Analysis of 2019 Stay - Over Visitation

Stay-over visitation increased by nearly 10 percent in the Cayman Islands last year, according to numbers provided by the Islands’ Department of Tourism (DOT).

There were 502,739 visitors who arrived by air in 2019; representing an 8.6 percent over numbers from 2018.

In the month of December alone, 54,188 stay-over visitors made their way to the shores of the Beloved Isles, an increase of 4.2 percent when compared with the same time period from the previous year.

Growth broken down by region was also published in the numbers provided by the DOT. These included the United States, which saw an increase of 5.3 percent of visitors coming from that jurisdiction, representing the largest increase of all countries.

The county with the second largest increase of stay-over visitors was the United Kingdom and Ireland, with an increase of 0.4 percent.

There was actually a decrease of 2.9 percent in visitors from Canada, whilst visitors from Continental Europe increased by 3.2 percent.

The region with largest decrease in 2019 was Latin America, with 13.8 percent less stay-over visitors.

Americans have traditionally made up the lion-share of stay-over tourists visiting the Cayman Islands and the increase in their numbers in December 2019 was comprised of 4,708 persons from New York; down by 1.5%.

There were 3,470 from the state of Texas in the last month of 2019; representing an increase of 2.0%.

Floridians increased by some 17.4 percent during the month of Christmas, with 3,279 people from the Sunshine State making their way to the Cayman Islands.

There were 2,741 stay-over visitors from Illinois, making up a total increase of 7.6% percent, whilst New Jersey saw 1,840 stay-over travelers; a decrease 3.0%.

California saw a decrease of 8.8 percent, translating to 1,701 persons and Pennsylvania had an increase of 1.7 percent or 1,464 travelers who stayed-over in December.

Virginia had 1,424; a decrease of 1.7 percent; Ohio had an increase 1,388 or a 8.7 percent increase and North Carolina saw the biggest surge during the month of December, with and increase of 23.9 percent made up of 1,383 stay-over visitors.

The numbers provided by the DOT do not make a distinction between how many of the travelers visited Grand Cayman and/or the Sister Islands of Cayman Brac.