Up Front
Tourism Down, Hopes High
The 2001 tourism seasonis off to a slower than expected start and some performance figuresare below last year's, according to industry sources.
Hon. McKeeva Bush, Ministerof Tourism (left), Rollin Jackson, Tropicana Tours (right)
However, Tourism Minister,the Hon. McKeeva Bush told Cayman Net News that he hopes to remedythe situation shortly.
"From the reports coming in, I am aware that the figuresprove to be down. However, this is a hold-over from the last twoyears when the figures were dropping due to a lack of a marketingstrategy and direction," Mr. Bush said.
"It is for this reason that we are developing and implementinga high-impact market strategy, which will also involve tappingthe European market and it is hoped that this will bring longer-stayingtourists," the Minister added.
But just how low are the figures? Cayman Net News spoke to severalplayers in the industry, who confirmed reduced numbers.
"Tourism is down, for January and February," said RollinJackson, owner and operator of Tropicana Tours. "Mine isdown about 15 percent and even with new hotels on the line, itis still down 15 percent for January.
"We usually have the typical two weeks after the Christmasholiday before we see things starting to look like a season, butthis has dragged right into the end of January and into the beginningof February," he explained.
Mr. Jackson said that the season appears to be shortened. "Theexpected 10 to 12 weeks, which is the typical high season, nowappears to be more like six to eight weeks," he pointed out.
Manager of Red Sail Sports, Mr. Rod McDowell concurred saying,"January was a little better than last year at that time,but we were down because of the millennium scare. Nevertheless,February is comparatively slow as well. We are not seeing theincrease that was hoped. Everyone had a bad season last year."
Martin van der Laan, General Manager for the Marriot Beach Resortdisclosed that the hotel was experiencing a shortfall of bookingand that it was getting a large number of bookings on short notice.
"January was a poor month. The season appears to be flat,at best and overall the island is much slower. In our case, wehave had some problems with our beach, but the season looks bleak,"he said.
Questioned about the cost in the tourism sector, industry sourceshad differeing views.
Mr. Van der Lann pointed out that the cost should not be factor,at least from last year's numbers, because there has not beenan increase.
However, according to Mr. Jackson, costs in the industry appearto be a major concern.
"Wherever you go in the industry and speak to people, thatis the continual song, that if we could do something where thecost of airfaires is not regulated by the local carrier, thentourism growth will be different," he explained.
Mr. Jackson noted that compared to the Latin American countries,which are now competing more and more with Cayman, local costsare 50 percent higher. Those countries, he said, are "takinga bite out of Cayman's market, because there, you can go and stayin a four or five- star hotel for less than 50 percent of whatit would cost to come and stay in one in this destination."
"I feel that due to the initiative of communication and thespirit of cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and theprivate sector, our new Minister of Tourism in consultation withour international DOT offices and the Director of Tourism willbe successful in halting the decline of tourist arrivals and willstimulate a new growth that may be experienced in 15 -18 months,"he concluded.