‘Caymankind’ tourism seeks help from foreign workers

The Cayman Islands newly introduced tourism effort – dubbed ‘Caymankind’ – seeks assistance from all residents of the Islands, both native and foreign, in a holistic effort to boost tourism.  

It could also require work permit holders to know quite a bit more about the small western Caribbean island chain than many do upon arrival here, according Acting Director of Tourism Shomari Scott. “We’re hopefully in the future going to be able to tie work permits to the PRIDE programme, which means anybody who’s here on a work permit, whether they’re in the tourism industry or not, has to at least go through the programme to understand – because we have a cultural component as well as an educational component – understand what the Cayman Islands is about,” Mr. Scott said Wednesday.  

The PRIDE programme is a training initiative that has been carried out at local restaurants and hotels, as well as at ports of entry with customs and immigration officers. The idea is to educate workers – both Caymanian and non-Caymanian – on how to deal with visitors and the kind of professional treatment they would expect.  

“What we’ve realised is that, yes, from a customer service standpoint they have their training, but not from a cultural standpoint,” Mr. Scott said. “So we’ve recently created a cultural product which we’re going to roll out to the hotels and they’re all on board.  

“We need to make sure they’re giving good information and they’re presenting it in a way that’s Caymankind.”  

In the medium to longer-term, Mr. Scott said it was government’s hope to have some sort of education programme about Cayman for all foreign workers. 

“Anybody coming here to work should have at least a baseline understanding of what the Cayman Islands is about and where we came from. In speaking with the government, not in the imminent future, but in the medium term, to actually make the training scalable…and then whoever’s coming in would take this easy test as part of the work permit process.”  

Premier McKeeva Bush, in rolling out the Caymankind promotion at the Cayman Turtle Farm Wednesday night, said it was important that everyone in the country got involved in promoting the tourism product.  

“The aim is to encourage our communities to engage in random acts of Cayman-kindness toward visitors,” Mr. Bush said. “The purpose, attention and the brand attributes that underpin Caymankind are to encourage and inspire Caymanians and residents to get involved. 

“Tourism is everybody’s business.”  

Mr. Bush said that one important aspect of Caymankind would be getting more Caymanians involved in the tourism product.  

“We have to continue…to educate our people that each one of us have a role to play in our tourism product,” Mr. Bush said. “A few years ago, if we had this meeting in a town hall …we would have it overflowing. But back then, we had many of the older people that worked in the tourism sector.  

“We try to get people to attend tourism classes, to become involved, to learn bartending. That, at a time, had waned in this country. Now, it’s back in the upswing.”  

Premier Bush said the government had plans to introduce a tourism/hospitality school at the Treasure Island resort sometime next year. He said it was crucial for local residents working in the tourism industry to understand they are the ambassadors for the country.  

“Nobody’s going to come here and wait two hours and be served with a sour face and pay $10 for a drink,” he said. “Nobody’s going to come here if we are not being our kindest. Nobody’s going to come here if you’re going to take your problems to work.”  

“It’s not a shame, and it’s not dirty work to work in the tourism services and hospitality sector.”