Cayman Islands 2024 Visitation Strong Despite Storm Setbacks

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (21 January 2025) – The Cayman Islands ended 2024 on a high note welcoming 437,842 stayover visitors between January and December 2024 representing a 2% increase over 2023’s numbers.

March 2024 saw the second highest number of arrivals ever for the destination with 57,040 stayover visitors. December was also a standout month with 52,046 stayover visitors – the second highest number of visitors for December in recorded history and an increase of 4.3% year over year.

Revenue generated by tourism accommodation taxes and fees for January to November 2024 was approximately KYD$ 38.5 million, which was an 8% increase over the same period in 2023. These revenues were bolstered by a 9% rise in the average daily rate (ADR) of hotel rooms from January to November 2024 over the same period in 2023 according to STR Inc., the major hotel industry intelligence database.

Demand for travel to the destination remained buoyant despite the challenges of an unusually active hurricane season which saw the Cayman Islands impacted by significant rainfall and other adverse weather from a tropical disturbance in June and four named storms between July and November.

“It was gratifying to see such positive growth in our stayover visitation numbers for 2024. Despite our strong results, globally the tourism sector faces economic, geopolitical and climate challenges. As an industry, locally we are not immune to these global shocks. We weathered a challenging hurricane season which saw the closure of Owen Roberts International Airport due to hurricane Beryl during one of our busiest travel periods in July,” said Kenneth Bryan, Deputy Premier and Ministry of Tourism and Ports.

“These challenges provided an opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Cayman Islands’ emergency response capabilities as we were able to rapidly restore our accommodation and product post-storm. It also highlighted our strong relationships with airline partners who worked with us to include additional evacuation flights pre-storm and immediately resumed their regular flight schedule post-storm. We look forward to working together with both on island and international partners to make 2025 as successful a year for tourism as 2024.”

Source Markets

United States: In 2024 the number of visitors from the United States (US) grew by 1.4% over 2023. December was a strong month for visitation from the US, with visitation from the US growing by 4.9% and the destination seeing strong performance across all regions of the United States. Standout regions for December included the Northeast which was up 12.9% year over year and the Midwest which was up 10.1% year over year.

Canada: Canada continued to be a growth market for the destination. 2024 saw the destination setting new monthly records for visitors from Canada in June, July, August, October, November and December. Visitor numbers were also up 5.3% year over year with Canada recording its second-best annual performance ever.

This growth can be attributed to continued engagement with the travel trade as well as a robust PR strategy which included features on the Cayman Islands in luxury lifestyle and travel magazines as the result of the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism’s (CIDOT) Visiting Journalist and Influencer Programme (VJIP). Additionally, at the height of winter in November 2023, Canadians were enticed to escape the cold via Cayman Country - a PR activation which saw Breakfast Television, Canada’s number one morning show, broadcast live for a week.

The UK, Ireland & Continental Europe: The UK & Ireland showed steady growth with an increase in visitation of 3.9% over 2023 showing the impact of CIDOT’s investment in the UK & Ireland via attendance at World Travel Market (WTM) London in 2023 and coverage stemming from the VJIP Programme in lifestyle magazines like Wanderlust and mainstream papers like the Sunday Times and Daily Mail.

Meanwhile Continental Europe showed positive momentum with a 12.3% growth in visitation in 2024 over 2023 which can be attributed to CIDOT’s investment in the German travel trade through attendance at major trade shows like ITB Berlin.  

LATAM: Latin America remained steady with a 3.3% growth in arrivals year over year a testament to CIDOT’s investment in the LATAM market through its VJIP programme, travel trade training and presence at travel trade shows like WTM Latin America and FIT Argentina.

 Flight Capacity 

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Cayman Islands saw a significant increase in its airlift between January and December 2024 with 884,279 airline seats an increase of 8% over 2023 and 5,342 flights into the destination an increase of 461 flights over 2023.

In the US this increase was driven by United Airlines with expanded service from Newark, Washington DC and Houston. Delta Airlines increased its flights from Atlanta while JetBlue Airways increased its Boston capacity.

In Canada, Air Canada and WestJet enhanced their Toronto Service with 237 flights into the destination in 2024 an increase of 36 flights year over year. Canada also saw a significant increase in seat capacity in December which was up 16.8% over the same period in 2023. In the UK and Europe, British Airways showed a positive growth in its flight capacity with an increase of 8.4%.

Accommodations

In 2024 the destination's room inventory increased by 578 bedrooms to 8,356 with the addition of VIDA Cayman Islands and Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman to the islands' hotel portfolio. Both hotels enhance the destinations accommodations offerings. VIDA Cayman Islands brings a new boutique, luxury experience to the destination attracting an affluent visitor looking for wellness and adventure.

Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman is the third IHG Hotels & Resorts property in the destination - a global brand with 6,000+ properties worldwide whose extensive network will allow new visitors to discover the Cayman Islands.

“2024 was a standout year for the destination not only from a visitation perspective, but also for our business development and marketing efforts,” said Mrs. Rosa Harris, Director of Tourism. “The first quarter of the year saw CIDOT undertake significant global travel as part of our tourism recovery strategy, and it has paid dividends in our visitation for 2024. In addition to our travel, we deepened our relationships with airline partners like United Airlines by being the first Caribbean destination to market on their Kinective media platform and British Airways by undertaking a multi-channel marketing campaign including in-flight video, digital ads and print advertorials.

We also hosted the CTO State of the Industry Conference for the first time, positioning the Cayman Islands as a premier destination for meetings and incentive travel while our vibrant calendar of entertainment and culinary events gave visitors a reason to put the destination on their bucket list. We are proud of the work that the Department of Tourism has done this year, and we look forward to building on this success in 2025.”