Air Arrival Numbers Surge

Air arrivals increased by 9.5 percent in the Cayman Islands from 2018 to 2019 for another record breaking year, according to numbers published by the Economic and Statistics Office.

Up to the month of October In 2018 there were 372, 812 visitors to Grand Cayman by air compared to 410, 088 in the same period of 2019.

As is customary, most of the arrivals comprised of American Citizens, whom accounted for more and than 80 percent of travelers to the British Territory.

Canadians accounted for just over 5 percent of air arrivals in 2019, whilst the number of Europeans comprised roughly 4.6 percent of the total air visitor count up to October of this year.

In fact, for Europeans there was an increase in visits to the Cayman Island of 5.5 percent, with 18, 925 of them coming to visit, up to October of this year vs. 17,905 up to that same tim 2018.

March is traditionally the busiest month of the year for air arrivals in the Cayman Islands and this year was no different with 59, 563 air arrivals. December is usually a very close second and has even received the accolade for busiest month of the year in the past.

We will have to wait to see after the numbers are in for this year’s Christmas Season for the final tally.

Of the nearly 500, 000 air arrivals to the Cayman Islands so far this year, just 1,679 of those arrived/visited Cayman Brac.

No numbers were available specifically for Little Cayman.

With air arrival numbers surging and setting records each year, Tourism Minister explained some of the marketing that has helped to propel Cayman into the mainstream consciousness of travelers from all parts of the world.

“As a Ministry and Department of Tourism, we are committed to developing innovative and authentic strategies for attracting travelers from key source markets. The recent launch of the USA focused Dream in Cayman campaign pushes the boundaries of destination advertising and I look forward to evaluating the results of the campaign in the months to come,” said the Minister in a recent interview with online site caribjournal.com.

In January of this year it was reported that nearly 2.4 million visitors arrived in the Cayman Islands in 2018, the highest number recorded for a single year. The total air and cruise ship arrivals in 2018 was up 11.05% over 2017.

Each of the first four months of 2019 were record-breaking ones, with a total of 191,883 visitors touching down at Owen Roberts International Airport, compared with 173,227 for the same period last year – an increase of more than 10% on what was previously Cayman’s best year for stay-over visits.

In a press release, the Department of Tourism noted that visitor spending was an estimated $305 million in the first four months of 2019.