New properties to boost Cayman tourism
(CNS Business): The Minister of Tourism Moses Kirkconnell says the Cayman Islands has good reason to be optimistic about the future when it comes to tourism. Kirkconnell highlighted several major infrastructure projects in his budget address last week that will increase arrival numbers, continue to pump money into the economy and “add a healthy mix of 3, 4 and 5 star brands” to the islands. This construction boom consists of the pending sale of Treasure Island Resort on Seven Mile Beach, which he said “will command an inward investment of $70-$80 million to renovate and refurbish the property” and will begin in the next 8 months.
Also, the construction of the Kimpton Hotel that is set to open in 2016, the redevelopment of the former Hyatt Hotel, which the minister added is currently going through the planning process, the rebranding of the Reef Resort into the Wyndham property in East End and the proposed Ironwood Golf Resort in the eastern districts. Kirkconnell also mentioned construction to begin this year on a new Health City hotel to facilitate patients who come for care from abroad and the expansion of Camana Bay with another Dart hotel on Seven Mile Beach that is set to break ground in 2018.
“Investments on this scale are encouraging news and should be construed as a very realistic indication of the level of confidence that investors now have in our jurisdiction,” the minster stressed in his budget address.
With a total of seven multi-million dollar projects, Kirkconnell said, “We are pleased that these and other new hotel/condo properties will significantly contribute to the 5,200 rooms currently available across our islands.” The minister added, “but it will take two years for these to start coming on stream and before we begin to see any significant measurable benefits.”
The minister also spoke about the record success for tourism in his speech. After a banner year for arrivals in 2014 and a record breaking Q1 in the islands’ history for 2015, Kirkconnell said, “As a travel destination we are doing well. Both in absolute terms as well as in comparison with our regional competitors.”
In his budget address Kirkconnell stressed he has heard people complain before, that too much emphasis is placed on arrivals and too little is paid to quantifying tourism revenue.
“I would contend that you can not generate revenue without adequate visitor arrivals and I’m pleased to report for the calendar year 2014, government collected $20.7 million in tourists accommodation taxes,” he explained.
That number reflects a 26% increase over the previous year in 2013. However, Kirkconnell explained that the significant rise in tourism numbers will start to level out in the coming years until new accommodations are built and ready to welcome tourists.
“While this is not the double-digit increase we have aimed for and achieved in previous years, it is still a respectable target, and there is a very good reason for it. We have reached the saturation point and are experiencing the first signs of limitations in capacity,” he explained.
The minister also highlighted on the $55 million Owen Roberts International Airport redevelopment project and the progress the government has made moving forward.
“The $55 million being funded through the cash that’s available through CIAA and the government is providing $15 million as a fast track to make sure this is built in two and half years,” he said.
However, he reassured that even though the lack of jetways in the new plans upset residents, none of that money will fund adding the boarding bridges to the terminals.
“I want to make it very clear that we approached this in a discipline way,” Kirkconnell explained. He added,“We realised number one, we had a certain amount of money to spend that was available and number two we had to understand how we could do this as quickly as possible for the maximum benefit of the people of the Cayman Islands, and our tourism product is dependent on this one part of the infrastructure that brings people in and takes people out.”
The minister also reiterated in his speech that the boarding bridges would add a price tag of $20 million to the total cost of the redesign and that’s money the government doesn’t have right now.
The 20 million that Gov’t collected as revenue seems to cost a lot more then collecting revenue from ships. Do we still get $10 per person from cruisers? I believe the amount of passengers last year was 1,375,872 . So that should be $13,758,720 in collected revenue. Thats without a dock and people complaining. We need to rebuild an airport.