The number of cruise ship passengers visiting Cayman is expected to almost halve in the next two years, as cruise lines operating mega ships opt for destinations with berthing docks that can cater to the giant vessels, tourism chiefs say.
The Ministry of Tourism, based on information received from cruise lines, projects that just 746,000 cruise passengers will arrive on island in 2024 – a drop of nearly half compared to the 1.4 million expected to land here by the end of this year, and a 60% reduction on 2019 figures when 1.84 million passengers arrived by ship.
Cayman reopened its borders to cruise tourists in March this year. In 2023, which will be the first full year of cruise tourism since the pandemic, it is projected that 1.3 million cruise passengers will enter Cayman.
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, speaking at the Cayman Islands Tourism Association annual general meeting on Thursday, said cruise line executives had confirmed to his ministry “unfortunately, that going forward, cruise calls will be substantially reduced for 2023 and 2024”.
He said two major cruise lines – Carnival and Royal Caribbean – stated they would be reducing their calls to Cayman “due to our lack of a walk-on, walk-off facility”.
He added, “These cruise lines have moved to operating the mega-class ships and are unwilling to tender them, principally due to the time it would take to ferry passengers on and off the ships.”
Currently, passengers arriving by cruise ship in Cayman are ferried to the dock by tender boats.
Mega-class ships can carry more than 6,000 passengers. Royal Caribbean’s largest ship, Wonder of the Seas, for example, has a maximum capacity of 6,988 passengers.
In 2019, approximately 400,000 Royal Caribbean passengers arrived in Cayman. This will reduce to 330,000 in 2023 and go down to 300,000 in 2024, Bryan said.
And Carnival, which had a combined total of 327 calls in 2019 from their respective cruise lines, which include Princess Cruises and Holland America, will be reducing that number to 171 next year, he added.
“These reductions in cruise calls are the main reasons why passenger arrivals will be significantly lower in 2023/24,” he said. “I know that’s not the kind of news anyone wanted to hear, but it is the reality and it is not something we should be surprised about.”
A plan to build cruise berths to accommodate the larger cruise vessels, which was widely opposed by residents of the Cayman Island, was abandoned by the previous Progressives-led government, and the current PACT administration has vowed not to build one.
Bryan advised tourism operators to begin preparing now for the lower cruise arrivals. “Start to fine-tune your business operations and plan accordingly with respect to investments, staffing, equipment, etc.,” he said. “Be smart with your business decisions and ensure your revenue projections are in line with forecasted passenger arrivals.”
In the meantime, he said, his ministry had been in “encouraging” discussions with cruise lines operating smaller ships with passengers with higher yield, such as MSC Cruises and Holland America, “and we can look forward to their schedules being maintained and possibly increasing in the near future”.
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Perhaps this is an opportunity to recreate George Town. The focus of small shops for cruise passengers can be changed instead into an eclectic town which focuses on providing a true island, not tourist, experience with an emphasis on culture and arts.
How about creating affordable but exciting housing for locals to have good places to live that don’t cost a million. Convert the excess retail stores into residential but you have to do it with style. There are many examples from around the world.
Why keep trying to court cruise ships when the passengers rarely spend real money in Cayman and are not likely to keep coming back without a cruise pier – which few people want. Instead, continue to expand Owen Roberts, add quality hotels setback from water’s edge, and create a town for all in George Town.
Good news!
This is great news!!
You can’t say they didn’t know this was coming. During the pandemic, they could have built a beautiful dock for the cruise ships. And each year the numbers will decline until eventually, they bypass Cayman altogether.
Good. We need to focus on stay over tourism not those who add hardly anything to the national economy.
It appears that commenters find this to be good or great news.
Fantastic … focus on high end land based. And please undo the Cardinall Street traffic mess.