Taste of Cayman, traditionally the most important fundraising event of the year for the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, was a financial flop for the organisation this year.
“Taste this year featured the amazing Black Eyed Peas and was a resounding cultural and entertainment success,” said outgoing CITA president Troy Leacock, adding, “Unfortunately, lower-than-targeted revenue and higher-than-budgeted expenses resulted in Taste leaving CITA with a financial loss instead of the usual profit.”
CITA Treasurer Markus Mueri would not state the extent of losses from the event, but he confirmed, “It was significantly in excess of $50,000.”
Payment plans were arranged with some of the vendors, and CITA made the final payments relatively recently, several months after the Taste of Cayman event in April.
“The executive committee and the board worked diligently to reach payment agreements with the four largest vendors and ensure that all other vendors were paid on time,” Leacock said.
Competition from other concerts around the same time as Taste of Cayman, along with the high costs associated with bringing down the six-time Grammy Award-winning group, were cited as some of the primary reasons for the loss.
“This loss has been a catalyst for the board to reconsider what the shape, size, content and financing of Taste should be for next year and going forward,” Leacock said.
Mueri reassured the membership that CITA was still in a financially sound position. Over the past few months, however, the association has cut costs by vacating the role of full-time executive director, and in the place of an executive director, they have now contracted Trina Savage, who Leacock described as “an experienced, part-time project manager to assist us through this change programme”.
“We achieved a much better result with our second most significant fundraising event, Restaurant Month, in October, which had a record number of restaurants participating,” Leacock said to the audience at last week’s annual general meeting.
“For the first time, we had MasterCard participation as the presenting sponsor, which really took our promotion and international visibility to a whole new level. We are very encouraged by the MasterCard partnership thus far and we are already discussing with them other programmes and events in which MasterCard can support CITA.”
Towards the end of his address, Leacock said, “The year ahead will bring change and transition. The outgoing board believes that now is the opportunity to assess and consider how we can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our association.”
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