Tourists diving back into Cayman

In the days after Cayman’s borders reopened on 20 Nov., a small number of tourists across the islands were taking giant strides off the back of dive boats or climbing down ladders to start shore dives.

Cinematographer Jon Betz, for example, flew into Cayman on JetBlue from Boston on the day the borders opened so he could spend a week diving on Grand Cayman, and testing his new underwater camera equipment. The following morning, he stepped on board one of DiveTech signature pink boats at the West Bay dock, the first tourist to do so in 20 months.

The removal of mandatory quarantine for incoming travellers was the deciding factor for this trip, he said. “It would not have been possible for me to come if I’d had to quarantine,” he said.

For Divetech and other dive operators that have been struggling to stay afloat since the borders closed in March 2020, the reopening marks a slow, but hopefully steady, return to business as usual.

Jo Mikutowicz, owner of Divetech, told the Compass, “We have tourists on board starting [Sunday, 21 Nov.] all the way through to next Monday. It’s going great, the customers were all very impressed with the efficiency of getting through the airport upon arrival and very excited to be back in Cayman diving again. Bookings are looking minimal but they are there. Divetech has tourist bookings starting this week and sporadically all the way through to March, which is really exciting.

“It is definitely not anywhere near the volume we had before March of 2020 but I wouldn’t expect it to be, this is going to be a long road, but this is such a great first step.”

At Ocean Frontiers in East End, it’s a similar picture – beginning with a trickle, but with bookings building up for the months ahead.

Owner Steve Broadbelt said Ocean Frontiers is seeing “strong bookings from January onwards”.

“What happened is many of our customers booked elsewhere and lost confidence in Cayman. So it is important now for us to be open and stay open, just to build back some confidence in the market for next year,” he said.

He added that availability of flights will be a key element in future bookings, so “we won’t see any big improvements until a few more weeks when extra flights are added. We expect to be running at 20-30% of capacity until the new year, which will then ramp up to 70% and even 100% for some weeks. We are happy to be open and have enjoyed welcoming divers back to Cayman.”

Still waiting

Sunset House, the George Town dive resort that markets itself as a ‘hotel for divers by divers’, is waiting a little longer before opening its doors to tourists. While its shore and boat diving is available to tourists, the hotel itself won’t be opening until January.

Annie Briggs, co-general manager of Sunset House, said, “We chose not to open until January after the last major change in [reopening] phases. We did have guests booked from the opening date in October all the way until Christmas which I cancelled when we were told it was paused. The details were not given to hospitality [companies] until close to the November opening date, and we weren’t sure what would be asked of the guests, so chose to select the January date.”

Under the government’s phased-reopening plan, announced in July, quarantine for incoming vaccinated travellers was initially supposed to be removed on 14 Oct., paving the way for tourists to return. However, after local cases of COVID-19 began to emerge in September, Premier Wayne Panton paused the reopening plan, and put off phase 4 until 20 Nov.

Briggs said many of Sunset’s potential guests rolled over their booking dates, and are “itching to come back”.

“We have guests that have been coming to us for decades and this is the first time they have been able to come,” she said. “We have had many cancellations as well, as the island continued to be closed and the [goal] posts kept moving. The change in [the re-opening date] saw a flood of cancellations reaching into March and February.”

She also noted that a lack of international flights into Cayman is an issue when it comes to bookings.

Cayman Airways, JetBlue and British Airways are currently operating routes in and out of Cayman, and WestJet and Air Canada plan to begin routes to Canada in December. Other airlines, including American Airlines, Southwest, United and Delta, have indicated they may resume flights here early next year.

COVID protocols on boats

For a brief period last year, local divers were required to wear face masks on the boats, and to observe social distancing and strict sanitation measures, but those requirements were lifted as community spread of the virus halted.

Now, with cases of local transmission rising rapidly, and the return of overseas visitors who are not required to quarantine, safety protocols have been reintroduced on dive boats.

Broadbelt explained, “The protocols are pretty basic – nothing like what we had in phase 1, back in July last year. Standard sanitation and disinfection practices and masks when you are inside the dive shop or not able to social distance. No spitting in masks, no sharing of mask rinse buckets – there hasn’t been much of a reaction and people are used to living with COVID. We’re all doing LFTs (lateral flow tests) on site twice a week for all staff too – 100% of Ocean Frontiers management and staff are fully vaccinated and many with boosters.”

Mikutowicz said that at Divetech, “We make sure to keep tanks 6 feet apart from each other on the dive boats, we no longer share fruit on the surface intervals or have common mask and camera rinse buckets, and we encourage everyone to keep their masks on even though we are in an outside space. All guests seem very happy to accommodate, and [are] understanding of the protocols, it’s very clear that the whole world is slowly learning how to live their lives with the virus around.”

For Betz, Cayman is the ideal dive destination, with a diversity of options for his photography, from macro shots of tiny sea creatures to massive wrecks like the Kittiwake.

Just before heading off on another dive with Divetech on Thursday morning – his fourth consecutive day of diving – he told the Compass, “For me, the biggest draw of this place… is the diversity of the subject matter that I’ve been able to photograph – amazing reefs, stingrays, shipwrecks, kitesurfers. You can’t do that everywhere. I travel all around the world to shoot underwater. I think this is the perfect spot to be able to fly to – it’s easy access from the US – to be able to test this gear and enjoy this amazing place.”