(CNS Business): Overnight visitors to the Cayman Islands during 2011 increased by more than 7% compared to 2010, the Department of Tourism has revealed. Official statistics expected to be released tomorrow show that more than 309,000 visitors flew in and stayed in Cayman last year, exceeding the government’s target of 302,000 and representing a bumper year for tourist arrivals and the best year for a decade, when 334,071 arrived here in 2001. In December alone more than 31,000 air passengers came to Cayman representing the best December figure since the year 2000 and a 6.3% increase on the same month in 2010.

Cruise arrivals for the month of December have, as expected, continued to fall and the DoT said that the figure for December was over 9.2% lower than last year. The statistics for December and for the complete the annual picture, which will be posted on the department’s website on Friday, are expected to represent an overall 12.3% decline for 2011 compared to cruise arrivals last year.

Although the approximate 158,000 passengers that arrived on ships in December represented the highest monthly number of cruise arrivals since March 2011 it was not enough to rescue the dramatic decline in cruise visitors for this year.

With cruise arrivals plummeting, the increase in air arrival statistics is even more important to the tourism industry. The premier, who is also the tourism minister, said the 2011 figure was part of a positive trend in stay-over arrivals which has continued for well over a year.

“Stay-over tourism arrivals have also been positive for 26 months out of the last 28. So out of the last 2 years and 4 months we have been positive for 2 years and 2 months, when many other destinations have actually had negative arrival figures,” McKeeva Bush stated at last week’s Cayman Business Outlook forum.

The air arrivals have been boosted throughout the last twelve months by the introduction of the West Jet direct service to Toronto. Although there has been an average increase of more than 6% in passengers from Europe and the United States throughout the year, passengers from Canada have increased by more than 30%.

Comparing the Cayman Islands’ performance with other Caribbean destinations, the premier said that out of 24 countries that report their arrival statistics, only four who reported through September 2011 had recorded arrival increases greater than 7 per cent and the Cayman Islands’ level of improvement had been surpassed only by Cuba and Curacao.

“We can be justly proud of these positive numbers, which are the result of the plans and strategies that this government has been putting in place – both in response to the continuing effects of the global recession, as well as from our own forward-thinking and long-term strategic approach to this very important sector,” Bush added as he commended the tourism department and the islands’ private sector partners for being “unified, innovative and consistent with their efforts” to promote the destination.

He said Cayman was regarded as a premier destination of choice, reflected not just in the numbers but by visitor acclaim, including being named as the number one destination in the Caribbean by TripAdvisor travellers.

Cayman also scooped a collection of accolades from Scuba Magazine this month, including best overall destination.

See statistics here