American Airlines meetsCayman Islands Stakeholders
MLA LyndonMartin; Mark Bastis GM the Hyatt; Nicole Laviette, of CITA; LaniaRittinghouse, Director of Tourism; Hon. McKeeva Bush, Leader ofGovernment Business and Minister of Toourism; Humberto Rivero,Regional Managing Director. AA; Kevin Mooney, AA's Cayman CountryManager; Pilar Bush, North American Director DoT and Charles Clifford,Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism.
In an effort to boost tourist arrivals tothe Cayman Islands and forge a stronger relationship among economicstakeholders, members of the private sector, government, the Departmentof Tourism on Wednesday held a major meeting with American Airlines'top regional executives.
The caucus, which was held at the HyattRegency Grand Cayman, was a success, according to the HonourableMcKeeva Bush, Leader of Government Business.
He said the meeting was a product of Government'spublic-private sector strategy in which they sought to identifyand utilize in the most effective way, the pooled resources ofindustry partners for the benefit of all stakeholders.
"As a result of terrorist attacks lastSeptember 11, many airlines, and indeed many destinations, havebeen struggling because of the drastic reduction in passengers,"Mr. Bush told Cayman Net News. "Against that background,efforts such as this meeting with American Airlines have beendesigned with a view to generating new business and resuscitatingthe market."
Noting that the Cayman Islands recordeda ten percent decline in overstay visitors between January andJune 2002 compared to the corresponding period last year, Mr.Bush said one of the things he hoped would emerge from the meetingwith American Airlines, would be a plan to secure more directflights to Cayman from non-traditional markets.
"I sincerely hope that there will bea number of meetings between American Airlines and ourselves andthat they will result in new and innovative ways of packaging,marketing and distributing our tourism product," he added.
Mr. Bush noted that American Airlines wasthe largest contributor to Cayman's stay-over arrivals and hisgovernment was committed to working closely with the airline.
"Many destinations are competing fora limited number of tourists, so it is incumbent on us to worktogether more effectively in order to increase our chances ofsurvival in this volatile tourism sector," Mr. Bush added.
Mr. Bush, who is also Minister of Tourism,reported that last year, he and Mr. Cline Glidden met with AmericanAirlines officials to discuss various means through which theycould increase tourists arrivals to Cayman.
Since then, he said, the country has secureda new direct flight to Cayman from New York, to complement thethree daily flights from Miami here.
Humberto Rivero, American Airlines' regionalmanaging director for Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean,said response to the new flight from New York was "slow butconstant", largely because of the prevailing circumstancesin the aviation industry.
"But this is nothing that the Governmentof the Cayman Islands should be unduly worried about because wehave all recognised that the state of the aviation industry isextremely volatile right now, with the loss of revenue being inthe billions of dollars.
"It will be a slow recovery to getback to desirable levels, not only for airlines but for touristdestinations as well. But I think the most important thing whichthe Cayman Government, like American Airlines, has realised, isthat we are all suffering the same kind of pain and that the onlyviable solution is to go after the business instead of waitingfor the business to come to us."
American Airlines flies to 19 Caribbeandestinations. Of these, the Cayman Islands is the third leadingdestination (after Bermuda and Turks and Caicos) in terms of generatingrevenue for the airline.
Mr. Rivero revealed that there has beena decline of between 9 to 12 percent in terms of the number ofpassengers flew to Cayman Islands between September last yearand May 2002. In addition, he revealed that between May 1 andJuly 22, 2002, American Airlines brought about 24,000 passengershere compared with 26,000 for the same period last year.
He noted that the price of airline ticketswas not an issue at this time, because from Cayman to Miami wasUS$196 which was one of the lowest fares around.
"It's just that people are not travelingas much and that underscores why it is so important that the governmentof the Cayman Islands took the initiative to have a meeting suchas this, to determine how we can generate more business,"Mr. Rivero added.