the third largest number of visitors to arrive in November since the Department of Tourism began recording statistics, only surpassed by 2019’s 38,463 and 2018’s 38,172.
In a statement announcing the statistics, Director of Tourism Rosa Harris said, “The Cayman Islands exceeded its visitation goal of 70% for the first 11 months of the year and is now on track to surpass 400,000 stayover visitors for the first time since 2019.
“We are especially pleased with our United States visitation, as these statistics underscore the healthy rebound and resilience of the United States as our main source market and further affirms the Cayman Islands’ position as a preferred destination for American visitors.”
US remains primary source market
Last month, the United States maintained its position as the Cayman Islands’ primary source market for stayover visitors, with 83% of all arrivals coming from our northern neighbours.
Arrivals from the northeastern region of the US were up 3% compared to November 2019, and up 10.2% compared to November last year.
Canadian air arrivals in November were 88.6% of 2019’s arrivals from Canada, which remained the second largest source of stayover visitors in Cayman. They represented 6.4% of the overall visitation by the end of November, up from 5.9% in 2019, indicating a sustained recovery for this market, the tourism department said.
Stayover visitors from the UK and Ireland accounted for 3.5% of the total arrivals in November 2023, on par with 2019. Between January and November, air arrivals from the UK and Ireland represented 89.6% of 2019’s number of arrivals from those countries. They accounted for 3.3% of total arrivals, 0.2% up from 2019.
Air arrivals from Latin America in November 2023 represented 70.8% of 2019’s Latin American arrival numbers, and 1.3% of the overall visitation, also on par with 2019.
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