March 2024 was a banner month for the destination with 57,040 visitors, the second-highest monthly total on record.
Stays increased despite hurricane season, which led to flight cancellations in early July, during the peak period, due to Hurricane Beryl, and in September, due to a tropical disturbance.
In contrast, cruise arrivals fell by 15.4%, with 792,880 passengers in the first nine months of the year and 52 fewer stopovers.
Source markets
The top three destination countries for stays between January and September 2024 were the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Visits from the United States and Canada grew by 2% and 2.6% respectively year-on-year. The summer travel period from June to August was particularly supportive for Canada, with visits from that country reaching new records, increasing by 34% compared to the previous high in 2019. European markets demonstrated resilience, with visitors from continental Europe up 13% year-on-year and visitors from the United Kingdom and Ireland up 3%.
Flight Capacity
Inbound airline seat capacity from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom is up 11% year-to-date to 585,697 seats on 397 more flights than in 2023. This increase is a result of the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism’s (CIDOT) aviation strategy, which saw CIDOT representatives attend a number of crucial aviation conferences around the world, including the Routes Americas and Routes World Conferences, to engage directly with airlines to attract new service to the destination.
Accommodation and length of stay
Although visits increased slightly, visitors spent an average of 6 nights on the island, the same as in 2023, demonstrating the consistency of this indicator.
Tourism revenue for the first nine months of the year increased by 10% compared to 2023, reaching approximately KYD$33.7 million. This revenue was bolstered by an 11.2% increase in the average daily rate (ADR) of hotel rooms from January to September compared to the same period in 2024, according to STR Inc, the leading hotel industry intelligence database.
The destination reached a lodging milestone in May 2024 surpassing 8,000 rooms for the first time in history with the addition of VIDA Cayman Islands and Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman to the destination’s hotel portfolio. In September, the destination recorded 8,111 rooms representing 11,402 beds with a bed capacity of 23,301.
Apartments/Condos, Hotels and Guest Houses accounted for 48%, 35% and 17% of the accommodation stock respectively.
A sample of CIDOT’s promotions for 2024
As the destination strives to achieve its ultimate goal of reducing seasonality to ensure a steady flow of visitors throughout the year, CIDOT invested in a series of strategic initiatives in our source markets to increase visitation from all of them.
Globally, our Visiting Journalists Programme continued to focus on media outlets writing for leading national travel, lifestyle, diving and food publications and newspapers to ensure consistent destination coverage in our source markets.
With a growing percentage of travelers using social media to plan their trips, CIDOT’s Influencer Visitor Program worked with a carefully selected group of influencers from around the world to create authentic content that would resonate with potential visitors and thus drive visitation.
As part of our FAM travel program for travel agents, the destination organized 11 FAM trips involving a total of 95 luxury travel agents from North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom and Europe, in order to offer them a first-hand experience of the destination that would allow them to confidently recommend the Cayman Islands to their discerning clientele.
In the UK, the destination undertook its first integrated marketing campaign with British Airways to promote the direct flight from London Heathrow via Nassau. The campaign included email, travel and on-board video advertising, as well as in the print and digital versions of BA highlife magazine and a series of advertorials and digital advertising across the Hearst publication network to promote the Cayman Islands’ unique offering to an affluent and captive audience. In Europe CIDOT representatives attended the IMM Berlin meeting with travel and lifestyle writers from across the DACHA region, as well as ITB Berlin, the world’s leading trade fair, where CIDOT and local accommodation partners were able to engage directly with wholesalers, travel agents and media from around the world.
In the US, CIDOT attended major travel fairs and leveraged its partnership with Virtuoso to reach out to leading luxury travel agencies and attract their discerning clientele to the destination.
In Canada. Our Cayman Country promotion in November 2023 saw the Cayman Islands gain control of a network of Ontario radio stations as well as the number one morning TV show in Ontario, raising awareness of the destination and ultimately increasing visitation from Ontario and Quebec.
In Latin America, CIDOT representatives attended the World Travel Market Latin America and FIT Argentina, two of the most important trade fairs in the region, to promote the Cayman Islands throughout Latin America, and organized FAMs for travel agents from Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, so that they could better understand the destination.
Locally, Grand Cayman hosted the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) in September. SOTIC was attended by some 150 visitors from a variety of markets, including the Caribbean, North America and Latin America, who visited the destination during a period of low visitor numbers.
From a cruise perspective, CIDOT attended SeaTrade, the world's leading cruise conference, and remained a member of the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association's Platinum Associate Member Advisory Board, allowing the destination to engage directly with key cruise industry decision-makers.
“Our staycation visitation for the first nine months of 2024 is a testament to the groundwork the Department of Tourism and our partners have laid since reopening our borders in 2023 with our marketing investment and strategic engagement with our airline partners to ensure a steady increase in air travel to the destination,” said Ms. Rosa Harris, Director of Tourism. “In anticipation of our peak season, we launched an omnichannel campaign with United Airlines through their Kinective media platform, allowing us to reach potential visitors at every stage of their booking journey and we expect to see visitation increase throughout the final quarter of the year.”
Source: Cayman Islands Department of Tourism.