Forty years ago the Cayman Islands tourism industry had taken its first baby steps. Having been officially opened in 1954 by Governor Sir Hugh Foot, what is now called the Owen Roberts International Airport was seeing its first tourists trickling through its doors.
Such was its infancy that back in 1964 there were 7,000 air arrivals for the year. Such has been its adulthood recently that in 2004 there were 260,000 air arrivals, alongside 1.6 million cruise arrivals. This spurt in air arrivals over the past 40 years represents a figure 37 times greater than what it was back in its toddler days.
Up until 40 years ago scheduled air services in Grand Cayman had included BWIA and LASCA, the Costa Rican airline, which in 1967 flew the first jet aircraft into the Cayman Islands.
Following on from Grand Cayman’s airport, in 1955 a 2,700 foot runway had been built in Cayman Brac and Cayman Brac Airways, a subsidiary of LACSA served the Sister Islands to Grand Cayman. In 1962 the construction of a grass landing strip took place at Edward Bodden Airfield in Little Cayman.
Cayman Airways was founded in 1968 from a re-organisation of Cayman Brac Airways and was initially 49 per cent owned by LACSA. The initial service linked the three Cayman Islands.
The Early Days
‘In the early days, back in the 1960s, tourism was not much of an entity, with only very few small hotels,’ explained Mr. Eric Bergstrom, who originally came to Grand Cayman as a tourist, staying at The Seaview Hotel in 1961 and 1962. He and his family moved here in 1963 to run the original Tortuga Club in East End. Mr. Bergstrom eventually left the island in 1989, having spent a full 26 years here engrossed in the tourism industry.
Speaking about the early days of running Tortuga Club, Mr. Bergstrom describes the facilities as very basic, but they had generators to run some power and had no need for air conditioning because of the lovely East End breeze.
‘There is no question that Cayman today is totally different, and some of that is good,’ he said.
‘Back in the old days, if you got a blow out on one of your tyres you could be waiting a week to get it fixed, but it was very friendly, nice and honest back in those days.’
Tourist Board
The country’s Tourist Board was formed in 1966, launching early serious efforts at tourism promotion overseas.
It was Mr. John Cumber, the then administrator, who organised a meeting of hoteliers and said the Government needed to do a better job of getting the word out about the Cayman Islands as a tourist destination. And so, in 1966 the Cayman Islands Tourist Board was born, made up of volunteers, including Mr. Bergstrom, who headed the board. The office was on the waterfront in George Town
The first year’s budget of $7,000 did not get the team very far, nor the second year’s budget of $15,000. Eventually, however, ads began to go in to the travel trade press in a bid to get the destination’s name out into the world.
Before long Mr. Bergstrom was in a meeting with government officials seeking additional funds. His efforts were rewarded when in 1968 he was given a handsome budget of $98,000, which enabled an office to be opened up in Coral Gables. That was when things started to get rolling.
This statutory board was the precedent for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, which was created by the Tourism Law of 1974.
‘The rest of it is modern history,’ commented Mr. Bergstrom.
Former Minister for Tourism Norman Bodden also cites ’74 as the year that gave recognition to tourist development in these islands.
By the time Mr. Bergstrom retired in 1988 DoT’s budget was over $9 million dollars a year and there were about 75 people on the payroll. DoT’s budget for the last fiscal year (2004/05) was $21.3 million and its number of employees near 80.
Promoting Cayman
Speaking about the promotion of tourism in the early days, Mr. Bergstrom says, ‘The important thing was to sell the fact that the Cayman Islands existed. I continued to insist that the United States was a big market and I wanted to concentrate the limited funds we had on that,’ he said.
One of the things Mr. Bergstrom always advocated was the growth control of tourism, something he feels that went out of reach.
‘Somewhere around ’74 or ’75 we told the Executive Council to look at the infrastructure and build a dual carriageway between George Town and West Bay, because no one had built on the east side of the highway then. The fact that it never happened was a mistake,’ he said.
Meanwhile, by 1972 the national airline had grown to a staff of 30 and had launched its first route – Miami.
By 1977 the company became 100 per cent Government owned and launched its second route – Houston. By 1976 air arrivals had grown to 64,000 and cruise passengers to 40,000.
During the 1980s, CAL ran charter operations to 11 US destinations.
Importing Workers
Mr. Bergstrom points out that although tourism was there to provide employment, many local people did not think there were good jobs in tourism and so people were imported to do these jobs. There were, however, good ideas in the midst of this, he says, such as in the ’80s when a scheme was set up in conjunction with the Irish Tourist Board where Irish hotel employees would come here for the busy winter season, which was low season in Ireland.
Mr. Norman Bodden was Member of the Cayman Islands Executive Council responsible for Tourism, Aviation and Trade from 1984 to 1992. By 1984, the year he took over as Minister, there were 148,000 air arrivals and 203,000 cruise arrivals. In 1992 air arrivals had grown to 242,000 and cruise to 613,000.
Another important milestone in the history of the Cayman Islands’ tourism is the year 1986, when, for the first time, the decision was taken by Minister Bodden and DoT to start promoting Cayman on television advertisements in the United States, with the motto, ‘Our people are our best asset’. The same year the Hyatt Regency and Treasure Island resorts opened on Grand Cayman (the first hotel, the Galleon Beach Hotel, opened in 1950).
The result of all this was that in 1987 air arrivals increased by 26 per cent – the largest single increase for a year from 1976 to 1987.
‘This shows the value of first class tourist accommodation and TV advertising,’ said Mr. Bodden.
CAL Restructuring
The early ’90s saw increased competition for the national airline on the Miami route, an oil crisis, and an airline industry financial downturn, resulting in the restructuring of CAL.
Following the negative impact of 9/11 in 2001, the airline underwent a short period of retrenchment and service cutbacks. However, today the company operates a total fleet of seven aircraft, including three 737-200 aircraft, two 737-300 aircraft and two Twin Otter turbo props and serves ten points in the US and Caribbean year-round.
Aside from the national flag carrier, 10 international carriers now serve the Cayman Islands with another on the way shortly.
By the year 2004 there were 260,000 air arrivals and 1.6 million cruise passengers when the tourism industry appeared to have got back on track following a downturn after 9/11.
Rapid Growth
Mr. Bodden realises that rapid growth in tourism and the country in general has not been without its downfalls, including higher crime levels and traffic gridlock.
‘However, many countries in the Caribbean have similar or worse problems and crime in these countries continues to grow,’ he asserts. ‘We can continue to promote the Cayman Islands as a family destination.’
Mr. Bodden feels the Hyatt Hotel brought a tremendous contribution when it came on stream, and the island will be further enhanced by The Ritz- Carlton, Grand Cayman.
Concerning the growth of cruise tourism in the Cayman Islands Mr. Bodden says that while there are complaints about congestion in George Town, he believes cruises are a great advertising tool for the Cayman Islands, in that passengers get a small taste of it and then wish to return.
Of course Hurricane Ivan has certainly set back tourism this year, and although cruise arrivals are well on track, air arrivals are less than half what they were last year. But with more properties getting licensed and opening up day by day, the hope is that things will soon pick up, although there is a long way to go.
Another mark for the history books earlier this year was the discontinuation of Island Air’s inter-island domestic scheduled service which had been running for 16 years. This was brought about by a number of factors – fuel costs, insurance premiums, business costs and subsidised Government competition.
Infrastructure wise, things are in the works. In planning ahead over the next 20 years, the ORIA project expansion will cater for 1,225,000 passengers annually. Before the hurricane the number of passengers passing through ORIA annually was 890,774.
Work is also being done to on a bypass to alleviate traffic congestion on West Bay Road.
Tourism and the international financial industry have blessed Cayman with a strong economy and prosperity. From 1957 the date when Bob Soto opened the first dive shop in the Caribbean in Grand Cayman, to the present day when we look to today’s newly opened Cayman Craftmarket on the waterfront and Boatswain’s Beach water park, the span of 40 years has shown remarkable progress.
Who knows what the future may bring, but with hard work, determination, resilience and dedication of the Caymanian people and residents, hopefully the next 40 will flourish into more growth, tourists and prosperity spanning many more years of glorious sunsets in the Cayman Islands.
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