The Minister of Tourism and Transport for Cayman Islands introduced right now the islands have surpassed its customer projections for 2022.

Minister Hon. Kenneth Bryan was appointed Chair of Caribbean Tourism Group (CTO) on the Ritz Carlton Resort in September 2022 at CTO’s annual Enterprise Conferences held from September 12-15, 2022. It was at this convention of conferences that he promised the Cayman Islands will likely be nearer and simpler to go to than Hawaii from Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) with the launch of a number of each day Cayman Islands flights through flag service airline Cayman Airways.

The Cayman Islands welcomed 1,027,668 guests in 2022 with 743,394 cruise passengers and 284,274 stayover guests. The figures for each cruise and stayover visitation exceeded targets set by the Cayman Islands Authorities.

Air Arrivals

For 2022, the Division of Tourism set a purpose of 200,000 stayover guests, to attain the Ministry of Tourism’s purpose of 40% of 2019 tourism tax income, and a stretch purpose of 256,000 guests.
 
There was a gradual begin in January with 5,864 stayover guests however this elevated quickly month-on-month over the primary half of the 12 months, concurrent with the Cayman Islands Authorities’s phased strategy to reopening the nation by easing journey restrictions.

 
All journey restrictions had been lifted on the finish of August and air arrivals soared.

Visitation over the past quarter of 2023 common 89% of 2019’s numbers and for the total 12 months, January via December, the Cayman Islands recorded 57% of 2019’s visitation numbers. On the finish of 12 months, stayover visitation exceeded the Division’s stretch purpose by 11%.

Commenting on 2022’s stayover visitation Mrs. Rosa Harris, Director of Tourism shared:

“Confidence within the vacation spot on account of our measured and phased strategy to reopening publish the COVID-19 lockdown led to pent up demand which accelerated our visitation quantity as soon as all journey restrictions had been dropped. The standard of our lodging and sights, retail choices and eating places in addition to a vibrant occasions calendar, together with such notable occasions because the Capella Music Competition, the Cayman Islands marathon and conferences and incentives teams proceed to drive guests to the vacation spot.”
 
Although the US accounted for 80.8% of all stayover guests, UK and Eire was the quickest recovering market in 2022 reaching 77% of 2019’s visitation stage. This was adopted by Canada at 66% of 2019’s stage with Canada recording development over 2019’s numbers in July, October and December 2022. Latin America was the third quickest recovering market reaching 60% of 2019’s visitation.
 
Repeat guests to the islands represented 46.7% in comparison with 44.4% in 2019. Moreover, the typical size of keep for guests elevated from 5.9 nights in 2019 to 7.6 nights in 2022. Based mostly on information from STR Inc., which offers information on the worldwide lodge trade, the typical each day fee for resorts within the vacation spot elevated by 12% over 2019.  

 
Cruise Tourism

 
Cruise ships returned to the Cayman Islands in March 2022, and by December 2022, the vacation spot welcomed 743,394 cruise passengers on 261 ships.

 
“Cruise tourism is the epicenter of Caymanian entrepreneurship representing the next share of native enterprise homeowners than every other side of tourism and is a crucial a part of our tourism providing.”

Hon. Kenneth Bryan, Minister of Tourism and Transport, added: “We’d wish to thank our Companions within the Port Authority and our transport and water sports activities operators for his or her dedication to creating the Cayman Islands a most well-liked vacation spot for cruise passengers. We had been happy with the variety of cruise guests in 2022 and can proceed to actively handle the quantity of cruise each when it comes to the standard of ships in port and the variety of passengers who embark on our shores. We stay up for bringing cruise tourism again in a measured and sustainable means in 2023.”

 
Trying ahead to 2023

 
The vacation spot has set an total visitation purpose of 70% of 2019’s numbers and Hon. Kenneth Bryan, Minister of Tourism and Transport is assured that the Cayman Islands will obtain this purpose.
 
“We anticipate that 2023 will likely be a momentous 12 months for tourism with a full calendar 12 months of tourists to permit us to reset our seasonality aligned with new expectations for journey post-pandemic,” mentioned Minister Bryan. “Our lodging, restaurant and retail companions are primed to welcome company, and we’ll proceed strategic discussions with our airline companions to supply elevated airlift to the vacation spot to make sure a gentle stream of tourists. We additionally stay up for working with or companions in cruise to additional improve and ship an genuine vacation spot expertise.
 
The Cayman Islands Division of Tourism (CIDOT) helps the general strategic aims of the vacation spot by offering dependable statistical information, helpful data and evaluation for future planning, choice making and coverage formulation. CIDOT offers on-line statistical information in an easy-to-use format for individuals requiring tourism associated figures.