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(CNS): Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan is hoping his Cabinet colleagues will support his ministry’s aim to put up to $3 million in the next budget to create a fund for generating new tours and attractions for cruise passengers. Bryan said the policy goal of ‘quality over quantity’ for the sector means Cayman must offer new, unique, exclusive experiences to get the highest spend from visitors.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday following the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Platinum Associate Membership Advisory Council Summit that took place for the first time in the Cayman Islands this week, Bryan said the ministry was working on the “sustainable growth” of the cruise sector, given the drop in passenger numbers anticipated over the coming years.
Bryan said that as Cayman moved away from a mass tourism model, which was “unsustainable for our natural resources”, the islands needed to “provide new, more exclusive products” and “white glove services” for cruise tourists.
To get better value “and squeeze more out of” the smaller number of visitors, Bryan said operators needed to come up with more creative excursions, and the new funding, which would come from general revenue, would provide local stakeholders with grants to help them create and develop authentic new experiences.
The minister said as much as $50,000 could be available for creative, attainable, new ideas that spread guests around the island. He said the goal was to offer unique, authentic attractions that the cruise lines are asking for, such as more cultural experiences involving Caymanian people or excursions with local culinary themes.
“We are not just going to give money away to anybody who comes up with an idea. There are a number of steps that will need to be taken,” he said, as he explained that there would be rigorous criteria. “It will have to be in niche markets that are not there yet. We are not going to give money to people to add to what we already have.”
However, speaking directly to creative people who may have some new ideas, he urged them to come to the government with those new ideas.
Bryan also spoke about taking passengers to more intimate beach locations away from the “congestion” of Seven Mile Beach. He claimed that this was another important reason to get the East-West Arterial Road extension completed to carry people there more quickly.
The recent moves by the government to acquire an increasing amount of beachfront land, the minister said, could also support this goal of creating places for passengers to relax on the beach and enjoy an authentic experience.
Reflecting on what he said had been a successful week at the conference, where it was clear that there is an appetite for change, Bryan said there is support for a new relationship between tour operators and cruise lines so that the income from visitors is re-balanced. He accepted there was a lot of work to do but said that creating new trips could also help with this unfair split.
Unique trips will be more likely to see the lion’s share of the profit go to the provider because there would be fewer vendors doing the same thing, said FCCA President Michele Paige. “Do something different, more exclusive,” she urged the operators.
Bryan said that local vendors had to stand together to stop undercutting each other because that was how the cruise lines were able to maximise their take. “Our people need to be working closer together to not allow the ‘divide and conquer’.” He added, “The only way that Caymanians are going to get more is if they stay together and don’t agree to the lower prices.”
Bryan said the vendors are complaining about each other, but they should be agreeing not to undercut each other. He said operators need to offer quality excursions where they set the price and stick to it.
The overall good news for vendors and operators is that the cruise lines are still committed to coming to Cayman, even without piers. Paige said that having the summit in the Cayman Islands had reminded the industry “how phenomenal Cayman is” and how popular the destination remains.
Wendy McDonald from Royal Caribbean said that the Cayman Islands remains one of the most popular ports of call and made it clear that, despite the cruise line’s preference for docks, the ships that can tender will not stop coming.
Troy Leacock, the current president of the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, attended last week’s conference along with local stakeholders. After the press conference, he told CNS that it was a productive summit. He said that the price split issue is complex, but there was some truth that operators undercut each other, and explained that vendors are constantly under pressure from the cruise lines to cut margins.
Leacock said the key now is creating a new business model between vendors and cruise lines that can accommodate these more “exclusive intimate experiences”, which are already available, but the vendors could find it hard to do business with the cruise lines because they carry lower numbers.
“A commission-based approach or a promotional model where we can offer these more unique experiences directly to passengers is what they need,” he said. “The current model is all about mass tourism. We need a business model now that doesn’t clash with the idea of providing intimate guest experiences.”
Leacock said what is required is beginning to take shape, and now it was time to make it happen.
See the full press conference on CIGTV below:
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