The Cayman Islands Tourism Association, reacting to Cayman moving to phase 5 of its border-reopening plan, said the news is likely to increase guest bookings for the spring break and Easter holidays, but that a requirement for repeated COVID tests for travellers may act as a deterrent.
Last week, the government announced, as part of its phase 5 plan, that unvaccinated children can enter Cayman on their parents’ vaccination status, so if their parents are vaccinated, there in no requirement to quarantine after arrival.
CITA president Marc Langevin, in an email, told the Compass, “We are thrilled by the Premier’s announcement to move to Phase 5 of the CIG plan to allow unvaccinated children traveling with their vaccinated parents to enter our islands without quarantine. We have been waiting for this day for a long time, and more recently since the phased reopening plan was introduced by the new Government.
“This significant policy change puts our destination in a better position to attract visitors and gives us a renewed level of optimism for the recovery of our stay-over tourism industry.”
He added, “There is no doubt that following last week’s announcement, we anticipate our guest bookings will improve for the upcoming Spring Break and Easter season. By officially reopening, the livelihoods of so many dedicated Caymanians and residents will begin to be restored.”
Concerns remain
Some concerns do remain, however, Langevin said, including in relation to requirements for incoming travellers to undergo several COVID tests.
Government announced last week at a press briefing that incoming travellers need to take a certified lateral flow test, at a cost of $25 each, two, five and seven days after arriving. Previously, they were required to take a test on day 10 instead of day seven. People travelling to Cayman must also provide proof of a negative test before they are allowed to board a flight to come here.
“We are concerned that the regimen of 4 tests in 8 days (including the pre-arrival test) is overly burdensome and costly to our guests,” Langevin said. “Given that this policy is not aligned with other competitive destinations in the region, nor reflects the latest recommendations from the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) or Public Health England, we are confident that further changes will follow in the near future as the number of COVID cases decreases.
“In the meantime, we hope that we will be able to improve the current testing protocol and process to make it as convenient as possible for our visitors while supporting the overall goals set by the (Health Services Authority).”
If a person tests positive in an LFT on day two, five or seven, they are then required to undergo a confirmatory PCR test. If that is positive, they are required to isolate and can only leave isolation if they return a negative PCR test. Travellers cannot fly on commercial aircraft while positive, although permission can be granted by Travel Cayman for positive individuals to leave the island on a private aircraft.
CITA is also calling for a review and adaption “of the current processes of Travel Cayman authorisation, airport arrivals and departures, transportation and testing, and ensure they are sustainable as the number of visitors increases”.
Airlines to increase service
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan at the press briefing outlined plans by several airlines to resume or increase their flight and route schedules. These include United Airlines resuming services from Chicago, Houston, Washington and Newark; American Airlines resuming service from Miami; and Cayman Airways relaunching flights from Denver in February; and Delta resuming flights from Atlanta; Southwest Airlines from Fort Lauderdale and Baltimore; and American Airlines from Charlotte, North Carolina in March.
Langevin said it was important to “regain the trust and confidence of the airlines to support our destination and increase their flight capacity”.
He also wants government to “address urgently the backlog in work permits to allow our industry to remobilize enough employees and provide the level of service expected by our visitors as we ramp up”.
CITA has been working with government agencies to recruit Caymanian and permanent-resident workers to fill posts within the tourism and hospitality industry, but the association says there is not enough local staff to do all the jobs that will be needed to cater for the anticipated increase in the number of tourists as phase 5 continues.
While the tourism sector gets back on track and visitor numbers steadily increase, CITA said it was hopeful that, until tourism companies can reach sustainable business levels, that government will continue to provide economic support for businesses and individuals.
Since the borders closed in March 2020, effectively shutting down the tourism industry, government has been paying monthly stipends to displaced Caymanian and permanent-resident workers in the sector. Government has also been giving tourism-related businesses financial assistance.
Cruise ships still on hold
During last week’s press briefing, Bryan also stated that there were no immediate plans to resume cruise ship arrivals in Cayman, in light of widespread reports of COVID cases on board the ships.
Langevin said CITA would like to government to engage the various stakeholders involved in the cruise industry “to identify the conditions and develop the protocols” that would allow for the safe resumption of cruise ship arrivals.
The next step for Cayman’s tourism industry, Langevin said, was to communicate the information that Cayman is open and families are welcome back to guests and business partners, including airline companies, travel agencies and meeting planners.
He said this process had already begun and the association’s board was asking all CITA members to amplify the message. He added that CITA also intended to partner with the Department of Tourism to craft communication and marketing strategies.
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If your rapid test turns positive on day 7, you got Covid while in the Cayman Islands, as the incubation time is 3-5 days. The PCR frequently stays positive for 4+ WEEKS. You may spend a month watching Netflix in a $400/night rental, unable to leave to return to the US….
What is the point? Wouldn’t we rather those people return home? Why keep them locked up here?
Why are the day 5 and day 7 tests so close together? Why not just do a day 6???
Can’t wait to come back to Grand Cayman, but it’s too risky financially until the various restrictions and testing requirements are lifted. Sad because I’ve been a regular visitor for 35 years. I miss it so much.
Here are the issues with phase 5
1) There are families with children ages 12-17 and many of those kids may not be vaccinated. Thus Cayman is limited to families with children ages 11 or younger being able to travel without quarantine. Why is there no exemption for kids ages 12-17 who may have valid medical reasons to not get the pfizer vaccine? I’m pro-vaccine but a blanket policy is unacceptable.
2) Until the three required tests during the stay are eliminated most families are not going to risk visiting an island where they stand the chance of being trapped should one of them test positive on a LFT then be required to produce a negative PCR before being allowed to exit quarantine and leave the island
3) The option for a positive person to leave the island via private jet is something very few families would ever be able to consider. Even listing this as a possibility demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of the larger demographic of visitors to Grand Cayman. Yes, we have a hand full of extremely wealthy who can afford private aviation but most can not.
4) A family of 4 from the US vacationing in Cayman will spend at least 30.00USD per person for the test required to enter Cayman (and this is likely a low estimate). They will spend 30.00 USD per person for each of the three required LFT. This totals 120.00USD per person which adds up to 480.00USD for the family of 4 to be allowed to arrive and spend time on-island. I’m not counting the 30.00USD per person testing required to return to the US but throw those into the mix and the total cost per person is 150.00USD or 600.00USD for the family of four. It is already expensive to vacation here, why would anyone spend the extra money along with the added stress of testing positive and being stuck here spending even more money when they can visit other islands without any of these requirements?
CITA – Tourism is not returning for spring break in March, or April or anytime in the near future as long as all of these testing requirements remain in place.
The PCR test is being used incorrectly here. It is designed for EARLY detection as it is very sensitive. Requiring it after you have a positive lateral flow test is going to keep visitors in quarantine for extended periods of time as it can still pick up traces of Covid for weeks even though you are no longer capable of transmitting the virus. Who will risk coming here if they catch Covid while visiting and then could be in quarantine for weeks awaiting a negative PCR test ?
Since 1/8th of us have Covid now, and all these people have proven themselves negative before boarding the plane, isn’t that enough? They are far, far more likely to catch Covid here than to bring anything here we don’t already have. It is time to follow the UK’s lead and just move to suggested best practices and no other restrictions.
Yes, if you don’t have covid and then test Positive on day 7th. You got it in Cayman. Don’t Go, its at its highest in the Island now when they decide to start stage 5! A mess!!
Bill is correct and there is misinformation in the article . If you test positive on a PCR you are allowed to board a commercial aircraft 10 days later without further testing. A negative PCR is NOT required to board a commercial aircraft on day 11 after your positive test. Cayman holds you hostage as long as they want to as you will likely test positive on aPCR for well past 15 days while tour LFT will likely show you are then negative. This negative PCR exit requirement will remain the barrier to any tourists returning including myself.
No one will come as long as the testing policy is not thoroughly reviewed. I wouldn’t if it weren’t because I have a home here, and even though, it took me a lot of thinking due to the risks of ending up imprisoned while on vacation for weeks, if not months. Also, confronting travellers to two years of prison if they leave quarantine for any thing is closer to dictatorship regimes than with democracies, and not au pair with the actual spread of Omicron.
As others here have so astutely pointed out, the testing policy is completely unscientific, like most of the policies that the CIG have enacted. The quarantine policy is totally insane. Who is going to take that chance? If these policies aren’t lifted, all of those Feb and March flights are going to be cancelled, if they aren’t already.
At this point with so much of the population infected they policies are comical at best and as most of us who used to love vacationing there consider the CIG a laughingstock. SO happy we didn’t buy a property there.
It is shocking to see the government still can’t seem to get with the program when it comes to travel restrictions. Cayman has been open for two months yet has one of the highest infection rates in the world (despite such a high vaccination rate). The moral of the story is, the vaccines do NOT stop the spread of Covid 19. They decrease severity of disease, but they do not stop the spread, and vaccinated people spread it just as much as unvaccinated people. While I support the requirement for vaccination for adults, the 12-18 is nonsensical and doesn’t have any scientific support. Many people are hot comfortable with their young people getting the shot. As for the testing requirement, no one is booking a family vacation here risking they catch Covid or receive a false positive and have to quarantine until they receive a negative PCR test. People don’t have endless supplies of money, and their kids cannot miss school as they can’t work. Why would anyone risk this when they could go to any other carribean country? Also, the new flights coming in are nothing compared to pre Covid. They’re seeing twice weekly flights from United and one daily flight from American. American used to operate around 5 daily flights with many more on Saturday’s. Take this for a hint: if the only flight coming to cayman by a US airline (JetBlue 765 – JFK) is not even operating at full capacity, there is something wrong. Bookings appear extremely weak on these flights in March and April, and they will likely be scaled back until cayman gets in the same lane as places like TCI and Aruba. Anyway, it’s too late to save spring break, everyone is already booked for other destination. Let’s just hope the government can get this right by the time December rolls around!
Good Lord let’s hope they can get it right before December!
I am a typical U.S. visitor to Cayman who has been boosted. I have already canceled 2 trips and figured I would be ok rebooking for this coming June for 10 days. I have a condo booked on SMB but there is no way I am going to come if I have to test that often then run this risk of being stuck. I mean, there ARE other places. Too bad because GCM is my favorite.
To top it all people coming here still have to register to get permission on travelcayman.
Although adults are now allowed to travel with unvaccinated younger children their website has NOT BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT THIS.
This was as at Monday 24th January.