GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, CMC – The Cayman Islands and Barbados Monday announced direct flights between the two destinations as part of the efforts to improve the transportation woes within the region.
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, flanked by the chief executive officer of the national airline, Cayman Airways, and Barbados Tourism Minister, Ian Gooding-Edghill, who addressed the news conference virtually, said the initiative would begin on October 18.
Bryan, chairman of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Association (CTO), described the initiative as a “game changer” opening up travel between the islands and the eastern Caribbean.
“The vision is to expand the airline’s connectivity to key locations situated to the north, south, east, and west of our islands,” he said, announcing a second weekly flight to Los Angeles.
“Suffice it to say that this new service to Barbados is a game changer for regional connectivity. It will deliver a faster and cheaper alternative, traveling between the Cayman Islands and Barbados, than any currently existing route on the market.”
Bryan said the new service would make it possible to travel from one side of the Caribbean to another within the same day without connecting in Miami.
“I know that for all the Bajans on the island and the other Caribbean people here, who call these islands home, this unprecedented level of connectivity will be welcomed the news,” he said, adding that on arrival in Barbados, direct flights will be available to other Caribbean.”
He said from a strategic standpoint, the Cayman -Barbados route will deliver several key benefits that will help to improve “our competitive advantage.
“For example, this will allow visitors from several under-served European markets, such as Germany and Finland, to access the Cayman Islands more directly. It will expand our island’s reach within the United Kingdom by adding connectivity from major airports and Heathrow’s current British Airways service”.
He said the Cayman-Barbados initiative would be “ a catalyst for economic growth and business development.”
For his part, Gooding-Edghill said one of his goals has been to increase airlift into Bridgetown, and the new announcement, as well as the charter arrangement with the Air Bahamas, underscored “our commitment to intra -regional travel.
“This agreement with the Cayman Islands is a step in the right direction for Destination Barbados as we look to increase connectivity in the region further and open up opportunities for Barbadians to travel to the northern Caribbean and vice versa.
“Our reports reveal that the Caribbean market is gaining momentum as airlift increases. While we are getting back to our pre-20219 levels, many of our Caribbean airline partners are steadily increasing capacity as quickly. As logically possible, bearing in mind the global challenges the airline industry is battling concerning securing enough aircraft to meet the demands,” Gooding-Edghill said.
“We as a ministry and destination will continue to work to increase our airlift options to ensure Barbados remains connected with the US, the Caribbean, and beyond,” he added.
The announcement of the new route comes as the Cayman Islands announced over the last weekend that the number of overnight guests was now nearing pre-pandemic levels.
The Ministry of Tourism said that tourism accommodation taxes and fees have already surpassed the annual budget forecast in the first six months, and based on this trend, total revenue this year is expected to reach the total for 2019, which was the highest on record.
According to figures released here, revenue from tourism taxes for the first six months of this year amounted to CI$28.8 million (One Cayman Island dollar=US$1.21cents), which is CI$12.4 million more than the projected figure in the budget and an estimated CI$3 million over the target for the whole year.
The ministry said that between January and June, 235,370 stayover guests visited the Cayman Islands, 84 percent of the number of overnight visitors in the first six months of 2019, Cayman’s busiest year to date.
“Tourism performance over the first half of the year has surpassed expectations and underscores the significant rebound in our tourism industry,” Bryan said.
“Revenue collection influenced by the increase in the Average Daily Rate (ADR) of accommodations over the past year indicates a strong and sustained interest in the Cayman Islands as a premier travel destination.”
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