Two Government MLAs want Cabinet to do more than pay lip service to tourism development in the eastern districts of North Side, East End and Bodden Town.

MLA for North Side Hon Edna Moyle and MLA for Bodden Town Osbourne Bodden used the Finance Committee meeting in Parliament last week to whip up support for their constituents.

Mrs Moyle, who is also the Speaker of the House, said she wants more attention paid to Rum Point – a rapidly growing tourist area in her constituency.

She said that stay-over visitors who come to Rum Point boast of the area, saying if they knew about it before they would not have gone to the Seven Mile Beach.  

“We got to move away from the Seven Mile Beach, there’s no land left there,” she said.

Backbencher Mr Bodden called on Government to “bite the bullet” in facilitating prospective Caymanian business owners by subsidising them with capital.

His fellow Bodden Town MLA and Minister of Tourism Hon Charles Clifford promised that these matters would be addressed in the Go East Initiative, which aims to woo visitors to that part of the Island.

He explained that the project is at the discussion stage with the Ministry of Tourism and other government agencies engaging the three districts on bringing more revenues to the east.

He said Government had set up an incentives committee to assist the businesses and would also provide counselling services, technical and financial advice to the would-be entrepreneurs.

He further stated that beach access to some of the proposed properties was a priority and work had already begun in that regard.

TV promotional advertisement of the Island has not featured North Side prominently and Mrs Moyle wants to have that changed, complaining that too much focus was on the Seven Mile Beach.

And again the talents in the advertisements are foreigners, leading Mrs Moyle to draw the attention of her colleagues to neighbouring islands Jamaica and Bahamas who she said hire their locals.

Both Mr Clifford and Director of Tourism Pilar Bush said that situation is about to change as more Caymanians are participating in shoots for promoting their Island.

Ms Bush said there have been attempts to rectify it over the past three years but it is still very challenging to attract Caymanians to become the acts despite payment for their services.

Government MLA for George Town Lucille Seymour told the meeting that some sections of the hospitality sector do not truly represent the Cayman Islands.

Ms Seymour said far too often non-nationals man key frontline positions here and abroad with many of them lacking the ability to sell the Cayman lifestyle to visitors.

She called for training of these officers so that they could positively grow the Islands’ tourism industry.
Ms Seymour reiterated her call for Caymanians to have an 80 percent ownership of the industry in terms of leadership and entrepreneurship, saying it is the only way the Islanders would get true value for money. The problem faced, according to Mr Clifford, was that Cayman had more jobs than people in the Cayman Islands so it was necessary to have expatriates to fill them.

He said they brought with them many different cultures, however, they needed to promote the Islands’ culture.

Mr Clifford said enforcements were underway with nationals being trained in a tourism internship programme and had strengthened education opportunities to ensure they take up leadership positions.

He said the private sector has been encouraged to assist their expatriate staff with learning the geography and cultural forms of Cayman. Ms Bush said materials were being developed for employers to assist their employees in learning about the Island, adding that the general public would be targeted because tourism is everybody’s business.

The DOT head said as part of the development of Cayman’s high-end tourism product a three-year initiative was underway to raise service standards.