Cayman Islands Tourism Association President Marc Langevin says Air Canada’s decision to suspend its Toronto-Grand Cayman route is yet another blow to the islands’ tourism industry, which is still reeling from almost two years of border closures.
The airline announced the suspension of the Cayman flights, along with 13 other Caribbean routes, on 5 Jan.
Langevin told the Compass that the suspension of the flights “was unfortunately predictable and a serious blunt on our ability to recover”.
He added that, due to crew shortages, “the airlines are making decisions to reallocate their planes towards destinations who have less restrictions and [are] more accessible to visitors. Without an imminent announcement of forthcoming changes in our regulations and improvement of our processes, we will keep on losing credibility with our travel business partners, such as airlines, travel agents and meeting planners, and the loyalty of our visitors.”
Cayman reopened its borders on 20 Nov. Following that date, vaccinated passengers arriving on the islands were no longer required to quarantine. However, they are required to take a lateral flow test two, five and 10 days after landing. If they test positive, they must self-isolate for between 10 and 14 days.
Following the border reopening, a number of airlines resumed flights to Cayman, but in a limited capacity as they gauged demand.
Langevin said the limited air arrival capacity in Cayman, now impacted further by the Air Canada flight suspensions, meant that a return to pre-COVID levels of visitors is a long way off.
“After losing our festive season,” he said, “we are now on track to lose our spring break and Easter season, and destroy the hopes of so many families whose livelihood depends on tourism.”
Meanwhile, the Cayman Islands Ministry of Tourism and Transport, in a statement issued on Thursday, 6 Jan., said Cayman would continue to welcome Canadians wishing to travel here on the WestJet service, which runs a once-a-week route between Toronto and Grand Cayman.
The ministry described Air Canada’s pause of its route as an “unexpected change” to its winter service.
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said in the statement, “We look forward to continuing to welcome Canadian travellers through alternative routes and airlines serving Grand Cayman.”
The statement added that the Cayman Islands government would “work closely with all partners in the Cayman Islands and abroad to ensure a safe experience for all and will remain in contact with international airlines in scheduling flights and keeping abreast of travel entry requirements”.
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This is simple. Did Turks and Caicos get cut? No it didn’t. Why? Because they allow children. Until Cayman accepts children without a quarantine, the tourism business is out of luck and out of business.
Truth!
We own rental properties in both Cayman and Turks and Caicos. It is very disheartening to watch our business in Cayman go almost under due to unnecessary travel restrictions imposed by the Cayman government. Our property in Turks is absolutely thriving. Everyone is welcome there. All they need is a negative pcr test. No additional testing once they land. Why can’t the Cayman government see that they are being way over conservative and killing their own tourism and hurting their own residents?
Cayman tourism is doomed
Kids under five should be allowed to travel following the status of their parents. They are not eligible for vaccines.
More importantly, the LFT test requirements and threat of quarantine if positive for a variant that is rather benign for the vaccinated should be dropped. This will make a big difference in visitor confidence. Can you imagine visiting the island and catching the sniffles a week in and being forced to quarantine for two weeks, madness!
Correct. Applause. Nobody wants a 14 day quarantine after being triple vaccinated, and completely asymptomatic. Yet that is what is happening under PACT watch. How many children in the hospital? How many people in the hospital? Science might be hard, but hopefully math is a stronger subject.
Langevin has tried to be as politically correct and as nice as possible during this mismanaged fiasco by the CIG and I truly feel sorry for him. He can’t just blast people as I’m sure the “club” to get anything done in Cayman is pretty small. If he burns a bridge with a government official, it will probably be harder to renew his liquor license, or get a building permit or any of a number of other things.
However, if the quote in this article is correct, he is finally starting to turn up the heat just a little. He knows that if the place doesn’t open in a realistic fashion without these dumb rules about testing and the cruel, completely unscientific exclusion of the kids, that he will be out of a job since there will be no way to support those properties.
Cut the crap CIG and get with the program. We are all ready to come and spend money. Covid is endemic. Its over. Do better!
The restrictions made perfect sense when we were covid free and there were no vaccines.
We now have thousands of local cases but some 90% of our adult population are fully vaccinated.
Not only will any potential tourist NOT come here if they need to leave their children at home but many local residents whose family were planning to visit won’t…. instead the local residents will fly to see them, in their home country or perhaps in Florida or Europe.
So double loss for the hospitality industry.
We keep hearing the same platitudes from the Minister of Tourism: “we are hoping“, “we encourage“, “we plan to“. And yet and nothing gets done because the Premier and his cabinet still come up with these ridiculous restrictions.
The government used to say that they want to “follow the science“, yet they fail to follow the guidelines and recommendations of world recognized medical authorities such as the CDC and World Health Organization.
Vaccinated visitors who are asymptomatic now have to run the risk of having their vacation canceled the day before they board the airplane resulting in last-minute cancellations of air and hotel. Once they get to Cayman, they then have to run the risk of being placed in quarantine three more times even if they have accidentally picked up the virus from a Caymanian thus ruining their vacation. Is it any wonder add tourists have chosen to spend their winter vacations traveling elsewhere?
Every comment so far is spot on. Tourism will not return until unvaccinated children, regardless of age are allowed to visit without quarantine. Testing during the stay is yet another reason to not risk visiting Cayman, no one wants to risk ending up in quarantine for their entire trip or even longer than their planned trip.
Another question – Now that the vaccine is approved for kids age 5 and over will CIG require all kids from age 5 to be vaxxed?
The Caymanian government is protecting its people, as it should!!!!
Meanwhile, after destroying countless businesses and the Island’s welcoming reputation, the Ministry of Tourism says “ everyone is welcome’ !
You can’t make this up.
I was quarantined for 16 days and had to fight to get released . Negative LFT for 5 days straight but the PCR keeps coming back positive. My doctor told me you can be PCR positive for months after a good case of COVID ! This requirement for a negative PCR has to stop , it’s flawed to say the least. My wife was testing positive on PCR but negative on all LFTs. We finally asked for an independent test and 1 hour later told she was negative and free to go. We got her on the next flight out but I had to stay in quarantine. After getting emails out to international news and the Canadian Consulate I was finally released . We planned to invest in the Island and come here often but never again! International travellers need to stay away until this requirement for negative PCR is lifted. A negative LFT is all that should be required if anything after 5 days. That’s all you need to get here!
Kevin’s story above of Cayman requiring a PCR test to get released from quarantine is the nightmare that everyone visiting should be aware of. There are many other Island choices with reasonable rules that are not so anti-tourist and punitive.