As mega-ships skirt Cayman, Opposition bemoans lost revenue

Cayman businesses that benefit from the cruise industry lost out on a potential $24 million in passenger spending due to the arrival of fewer ships last winter season, according to the deputy opposition leader.

The decline in arrivals has been blamed on a decision by the major cruise lines not to bring their next-generation mega ships to Cayman.

Joey Hew said from October 2022 to February this year, the islands welcomed about 625,000 passengers – 325,000 fewer than the same period from 2019 to 2020.

Each of those visitors would have spent an estimate of at least $75 each in shops, restaurants and bars, and on excursions and activities, he said on Radio Cayman on Wednesday, 19 July.

He told ‘For the Record’ host Orrett Connor that this amounts to a massive financial loss to traders who rely on the cruise industry for their income.

“It comes at a time where the world seems to be heading into recession, interest rates are multiplied, persons’ mortgages have gone up, utilities bills have gone up,” he said.

“[It’s] one of the hottest summers we’ve seen in a very long time, and things just are piling up on our people. They’re finding it harder and harder to survive every day.”

Lack of dock

Hew said the low numbers are not due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the destination has been open for over a year and the cruise industry in other countries has already recovered.

Instead, it is because two major cruise companies, Carnival and Royal Caribbean, said they would be cutting back the number of ships they sent to non-dock destinations, he said.

They have both committed to operating mega-class ships, which carry more than 6,000 passengers, and do not plan to anchor them off shore and ferry passengers in.

Hew suggested that if the former government’s 2019 plans for a $240 million cruise port in George Town had gone ahead, the industry would still be booming.

But a referendum on the plan stalled during the pandemic and, in May 2021, the new Wayne Panton-led government said it would no longer go ahead, calling the issue “null and void”.

Mega-class ships

The deputy leader’s comments came just weeks after Royal Caribbean released fresh images of the world’s largest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas, which will set sail next year.

Once completed, the immense vessel will be 1,198 feet long – just short of the height of the Empire State Building – and will weigh 250,800 tonnes.

It will have 20 decks featuring eight ‘neighbourhoods’ with seven swimming pools and six water slides, and will have the capacity to carry up to 7,600 passengers and 2,350 crew members.

The mega-ship will operate seven-night eastern and western Caribbean cruises year round from Miami, visiting locations including the Bahamas, Mexico, St. Maarten and Honduras.

The Cayman Islands will not be one of the ship’s destinations.

Hew expressed concern that the number of mega-ships will continue to grow, saying, “Every single one of the cruise lines had several of these ships in production.”

He added: “We’re going to see more and more of these larger ships coming online and less and less cruise ships stopping here in Cayman because they will not tender those ships.”

Hew said the government needs to step in and offer solutions such as helping people to shift from cruise-tourism jobs.

“How are we going to retool them? How are we going to assist them in pivoting as the numbers continue to reduce?” he asked.

“We can’t wait until we are at a point where persons are losing their homes, losing their vehicles or out at the port picketing.

“You’ll have chaos out there where people are fighting over every passenger that comes off. That is what’s going to happen.”

Leader of the Opposition Roy McTaggart, also speaking on Radio Cayman, reminded that tourism is the second largest industry in Cayman, and added that the cruise side “is in distress”.

“I know that there are people who have given up and [left] the industry, and have been successful in finding employment elsewhere and doing other things.”

But, he added, a lack of “coherent policy” from the government was distressing.