Tourist Arrivals to the Cayman Islands Up and Running in 2020

Following the most successful year in the history of Cayman Islands tourism last year, 2020 got off to a flying start, although this may be curtailed as the spread of coronavirus impacts the tourism and travel industries worldwide.

According to information posted on the Cayman News Service, January was another record breaking month for overnight guests, which follows 2019, a year that broke the half million guest milestone.

Overnight guests in January were up 3.6 percent on last year, with 42,851 people staying here during the month, the most guests ever in any January since records began. Officials said international markets showed strong signs of improvement with the highest growth in the Canadian market.

Port calls were down in the first month of the year because of weather issues but the constant claims by government that cruise numbers are in terminal decline proved unfounded. George Town port welcomed 240,476 cruise passengers, which when compared to the record breaking cruise numbers for 2019 were down around 28,000, but the number was still significant in the overall record.

The justification for the cruise port continues to be undermined by the arrival numbers. However, it is clear now that, as well as some ships diverted to Spotts because of rough seas and slightly fewer ships, the figures going forward are going to be impacted by the coronavirus.

Currently, yet another ship owned by Princess Cruises is being impacted by the epidemic. The Grand Princess is stuck off the coast of California after some guests showed signs of illness and the ship is now waiting for tests to come back to see if they have coronavirus, a situation that might affect more ships as the infection rate increases.