Cayman needs to look beyond Seven Mile Beach and Stingray City to create new experiences that can help spread the impacts and the benefits of rising visitor numbers, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan told business leaders Friday.
Targeting a return to the record arrival levels of 2019, Bryan acknowledged concerns about overtourism.
The industry’s post-pandemic revival, which has seen tax receipts from tourism reach record levels, has already led to complaints of overcrowding at Public Beach and the North Sound sandbar.
But Bryan is confident Cayman can keep increasing its arrival numbers without impacting quality of life for local people.
“The problem in 2019 wasn’t that we had too many visitors,” he said.
“The problem was we didn’t manage them correctly.”
Cargo port could move out of town
Bryan highlighted potential plans to move the cargo port out of George Town among other initiatives that he said would help Cayman to better handle its visitors. That project, currently in the planning phase, is one element of a wider strategy to boost investment outside of the traditional tourism hot spots.
Reviving the ‘go east’ concept, Bryan said a government grant scheme would help local entrepreneurs set up ‘mom and pop shops’ focusing on culture, food, and arts and crafts, in the outer districts.
He added that those funds would not be available for just “another Stingray City tour”, insisting they were earmarked for newer, more innovative offerings.
“We believe that this will have a major effect on decreasing our oversubscription on other attractions like Stingray City and our beaches,” Bryan said.
“80% of our guests do experiences from George Town to West Bay. We can alleviate so much pressure just by getting 30% of them going to the east and have the same numbers, same benefits, same taxes and fees, same job opportunities.”
He acknowledged a decline in cruise tourism would impact local jobs but said he was doing his best to ensure a balanced approach that kept the ships coming in, even amid a focus on higher spending stayover visitors.
Bryan, who is also minister for ports, suggested moving the cargo port would allow for better management of cruise visitors in George Town, lessening some of the traffic and lifestyle impacts that have given the sector a bad name in some quarters.
“Operationally, the port is nearing the end of its lifespan and is struggling to cope with ever-increasing volume of imports,” he said.
“If the cargo port was moved to another location, the space available to manage our cruise operation would virtually double overnight.”
The minister again picked up the theme of ‘decentralisation’ as he answered questions about traffic, suggesting the new East-West Arterial extension would create opportunities to expand business and infrastructure eastward.
“It is time for us to reconsider and think of a new town in the east,” he said, encouraging the business community to present ideas to the premier.
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