In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Rosa Harris, Director of the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism.
What are your expectations and goals for being present at this incredible fair?
The Cayman Islands are exhibiting at World Travel Market with five of our hoteliers for the first time. We have brought our partners to help us win new business, and from day one we have seen great progress in that area. We have secured contracts and met new suppliers. It is a very positive experience and it is a world fair, there are people from all countries of the world. So we will meet people from North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
Could you share with us the main developments that you have here for the Cayman Islands?
We are doing very well and we hit a milestone this year of 8,000 rooms of accommodation available for our visitors. But even more exciting are the three hotel properties that are currently in development. We have a stand-alone hotel in the city centre called ONE GT. We have a Hilton Curio hotel called Kailani Resort, which is a boutique, wellness type, with 100 rooms. And the last hotel that is currently in development is the Grand Hyatt, which will become the largest resort we have in the Cayman Islands with over 350 rooms. They are on the seventh floor right now in their development and it is really exciting to see it being built.
So, we want the traveler when thinking about the Cayman Islands to know that there is a wide range of accommodation options, activities and wonderful things to do in the destination.
We are almost finishing this season. What results have you obtained?
We have had disruptions due to severe weather, as we have to acknowledge the threat of climate change, and there was an active hurricane season. However, we remain ahead of the pace for 2023. We are very grateful for the business we have seen in our markets.
With Latin America we have done very well, from Mexico, Brazil and Argentina we have seen quite a bit of traffic. Also from Panama, where we have direct service on Cayman Airways. So we are very proud of that. The volume driver is North America and then also the UK, Ireland and Europe in general. We are very well positioned to do great things in 2025.