The Cayman Islands continued its upward trend in visitation welcoming 330,514 stayover visitors between January and September 2024. March 2024 was a standout month for the destination with 57,040 visitors – the second highest monthly total recorded.

Stayover visitation increased despite the challenges of an active hurricane season which saw flight cancellations during the typically busy period of early July due to Hurricane Beryl and again due to a tropical disturbance in September.

Conversely cruise visitor arrivals were down by 15.4% with the destination welcoming 792,880 cruise passengers in the first nine months of the year with 52 fewer calls in port.

Source Markets

The top three countries for stayover visitation between January and September 2024 were the United States, Canada and the UK. Visitation from the United States and Canada grew by 2% and 2.6% respectively year over year. The summer travel period from June to August was particularly auspicious for Canada as visitation from that country reached new records increasing by 34% compared to the previous high in 2019. The European markets demonstrated resilience with visitor numbers from Continental Europe increasing by 13% year-over-year and numbers from the UK & Ireland up by 3%.

Flight Capacity

Inbound air seat capacity from the United States Canada and the United Kingdom increased 11% year-to-date with a total of 585,697 seats with 397 more flights than in 2023. This increase is a result of the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism’s (CIDOT’s) aviation strategy which saw representatives from CIDOT attending a number of crucial aviation conferences worldwide, including the Routes Americas and Routes World Conferences, to engage directly with airlines to attract new service to the destination.

Accommodations and Length of Stay

While visitation slightly increased visitors spent an average of 6 nights on island, the same as 2023 showing consistency in this metric.

Tourism revenues for the first nine months of the year increased by 10% over 2023 to approximately KYD$33.7 million. These revenues were bolstered by a 11.2% rise in the average daily rate (ADR) of hotel rooms from January to September 2024 over the same period in 2024 according to STR Inc., the major hotel industry intelligence database.

The destination reached an accommodation milestone in May 2024 surpassing 8,000 rooms for the first time ever with the adding of VIDA Cayman Islands and Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman to the destination’s hotel portfolio. As of September, the destination recorded 8,111 rooms as of September representing 11,402 beds with a bed capacity of 23,301. Apartments/Condos, Hotels and Guesthouses accounted for 48%, 35% and 17% of accommodation stock respectively.

A Taste of CIDOT’s 2024 Promotions

As the destination works towards its ultimate goal of flattening seasonality to ensure a steady stream of visitors throughout the year, CIDOT invested in a number of strategic initiatives in the source markets to increase visitation from all of Cayman's markets.

Globally, Cayman's Visiting Journalist Programme continued its focus on targeting media writing for major national papers and publications focused on travel, lifestyle, dive and culinary content to ensure consistent coverage of the destination in the source markets.

With a larger percentage of travellers using social media to plan travel, CIDOT’s Visiting Influencer Programme worked with a carefully curated selection of influencers globally to create authentic content that resonates with potential visitors to drive visitation.

The travel agent FAM programme saw the destination curating 11 FAM trips hosting a total of 95 luxury focused travel agents from across North America, Latin America and the UK & Europe to give them first-hand experience of the destination allowing the agents to confidently recommend the Cayman Islands to their discerning clientele.

In Canada. The Cayman Country promotion in November 2023 saw the Cayman Islands take over a network of country radio stations throughout Ontario as well as the number one television morning programme in Ontario driving awareness of the destination in and ultimately increasing visitation from Ontario and Quebec.

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 trade, video advertising on board the plane as well as in the print and digital versions of BA highlife magazine and a series of advertorials and digital advertising across the Hearst network of publications to showcase Cayman’s unique offerings to an affluent and captive audience. In Europe Representatives from CIDOT attended IMM Berlin meeting with travel and lifestyle writers from across the DACHA region as well as ITB Berlin, the world’s leading trade show, where CIDOT and local accommodations partners were able to engage directly with wholesalers, travel agents and media from around the world.

In the USA CIDOT attended major travel and trade shows and capitalised partnership with Virtuoso to engage with top luxury travel agencies to attract their discerning clientele to the destination.

Locally, Grand Cayman played host to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s (CTO) State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) in September. SOTIC saw approximately 150 visitors from multiple markets, including the Caribbean, North America and Latin America, visit the destination during an off-peak period for visitation.

From a cruise perspective, CIDOT attended SeaTrade, the leading global cruise conference and continued Cayman's membership in the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association’s Platinum Associate Member Advisory Council allowing the destination to engage directly with important decision-makers in the cruise industry.
 

To view the 9-month destination report please visit: ourcayman.ky.