‘This Is Our Moment’ - McKeeva Bush

Left - right: Mrs Emma Dinwiddy, H E the Governor
Bruce Dinwiddy, Leader of Government Business and
Minister of Tourism Hon McKeeva Bush, and Acting
Director of Tourism Ms Pilar Bush attending the 4th
Annual Cayman Islands Tourism Conference

Wednesday,  November 24, 2004

The opportunity to shine again as a top tourist destination is just around the corner, according to the Leader of Government Business and Minister for Tourism, the Hon McKeeva Bush. 

Speaking at the 4th Annual Cayman Islands Tourism Conference, Mr Bush said: “Even though Hurricane Ivan tried to scrape our entire tourism industry and everything else into the sea, the destruction brought by this storm would only provide the country with a series of opportunities that we can seize upon.”

Mr Bush explained that now is the time for the country to rebuild infrastructure, reinvest in business and retrain the Caymanian people.

The necessity of having to rebuild the Island has led to a more developed sense of team work and partnership between the Government and private sector and Mr Bush sent his heartfelt thanks out to members of the Ministry of Tourism, the Department of Tourism (DOT), the Cayman Islands Tourism Association (CITA) and the Chamber of Commerce, for their combined efforts at cleaning up and rebuilding the Island to allow tourism to function once more.

Citing debris removal and housing as the two main priorities of Government after the storm, Mr Bush said that the disaster reinforced the fact that tourism does not stand alone. “It is completely interconnected to the elements of basic infrastructure, and without those basics tourism cannot function.”

He said that a healthy home environment for those who work in the front line of the industry was essential to permit them to function again and allow them to provide that warm, Caymanian hospitality that makes the nation stand out from the crowd and is so critical for the tourism product.
“Overseas experts who had come to Cayman to witness our clean up efforts were astounded at the speed of the recovery, driven by a love of the Islands to return them to their former splendour and significant resources available to make it happen,” he added. 

While the clean up along the beaches was being undertaken by combined efforts of CITA, the Chamber and the DOT, this freed up other Government departments, such as the Department of the Environment to concentrate its efforts on clearing debris from other areas.

Efforts to ensure the continuation of communication were in place after the storm with Government and the National Recovery Team meeting regularly along with the national airline, Cayman Airways to ensure continual airlift.

Moving forward the Leader of Government Business said: “Tourism in Cayman had begun to move as well as we had expected it to move prior to Ivan.”

He confirmed therefore that, “we must continue with the efforts put in place.”

Bringing in Chris Evans, technical consultant to the National Tourism Management Policy, to assist, Mr Bush said that Government was keen to look at specific areas, such as the environment and training, to take advantage of new opportunities that now exist. 

Plans for the hospitality training centre were essential and should be put in place to ensure that the Caymanian people were able to work effectively in the industry.

Mr Bush admitted that never in a thousand years did he ever expect the Island to sustain such damage and yet he challenged the audience to look where we were today, just a few short months along from the storm. 
He confided to the conference delegation that a couple of weeks ago he decided to take off his t-shirt and put on his necktie and “get back to work”.

Calling upon the audience to draw upon inbuilt resources of courage and determination Mr Bush said everyone could all help to make Cayman sparkle again.

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