Because the Cayman Islands have a higher price point than some destinations, it’s vital we keep highlighting value and as an industry delivering a quality vacation experience every single time a visitor steps on our shores.

Promotions also play a part in keeping the destination fresh and exciting. For example, a brand new dive promotion has been added to the promotional calendar and will get underway in the fall. Timed to the months of September and October, Dive Madness is the brainchild of the Cayman dive industry and will provide a smorgasbord of offers for both avid divers and novices wanting to get their feet wet for the first time. Partnering with Cayman Airways, the Dive Madness promotion provides a unifying offer of return airfare, five 2-tank dive trips, access to a ‘Treasure Hunt’ event and more. The sinking of the U.S.S. Kittiwake at the beginning of the year revitalised our dive industry and put us in the limelight once again as one of the world’s top dive destinations. We anticipate Dive Madness to be a real draw for curious divers wanting to experience the new site and re-acquaint themselves with the Cayman Islands.

Get Warm is another example of a promotion that was launched last year and which falls right in the middle of the winter season. Targeted to the cold weather US states and Canada, the promotion used an interactive social media contest to motivate consumers. While winter is typically a strong season for the Cayman Islands there are slow periods within that need help, and we know that travel agencies receive more than double the amount of calls from winter-weary consumers following a big snowfall! The promotion was a way to drive more bookings from consumers who had simply had enough of ‘Old Man Winter’ and were ready to push the escape button and therefore increase the incremental visitors to our islands.

The promotion asked consumers to submit photos and stories about how cold it was in their hometown and drew them to a website that offered incentives for visiting the Cayman Islands, as well as compelling photos and video illustrating the warmth of the destination. A new advertising campaign, Cayman Kind, will also create promotional opportunities to further boost visitor arrivals and brand awareness.

In addition to targeted promotions, the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism is also actively involved in sponsoring a wide variety of events and festivals held throughout the destination which serve to increase visitation. Sponsorships include the Pirates Week festival, the Flowers Sea Swim, the Friends Invitational Golf Tournament and more. Where beneficial, we’ve also become involved in opportunities like hosting the successful CARIFTA Games held in Grand Cayman in 2010 and the Cayman Islands Squash Open, both of which presented the destination with numerous press opportunities. In 2011, we will again have a wide variety of offerings, including a Divemaster Competition, Gimistory, Batabano, Cayfest, Million Dollar Run, the Cayman Islands Marathon – and many others which appear annually on the Cayman calendar. 

Some other ways in which we’ve worked to consistently reinvent the product include extending the widely successful Cayman Cookout into a full month of culinary events, now aptly dubbed ‘Cayman Culinary Month’. Our industry partners have been central to making this happen. Marketing Cayman Cookout and Taste of Cayman in the same month made perfect sense and evolved quite organically.

Considering the amazing culinary experiences Grand Cayman has to offer the visitor, this was an intelligent use of our resources as a destination, particularly with the increased interest in culinary tourism among consumers. In just three short years, the Cayman Cookout event, coupled with other events, and our considerable restaurant choices, has put Cayman on the map as a leading culinary destination in the Caribbean. As other destinations work to establish this lucrative culinary market, Cayman is already ahead of the pack and enjoying the benefits of forward thinking.

Refreshing the attractions inventory has also been key to Cayman’s tourism success. The industry has provided the Cayman Motor Museum, the redesigned Turtle Farm, Black Pearl Skate & Surf Park, Cayman Karting and more, have all served to keep the product from feeling stale, when it would have been easy for the destination to rely solely on its ‘tried and true’ attractions like Stingray City. 

Camana Bay’s Town Centre is also a huge draw for visitors and Caymanians alike. With its interactive fountains, Observation Tower, events, state-of-the-art theatre, restaurants and more, Camana Bay has weaved itself into the very fabric of our tourism product. The design aesthetic and infrastructure at Camana Bay also aligns well with our brand. Cayman’s positioning as a destination offering quality, memorable vacations shares a synergy with Camana Bay. It has very quickly become a popular tourist hub for gathering, dining and shopping.

The Sister Islands have also strived to reinvent and refresh its tourism product. Following Hurricane Paloma, Cayman Brac has staged a comeback with new, contemporary accommodations, improved offerings for visitors and a renewed sense of pride in their tourism product. An interactive and creative Sister Islands website is helping to drive visitation and to capture the imagination of visitors who may not have otherwise journeyed to the destination.

Showcasing Cayman’s attractions – as well as our points of difference – is a key objective for the Department of Tourism. Consequently, we continually monitor our tourism product and its viability in the competitive marketplace and this knowledge base strengthens our ability to manage the broader image of the destination and grow visitor arrivals, which ultimately spreads the economic benefit of tourism to the people of the Cayman Islands.