Stay-over bookings extremely good, says Tourism Minister

Hon Charles Clifford, Minister of Tourism	McKeeva Bush, former Minister of Tourism

Monday,  January 16, 2006

STAY-OVER tourism is on the upswing in the Cayman Islands with major hotels reporting “extremely good” bookings in the first quarter of 2006. 

After a steady decline in numbers over the last few years, the latest projections indicate that more visitors are coming to the Islands for longer than a one-day stay. 

Hon Charles Clifford, Minister for Tourism, disclosed that many hotels have begun doing a brisk business in the January to March period. 

“If you look at the bookings for the first quarter of 2006 they are extremely good. If you talk to the major hotels they will tell that their bookings are good in the first quarter,” he said. 

Mr Clifford expects this year to be an excellent one for the hospitality sector, which was crippled in September 2004 by the passage of Hurricane Ivan.

“All around I think we are poised for a very positive growth in 2006 and we expect the numbers to be excellent,” he said. 

The minister, who also has responsibility for Commerce, said creative marketing strategies are paying off for his ministry.

“We are certainly being more creative in our marketing strategies,” he noted. 

Other contributing factors to the expected growth in the stay-over market, according to Mr Clifford, are an improved product and the heightened confidence in the local industry. 

“The majority of the hotels are back online, the product is much better -better than it has ever been before - and the confidence has certainly returned,” he said. 

Mr Clifford said stay-over visitor numbers last year were “significantly down” due to the post Hurricane Ivan recovery period. 

“I think the numbers were significantly down in 2005 as you would expect as we were still in the recovery mode from Hurricane Ivan,” he said. 

“As other destinations have experienced, even after you recover it takes some time for the visitor’s confidence to return. 

“A lot of visitors are reluctant to go to a place that has suffered a direct hit from a hurricane and they wait for a while to make sure that things are up and running properly.” 

The minister said his administration would continue to work with hotels and condominiums, which have not opened since the hurricane.

“The majority of our properties have reopened, we still have some condominiums, which have not opened but we will continue to work with them to make sure that happens,” Mr Clifford said. 

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition McKeeva Bush believes the foresight and strategies implemented by his United Development Party (UDP) Government, while he was Leader of Government Business and Minister for Tourism from 2000 to 2005, is paying dividends for the stay-over sector.

“Tourism was declining from 1998, the then minister did all sort of things like counting visitors and made his numbers look big, but the people threw him out and we took over,” countered Mr Clifford.

“In November 2000 when we took over we realised that we had a mammoth task on our hands. We had declining tourism industry. Hotels at the time were few and some hotels had been dropping out,” he said. 

Mr Bush, the Member of the Legislative Assembly for West Bay, said finding upscale hotels was part of his administration’s strategies.

“Our product was going down, we had no entertainment, so we decided to take that time to regroup, strategise and improve our product and bring our clientele up.

“In 1997, I started the work on the Ritz-Carlton because the Holiday Inn was going to close down although it was a popular place for locals,” he said.

The former Leader of Government Business said there were many issues prior to the opening of the five-star property, which opened its doors here last December.

“It had many, many stumbling blocks put in its way but today it’s open. I felt then that we needed a property that would be a star in the Caribbean. 

“Therefore, Cayman facilities would be bringing in a kind of clientele that would make other properties upgrade theirs,” he said, pointing to the refurbishing of other major hotels on the Island. 

paul@caymannetnews.com

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