🌴 Cayman Islands sees surge in stay-over visitors but still lags behind pre-pandemic levels

The Cayman Islands welcomed 209,135 stay-over visitors by the end of May this year, which is around 90% of the headcount during the same period in 2019, the last year before the global tourist market was impacted by the COVID pandemic. Officials from the Department of Tourism reported a steady increase in 2024 on last year’s numbers, with the year-to-date figure showing an increase in 2023 of 7.3%. Despite recent increases in airlift and room stock, Cayman has not yet reached the record-high number of visitors it attracted in 2019. 🌍

Travellers from the United States continue to be the largest source market for stayover visitors to the Cayman Islands, accounting for 83.2% of total visitation. In May 2024, US visitors accounted for an 84.7% share of total arrivals. Canada remains the second largest source of visitors, followed by Europe. Inbound seat capacity and flights to the Cayman Islands increased last month, with 363 flights in May 2024, up 31 incremental flights from last year. The most sizable increase of inbound seats was from Canada, which saw a 65% rise. 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇪🇺

Several airlines are set to increase their services to the Cayman Islands in the coming months. American Airlines will continue its daily summer service from Dallas and add a Saturday flight from 4 June to 5 August 2024. Southwest Airlines has launched a daily service between Orlando and Grand Cayman as of 4 June, and JetBlue Airways will add a second flight from Boston on Mondays starting 28 October 2024. Sun Country Airlines will begin offering twice-weekly flights from Minneapolis to Grand Cayman from 20 December to 12 April 2025, and Delta will be offering three weekly flights from Minneapolis-Saint Paul to Grand Cayman starting 20 December. 🛫