Cayman Islands October Stayover Visitation Numbers Exceed Projections

Between January and October 2023, the destination welcomed a total of 343,606 stayover visitors exceeding 2022’s numbers by 70% and representing 84% of 2019’s numbers.

October 2023 saw a total of 20,568 visitors arriving by air representing roughly 86% of 2019’s record and 16 percentage points higher than the destination’s goal of 70%.

The destination has exceeded its visitation goal of 70% for the first 10 months of the year and Mrs. Rosa Harris, Director of Tourism, is confident that the destination is on track to continue that success throughout 2023.

“We are pleased that our stayover arrivals to-date continue to trend above our targets, and this is indicative of a healthy and measured return to tourism,” said Director Harris.

United States

The United States remained the largest source market for stayover visitors representing 83% of the total visitation between January and October of 2023 with arrivals from the United States accounting for 78% of the total number of arrivals in October.

Canada

Canada continued to be the second-largest source of stayover visitors representing 6.4% of the overall visitation number between January and October 2023 up from 5.7% in the same period in 2022.

Arrivals from Canada in October 2023 were down 22% compared to October 2022 which can be attributed to fewer Air Canada flights than during the same period in 2022.

Encouragingly, visitation from Canada in October 2022 was 10% higher than in October 2019 indicating a strong recovery for this market.

LATAM

Air arrivals from Latin America in October 2023 remained consistent with the arrivals in October 2022 and the YTD arrivals represented 81% of 2019’s numbers. 

UK & Ireland

Air arrivals from the UK & Ireland in October 2023 were up 2.9 % from the same period last year and represented 94% of 2019’s numbers.

Encouragingly, the UK & Ireland increased its overall share of YTD air arrivals to 3.1% in 2023 up from 2.9% in 2019.

Director Harris commented on the UK & Ireland’s increase in its overall share of arrivals in 2023, “Recognising the importance of this market for visitors, the Department has implemented a strategy to increase awareness of the destination in the UK & Ireland via an in-flight video advertising campaign on British Airways flights and an activation for prominent UK journalists at the recent World Travel Market London. We look forward to seeing this strategy pay dividends with a continued incremental increase in visitation from the UK & Ireland for the rest of 2023 and into 2024.”