Leading cruise ship operators have warned that the Cayman Islands risk being bypassed by the next generation of cruise ships unless the jurisdiction builds berthing facilities which allow passengers to walk ashore instead of being brought to the island by tender boats.
Speaking at the CTO’s annual State of the Tourism Industry Conference being held at The Westin Grand Cayman this week, Richard Sasso, chairman of MSC Cruises North America, said that building a berthing pier “must be done eventually, as some of the larger ships will not call here because they can’t tender that many people. It’s not something that’s going to go away.”
He added that MSC was already building ships which were too big to tender in the Cayman Islands, so future passenger growth without a berthing pier was limited and could be lost to rival destinations.
‘Maybe we won’t come to Grand Cayman’
“When Mexico, for example, adds another port that we might be able to go to on a seven-day itinerary, maybe we won’t come to Grand Cayman because we’re able to give the guest three or four ports [instead],” Sasso said.
He added, “There needs to be an easy way for guests to disembark from these huge ships, to do it cleanly, safely and quickly, so they spend more time ashore and not queue to get back to the ship. You can add two or three hours onshore experiencing multiple chances to see everything that’s in the Cayman Islands by having a pier for two ships or three or four.”
This comes after a previous government-backed project to build cruise berthing facilities and expand the cargo port was ultimately shelved following a court battle; the current administration has pledged to hold a referendum on the issue of building a cruise pier later this year.
Opponents of the proposition question the economic benefit of welcoming larger cruise ships to Grand Cayman, as well as the impact of the arrival of thousands of cruise passengers on the island’s infrastructure and natural environment.
Sasso argued, “Every destination in the Caribbean is thinking about how they’re going to improve their shore experience and the facilities, so we need to have a reason five years or ten years from now why we should be visiting here. You can decide how many people come, how long they stay and how many ships during the week you would require, but it can be done and you must do it.”
The cruise lines “win” he added, because the “guests are going to have a great experience and we can bring international guests in more numbers, and the destination wins because people can stay longer at the destination and spend more money.”
‘We are building larger ships’
David Candib, vice president of port operations, Carnival Cruise Line, said that some of its ships were already not calling at Grand Cayman because they were too large and that the issue would only increase as more larger ships were added to its fleet.
“We are building larger ships, and we have made an operational decision that those ships won’t call on destinations that are tender ports,” he told delegates. “With 6,500 up to 8,000 guests and then another 1,500 – 2,000 thousand crew, it’s just not something that we as a company or an industry are doing with those types of ships.”
“Since the introduction of the larger ships for the Carnival fleet we have seen a reduction in calls to Grand Cayman, so ships that were tendering here, for example from Galveston, have been replaced and aren’t calling on Grand Cayman.”
Candib said that Carnival was already working with other Caribbean governments and destinations to expand capacity, such as the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico and Honduras.
“We’re doing that, because we need the certainty,” he said. “We want to continue to call on Grand Cayman, our guests love visiting Grand Cayman, but over time certainly, the ability of all our ships to be able to call here is likely to end.”
Delegates from across the Caribbean were welcomed to the conference by Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, who attended the morning’s sessions alongside Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan and Governor Jane Owen.
Also present was the incoming chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), who was elected by a meeting of the CTO Ministerial Council yesterday. Ian Gooding-Edghill, Minister of Tourism and International Transport for Barbados, will take over from outgoing chairman Kenneth Bryan, while Andrea Franklin, chief executive of Barbados Tourism Marketing will serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors, replacing Cayman Islands Director of Tourism, Rosa Harris.
At a pre-opening welcome event at The Westin the previous day, a two year old green turtle named Caymanite was released into the ocean by staff from the Cayman Turtle Centre as part of its conservation programme.
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Meanwhile better off passengers, those that could spend serious money on a port stop, favor smaller ships.
Yet no small ships, Regency, Silverseas, Scenic etc. stop in the Cayman Islands.
Why isn’t there an effort to attract these ships?
Nobody will be tendering within 15 years. Nobody. Because it isn’t safe. Have you seen our tender fleet here? We have tender operators running a wretched fleet of broken down hoopties taking the profits to their pocket rather than updating their fleet, all while giving visitors a terrible experience. The cruise lines see what we do here and compare us to other jurisdictions, so those Seaborne and SilverSea and Regency boats (all owned by Carnival Corp by the way). just don’t call. This idea that the cruise lines need us more than we need them is complete nutty-talk. They don’t NEED us at all. And if we don’t want them and won’t serve them then it’s not worth talking about. The crying shame would be if we really “did” want them, and a vocal minority or zealots amplified by unregulated local blogs and media stopped us from creating infrastructure to serve them. That would be a real loss for future Caymanians. Let’s see that referendum.
How many years have we been hearing this for? And yet we have 5 ships in today. The cruise lines need Cayman a lot more than Cayman needs the cruise lines.
Didn’t we hear these arguments previously just before the referendum which demonstrated the people’s outright rejection of the cruise dock for 8-10,000 simultaneous arrivals per ship?
The cruise industry is cutting its nose off to spite its face. They are bullying the islands. The problems are created by the cruise industry building themselves out of being able to call on Grand Cayman. That’s their problem. Those ships are too big to bring into the harbor. Caymanians are tired of being bullied. The berth that was built pre Covid in Jamaica has been a complete bust/ disaster. And once it’s built, you can’t take it back. It’s just not worth coddling the cruise industry unless they are paying housing for ALL Cayman residents (this is a wishful thought), and Not place cruise contract outfitters on the island. Let locals have their fares. The cruise wants a huge cut of the fares for tours. Look at what had happened in Cozumel. It’s a complete mess. That’s all I got to say about that.
It honestly is sickening that people who have no clue what they are talking about are making such statements and even more sickening that government is willing to listen to them to the detriment of Caymanians livelihoods. Government never asked them about the airport, or the roads, did they? And they are making noise about the roads, but it isn’t going to make one bit of difference. Every single one of you earning a living from cruise along with your family and friends need to speak up now and let your voices be heard loud and clear. Cruise piers must be built!
The huge ships they are talking about here are too large. The downside of the strain this puts on our environment and infrastructure is too great. Vote NO! Concentrate on stayover tourism.
Right now we are in this half-way house where we have cruise but it’s a really terrible experience. I drive through town every day and not one tourist standing in the hot sun has a small on their face. There are no proper sidewalks for people in wheelchairs or strollers. There is no shade. We have cruise but don’t maximize the potential opportunities from it. Cruise in Cayman benefits a select few but the opportunity if managed well is far greater. If cruise went away completely it would hurt our economy. The biggest mistake Cayman made was during the last cruise berthing discussion, letting a small group of vocal critics derail a discussion about better organized cruise berthing and modernized tendering and better town infrastructure and walkways. There is no cruise czar to canvas local business and engage the cruise lines about the opportunity here. We don’t even have a proper wide-sidewalk from the port to Seven Mile beach. IF we continue to do cruise the way we have been doing it, nobody will be happy. We need to look at our town and infrastructure and create the walkways and taxi stops from a pier to the beach, or come to terms with the reality that cruise will be abandoned here at some point. and when that happens – not complain about the consequences.
Cayman should build one pier capable of handling two ships. It can then maintain it’s position as an exclusive destination and allow a maximum of 10 ships per week – 2 per day Mon thru Fri, creating a bidding war among cruise operators who will then send their best ships rather than their worst. It would leave GT manageable in terms of passenger numbers, provide affluent customers for local retailers and tour operators, limit marine/eco damage done compared to having 5-7 ships on one day and keep GT free for stay-over tourists at weekends. The island needs cruise ships but it needs the best ships with affluent customers and should not be servicing the bottom end of the market as it currently does