CPR Cayman Statement April 3

CPR Cayman is disappointed to hear of the Deputy Premier’s contradictory statement made today at a pro-port meeting that a ‘Yes’ vote will not mean cruise piers will be built.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Deputy premier and current minority government are attempting to confuse the public and are moving away from their previously stated position.

While the Government-initiated referendum is non-binding, it will be up to the new Government that comes to power after the 30 April 2025 election to determine the country’s position on cruise berthing, which is a great uncertainty at this time. Candidates from one party have stated, based on polling of constituents, that cruise berthing is not one of the country’s top 10 issues and additionally that the country cannot afford to make this type of investment in cruise berthing at this time given the dire state of Government finances, as highlighted in the recent Auditor General’s report. However, leaders of another party have stated in public forums that their policy on cruise berthing will be guided by the outcome of the referendum. The government of 2017-2021 made a very significant attempt to push through a cruise berthing facility, leading to CPR Cayman’s petition for a people-initiated referendum in 2018/2019.

The cruise berthing facility proposed in 2019 would have cost the country over CI$400 million over 25 years, and would have required the dredging of over 20 acres of seabed and destruction of 12 acres of coral reefs.

The current Government who have brought this unnecessary referendum, have not provided any pertinent data or verifiable information to support this attempt to move forward on a cruise berthing facility which would saddle the country with more significant long term debt for a project that is not a stated top 10 national priority.

Regarding recent critiques of renowned economist Marla Dukharan’s report on Cayman’s cruise sector, we would like to clarify that CPR Cayman are not the authors of Ms Dukharan’s report which she carried out and published independently. Ms Dukharan utilised publicly available data from Cayman’s Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) and Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association and Business Research and Economic Advisors’ Economic Contribution of Cruise Tourism to the Destination Economies (BREA), with some data from local cruise businesses and Caribbean Marine Services.

Ms Dukharan’s report provided unbiased economic analysis of the publicly available data, and provides very valuable insights including: Post-pandemic, cruise arrivals to Cayman have been declining, but a similar trend is observed in 83% of jurisdictions in the BREA 2024 study, including those with cruise berthing infrastructure, demonstrating that declining cruise arrivals is not at all unique to Cayman, and that cruise berthing infrastructure and the capacity to accommodate mega ships will not necessarily reverse these declines.

Her analysis does not suggest that Cayman’s cruise sector is in jeopardy. In fact, on the contrary, Cayman’s dominant cruise sector already has a higher than average per passenger spend, higher than average disembarkation rate, higher than average onshore tour purchase rates, higher than average earnings per passenger for onshore excursions, and a trend towards smaller and more high-end cruise lines and ships vs mass-market, which supports and is consistent with Cayman’s luxury brand, and the emphasis on quality over quantity.

Further, February 2025 cruise arrivals are up 21% and Cayman remains 6th for the highest number of arrivals in the region in 2024.

Thankfully the public will have the opportunity to have their voice heard with the non-binding referendum results on 30 April 2025.