Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (31 May 2019) Air arrivals into the Cayman Islands continued their positive trend in April with 46,079 visitors, an increase of 17.98 percent over 2018. This represents the best April in recorded history and the first time the destination welcomed over 40,000 stayover visitors in the month of April. April also saw an increase of 2.17 percent in cruise arrivals, with 154,983 passengers arriving to our shores. Based on preliminary estimates, total visitor spend for the period January – April 2019 was approximately KY$305 million.
As the official host of the 2019 Carifta Games held 20 – 22 April 2019, the Cayman Islands welcomed a total of 2,076 visitors from the Caribbean. Regional visitation to the Cayman Islands during April 2019 was led by Jamaica and followed by the Bahamas, who added 504 and 218 visitors respectively. Caribbean arrivals accounted for 2.78 percentage points of the growth rate in total visitation for the destination in April.
“Diversification in visitation is essential to increasing our stayover performance and levelling seasonality,” commented Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism, the Honourable Moses Kirkconnell. “Sports tourism creates opportunities to positively impact both visitation and total visitor spend. I am proud that the Cayman Islands will host the third-annual Cayman Islands Classic this fall and look forward to welcoming the teams and their fans from across the United States.”
The Cayman Islands Classic is an annual preseason college basketball tournament that will be held 25 – 27 November 2019. The tournament features eight division one teams who will compete at the John Gray High School gymnasium. To learn more about The Cayman Islands Classic, please visit www.caymanislandsclassic.com.
