08/09/10, 19:22:39 EDT

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Minister: Tourism in good shape

caymannetnews.com

Hon Charles Clifford, Minister of Tourism, said the local cruise tourism industry is performing well despite concerns from stakeholders that major cruise lines are making fewer calls to the Cayman Islands.

Latest statistics from the Department of Tourism indicated that there was a 37 percent decline in that sector this year compared to the same period last year.

Speaking at last Thursday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Mr Clifford said 2006 was not an ideal barometer because it was an “above normal” season with popular Cancun out of commission due to damage by Hurricane Wilma.

“During 2006, the Cayman Islands accommodated additional port calls due to the devastation of Cancun. As a result, the 2007 cruise arrivals may seem down from 2006 but are within the range of normal arrival figures experienced in other years,” he said.

According to industry stakeholders, who asked not to be named, the Minister’s claims that the apparent drop in cruise ship arrivals can be attributed to increases in previous years caused by hurricane damage at other resorts are not borne out by official Government statistics.

In September 2003, when no significant hurricane activity affected tourism in Mexico, the September cruise ship arrivals were 113,258 compared to just 69,802 this year.

Before Hurricane Ivan hit the Cayman Islands on 11 September 2004, the total arrivals for that month were 41,596, meaning that roughly 60 percent of the 2007 total had stepped ashore in just over a week.

In 2005, Mexico’s major tourist centres were hit by Hurricane Emily in July and Wilma in October. However, the Grand Cayman arrivals figures for August show only just over a two percent increase over 2004 and, using the 2003 figures for fair comparison, just over a four percent increase in September. In all, despite Emily’s disruption in Mexico, Grand Cayman only attracted just over 8,000 extra arrivals in the following two months, the equivalent of one busy day, the stakeholders pointed out.

After Wilma passed through in 2005, there was an increase in arrival figures but this started to tail off in May 2006, picking up briefly over July and August, with a statistical surge in October caused by Wilma’s disruption the previous year, then rising again in December and into the New Year, but with the current decline clearly evident by April 2007.

In addition, Mexico received a hard hit when Hurricane Dean came through in August this year, with one cruise ship berth reported being put out of action for months, but the September arrivals in Grand Cayman were still 37 percent down on 2006, clearly indicating that Grand Cayman had not picked up business.

One obvious effect of the current slump is lack of business for the watersports operators.
Although not willing to be quoted directly, two owners described the current period as potentially disastrous.

“It comes at a time when we were already struggling with increased costs, staff recruitment and retention problems plus a drop in the stopover business,” one commented.

 Printable Version  | published Oct 30, 2007