More Tourism Changes?
Amid whattourism industry workers and officials are describing as a slowdownin arrivals from this country's main market, the United States,there may be a move in administration of the sector towards managementthrough a Tourism Authority, along the lines of the Port, CivilAviation and Monetary Authorities.
It is understood that following a weekendretreat some weeks ago at the Morritt's Tortuga Resort in EastEnd, senior government officials are considering appointing someoneas an interim Director, to replace outgoing Tourism Director,Ms Angela Martins, but that person will have no deputies, withheads of various departments, reporting to the person selected.
An informed source told Cayman Net News,three weeks ago that the following were being considered for theinterim top tourism post: businessman Derrington 'Bo Bo' Miller;head of the Department of Tourism Office in the US, Ms Pilar Bush;water sports operator executive, Mr Ron Kipp; and Ms Nikki McCoy,Public Relations Manager at the Department of Tourism.
Meanwhile, news has just come to hand thatMr Kipp has been appointed to be Chairman of a Tourism ActionCommittee which comprises nine private sector representativesby the Minister of Tourism, Hon. McKeeva Bush.
A Cayman islands Tourism Association (CITA)release on Monday, 16 July, said: "The Cayman Islands TourismAssociation's objective is to work with the Government to establishtourism-friendly policies to enable our members to operate sustainableand profitable tourism businesses. The removal or reduction ofexisting barriers for tourism businesses and consequently a lower-costbusiness environment is critical to our industry's future success,especially when pooling available resources towards a common goal,to get tourism in the Cayman Islands back on track".