Water-sports businesses seek support as Omicron impacts recovery

Water-sports and dive businesses across the Cayman Islands are seeing little sign of recovery despite the return of some tourism over the past two months.

The Omicron surge and continued restrictions on travel have limited the amount of visitors arriving on the islands.

And businesses are reporting continued cancellations and few new bookings since the 20 Nov. reopening. Business surveys of both the North Sound tour operators and dive companies across the islands suggest the vast majority are seeing less than 10% of the business they were doing pre-pandemic.

Troy Leacock, vice president and water-sports director for the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, said he was hopeful that government would continue its financial support for businesses and people in the industry.

He said it was clear that the road to recovery would be a long one and support would need to be tapered to allow small businesses time to recover.

Andre Ebanks, Minister for Social Development, said government is aware of the extent of the issues facing the sector following the emergence of the Omicron variant and its impact on travel. He said his ministry is in the process of determining the level, conditions and duration of additional support that will be required this year.

Leacock believes assistance will be needed for many operators until they have reached at least 50% of normal revenue.

With the traditional high season impacted by COVID, the chances of that happening before the end of this year are limited, Leacock believes.

He said, “The Omicron surge appears to have dealt a significant blow to the early months of our reopening. It’s very sobering that almost all of our operators are seeing less than 10% of normal revenue with no sign of meaningful recovery on the horizon.

“It’s vital that the various government support programs are kept in place until we have a substantial recovery in visitors and displaced tourism workers are at full employment.”

He added that the as-yet unresolved issue of cruise tourism would also need to be addressed before a the end of the pain was in sight for many business owners. The survey results indicate that one in three North Sound operators rely on cruise for more than half of their business.

Leacock added, “This recovery will also depend on the safe and successful return of cruise visitors as well because a large sector of our industry is 100% dependent on cruise tourism.”

For both dive operators and North Sound boat operators visitor numbers for December and projected numbers for January were bleak.

Just over 80% of the 27 North Sound businesses surveyed said they had recovered less than 10% of their pre-pandemic business.

“We have had what equated to a Christmas rush and that has already begun to dissipate as quickly as it came, so all revenue was over a two-week period,” one tour operator wrote in their survey response.

“2022 outlook is grim for most businesses,” wrote another, “there is no chance for us to reach 50% of 2019 numbers.”

Others suggested they expected the Omicron surge to continue impacting the industry substantially through March.

It was a similar story in the responses from dive businesses.

Only one of the 9 operators surveyed had recovered more than 10% of their pre-pandemic business.

The multi-day testing requirement, airlift challenges and other restrictions on travel were cited by guests as key reasons for cancellations, businesses reported.

“We are losing more money than we are taking in with rent, insurance, fuel, getting our vehicles back insured, maintenance on our vessels, wage and healthcare,” wrote one operator.

“None of us want a stipend – we would rather be busy and doing what we love.”

Leacock said everyone in the industry wanted to get back to work. But he acknowledged that a return to 2019 levels of tourism was unlikely for the foreseeable future and said he was confident that government would continue to support the industry through the lean times.

Minister Ebanks, in a statement to the Cayman Compass, said government appreciates the problems the sector is facing.

“The innovative business asset stipend programme our administration introduced in 2021 has been a meaningful form of assistance to the watersports industry and other tourism-linked businesses,” he said.

“ As it relates to watersports, our Ministry understands that, primarily due to the emergence of Omicron, watersports operators are currently generating a small percentage of usual (pre-pandemic) revenue. Consequently, our Ministry is determining the level, conditions, and duration of additional support for this year and will do in consultation with industry participants.”