In these times of economic hardship, we hope that some promotional effort can be made by the Ministry and Department of Tourism towards encouraging local tourism in all three islands.

Increased domestic tourism would have the doubly beneficial effect of saving cash-strapped residents money on air fares abroad and, at the same time, retain badly-needed cash in the local economy instead of benefiting the economies of other countries.

This would, however, require a joint effort by both public and private sectors.

The government might, for example, consider reducing or waiving the hotel room tax, thus cutting down on the total accommodation costs. Hotel operators and/or restaurants could join forces to offer discounted room rates and meals.

All of this could be especially relevant to increased domestic tourism from Grand Cayman, to Cayman Brac to Little Cayman – the promotion of which has long been promised by government but has never pursued.

The lack of effort in the past means that those involved would have to start from scratch in putting together a decent promotional campaign and associated packages. This is itself a great pity, especially since the benefits of such domestic tourism have apparently long been recognised by the politicians but never acted upon.

Most notable were the several promises in this respect made by the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) in its 2005 election manifesto, which although now being somewhat ancient history is nevertheless instructive in what ought to be done.

One such promise was to “develop and promote Eco-Tourism in the Sister Islands.” Unfortunately, there has been precious little eco-tourism, or anything else come to that, developed by any government in the Sister Islands. Granted the impact of Hurricane Paloma last year affected much of the infrastructure but nothing was done in the years prior to that and no doubt the hurricane will be used as an excuse for years to come to avoid doing anything now.

One idea that might have had a promising future was the development of rock-climbing on the Bluff, which certainly seemed to us to be environmentally friendly, and would have attracted climbing enthusiasts to visit. By all accounts, not only was this proposal not supported, it was actively discouraged.

Something else that could have been made into a unique tourist attraction for Cayman Brac is the presence of the abandoned trimaran Teignmouth Electron, the centrepiece of one of the most compelling sea stories of modern times. Few people apparently know of its history and even fewer apparently care. However, whenever Cayman Net News publishes an article about it, we get enquiries from all over the world, many expressing disappointment that such a world-famous curiosity has been allowed to rot away.

Another previous government proposal in 2005 was to “encourage more ‘local tourism’ - better packages including hotels, car rental, restaurants and airfare.” Surely, this is exactly what is needed at this time and, just because nothing was done in this respect in the past, does not mean that the current government cannot take the initiative and in effect fulfill some of the other party’s promises.

The ongoing issue of airlift to the Sister Islands at convenient times and frequency for potential visitors still remains. A previous administration forced Island Air out of business to prevent competition with Cayman Airways, so it is now up to the national airline alone to do its part in promoting domestic tourism, in conjunction with other public and/or private sector encouragement or active development of this.

Clearly the new government will have to keep promises made in the past to “work with the private sector to improve and enhance our tourism product offerings” whether they admit it or not if our tourism industry is to be revitalised, whether to attract domestic or foreign visitors.

Increasing stay-over tourism is going to be extremely difficult, for several reasons. Apart from anything else, the Cayman Islands has lost (or is certainly in the process of losing) its unique quality and is fast becoming just another Caribbean destination – but without the island feel that most offer. Indeed, our regional competitors are busy enhancing their relative attractions, whereas we have been equally busy doing just the opposite.

At least with the possibilities of developing domestic tourism we are starting with a “captive audience” and one that, furthermore, ought to be receptive to any prospect of saving money in these trying economic times.