Cayman Islands Travel and Tourism

Premier Wayne Panton has announced that his government will go ahead with phase 3 of the border-reopening plan on 9 Sept., but said that phase 4, when quarantine for securely verified vaccinated people is set to be scrapped, will be re-evaluated nearer the 14 Oct. date.

In a radio interview on Friday, 3 Sept., Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan addressed fears that a border reopening may represent too big a public health risk.

American, United, Southwest and Delta airlines, as well as British Airways which already operates repatriation flights, have applied to fly commercial routes to and from the Cayman Islands from October, according to Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan.

The Ministry of Tourism said two additional round trip flights from the UK to Cayman has been added for the months of September.

Starting 30 Aug. 2021 only authorised public transportation and tour operators will be allowed to drop off or pick up passengers in front of the Owen Roberts International Airport (ORIA) main terminal.

The ESO recommended government use the upper maximum of the error margin in its population estimate to calculate vaccination ratios.

Incoming travellers heading into five days of quarantine upon arrival in Cayman are no longer being issued with white GPS monitoring wristbands, but now they are being fitted with blue bracelets to make them identifiable as quarantining individuals.

Phase 2 of the Cayman Islands' border-reopening plan went into action Monday, 9 Aug., with certain vaccinated arrivals allowed to quarantine without GPS monitoring, and weekly PCR tests for unvaccinated frontline workers.

The Ministry of Tourism is vying for Cayman to be added as a first port of call as part of efforts to allow cruise ships to safely return to the islands.

Minister of Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said, from 9 Sept., when Cayman has a soft reopening of its borders for commercial flights, British Airways plans to resume its "regular flight schedule" between London and Grand Cayman.

The government has rejected calls from the Cayman Islands Tourism Association to reconsider its target to vaccinate 80% of the population against COVID-19 before launching a soft reopening of the borders to tourists.

Cayman Islands Tourism Association President Marc Langevin says that while the tourism industry welcomes the government's expansion of the types of securely verifiable COVID-19 vaccination records it is now accepting, the process does not go far enough.

People who have been vaccinated in Europe and at Walmart or CVS outlets in the United States are among those who now can avail of the Cayman Islands' five-day quarantine option, as the islands expand the list of countries from which to accept securely verifiable vaccination records.

If the Cayman Islands is to hit its 80% vaccination target for the border reopening, government will have to move to mandatory vaccinations and not just for work permit-holders, Cayman Islands Tourism Association President Marc Langevin has said.

The pace of vaccinations in the Cayman Islands has slowed down considerably, since a new batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived on island on 16 June.

The Cayman Islands Tourism Association, while welcoming the government's announcement of a border reopening plan, has raised concerns with a number of elements involved, including the timeline and a lack of consultation with the private sector.

Premier Wayne Panton says the US federal government's unwillingness to create a country-wide verifiable COVID vaccination system is continuing to be a barrier to allowing people vaccinated there to avail of Cayman's five-day quarantine period.

The Cayman Islands government has recently its phased approach to reopening its country borders.

Premier Wayne Panton has unveiled a five phase reopening plan for Cayman’s borders that could see a limited return of tourism by September and a full easing of restrictions for vaccinated travelers and their children by mid-November.

Next month the bulk of the remaining staff and crew of Cayman’s Reef Divers will load up four boats and make the 520 nautical mile, 34-hour ocean crossing to set up shop in Turks and Caicos.

A look at what inclusion in the UK green travel list entails, with Cayman to be added on 30 June.

As Cayman is waiting a few more weeks for the release of its border reopening plan, other travel-dependent islands are moving at different speeds to restart their tourism industries.