In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Rosa Harris, Director of Tourism of Cayman Islands about the growth of the sector, forecasts for coming years and news about the destination.
What is your vision about this incredible exhibition?
It's wonderful to be here at the World Travel Market. The Cayman Islands is investing more in the UK market and Europe. We've seen a very strong response in our visitation out of the European market. So we're following the golden ticket by bringing more people to the Cayman Islands from Europe.
This is going to be a very good year for you. Can you explain the moment where you are?
Right now, we are recovering our volume from 2019. So year to date for 2023, we're at 84% of the volume that we saw in 2019, which is our last full year of tourism visitation. So we're very happy where we are, because we only really fully opened our borders in August of 2022. So we're making a very fast recovery. It's very encouraging for the year ahead, 2024.
And you pushed this incredible growth with a lot of promotion. You have good plans for next year. Can you do some comments about that?
Absolutely. So our biggest push is for awareness in our source markets, for the Cayman Islands to be seen and to become known. Many know Grand Cayman. Very few know that we're a three island country with Little Cayman, Cayman Brack and Grand Cayman. So it's a very sustainable way to do your holidays. You can visit the destination for a longer period, visit multiple islands meaning you're making a mark on many smaller economies within the country visiting all three islands. You know for 2024 we have a lot of festivals, music festivals out of this world and Capella in the second quarter and third quarter of this year. We also have our Pirates Week or Cayman Cookout, which is our culinary weekend. And we just celebrated Culinary Month and Cocktail Week in the month of October. So we have a full calendar of music, food, and festivals throughout the year.
Wonderful. And can you explain how the connectivity is at the moment in the islands?
Out of the European market, we have a one-stop service to the Cayman Islands from London Heathrow. So that direct service stops off in Nassau, Bahamas and then goes onward to Grand Cayman. Many of our European visitors connect via mainland USA and then come onwards as well. There are many different ways to get to the destination from Europe to the Cayman Islands, but British Airways is our main partner at the moment with the one-stop service.
How's the next convention where you are presenting the destination?
We have a very busy fall calendar. I would say Q1 of 2024 would be our main push. We're focusing a lot on aviation, expanding the number of carriers that come into the destination. The Cayman Islands government has invested in a new airport redevelopment project that will lengthen our runway and offer more capability for longer haul routes from different airlines. So we're very much, you know, creating awareness about all of the wonderful experiences that you can have in the Cayman Islands from beaches to water sports to diving, nature, bird watching, our historical sites, but also we're building capability around how to get to the Cayman Islands in a hassle-free manner.
And the cruise lines help you to grow more on them. I want to get some comments about that.
Our cruise industry is very strong. Our proximity to all of the main ports out of the United States is important. We are uniquely positioned in the Caribbean and we have a very active itinerary year round. Our volume has stabilized for the return of cruise and we opened our cruise market in March of 2022. Our position is more of a sustainable tourism push where we are managing our capacity, trying to, I would say, ensure that we don't do more than we should on a year-round basis. So it's more of a quality over quantity positioning. We're in a sweet spot right now with the volume that we have. We are looking to grow it in the times of the year that we need it most, which is usually summer, early fall. Traditionally, the Caribbean does have a seasonal cruise market, but we're looking to have discussions about how we stabilize it.