Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan is holding firm on the decision to hold a referendum on cruise berthing facilities later this year, saying the question would be straightforward to prevent the issue becoming confused and risk being rejected by voters “for the wrong reasons”.
Speaking ahead of the official opening ceremony of the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s SOTIC 2024, which is being held at The Westin on Seven Mile Beach this week, the minister said that there were a lot of factors involved, “so this question is quite straightforward: ‘Should the Cayman Islands have cruise berthing facilities?’ We just want to keep it simple”.
The official question has yet to be released, however. Apart from the announcement of the referendum being held at the end of the year, the Elections Office last month offered no details on the looming vote, but said it would be able to mobilise for both the referendum and the 2025 general election without issue even though they could be only months apart.
Once decided, the question has to go to Parliament for debate.
A previous government-backed project to build cruise berthing facilities and expand the cargo port was ultimately shelved after a court battle, but the current administration has pledged to hold a referendum on the issue later this year.
Bryan, the outgoing CTO chairman, said the government is trying to determine “if a cruise berthing facility is essential for the sustainability of the industry”.
On Wednesday, attendees will vote for the new CTO chairman which changes every two years.
“Once we’ve made that decision, then we can talk about what’s the most environmentally-friendly one, what’s the most cost-effective one, what is the best location for it and all the other factors,” he said.
“To have those factors involved in the first part of the question, people may say no for the wrong reasons. So let’s talk about whether your car needs wheels or not first, before you think about what kind of engine or what the paint job looks like.”
Themes of this year’s annual State of the Tourism Industry Conference include the growth of the cruise sector, aviation capacity, the role of AI in tourism, sustainability and women in tourism.
The Caribbean Tourism Organisation has 25 country members and its mission is to increase tourism in the region.
Countries attending the conference in Cayman include St. Lucia, Bahamas, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Anguilla and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
In a briefing to the media on Monday, Gary Hendricks-Dominguez, deputy director of international promotions and events at the Department of Tourism, noted that the almost quarter of a million stayover numbers for the first half of 2024 were only surpassed by visitors over the same periods in 2018 and 2019.
Hendricks-Dominguez also spoke of the relaunched ‘Worry Free Hurricane Guarantee’; to date the Holiday Inn and several condos have signed on to the scheme, which promises guests refunds or rebooking once an official hurricane watch has been issued.
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