Cruise ships banned from Grand Cayman?

[Giventofly]

I totally see your point, and it seems that it worked for you.

 

It would be intresting to see numbers on how many ppl that book land vacations on particular islands have visited before on cruises.

 

I would venture to guess that, on most ships, especially on lines that have a higher percentage of repeat passengers, brand loyalty and cruise industry loyalty would be very hard to break. If you "get em while they're young" to us a metaphore, and solicit first time cruisers who haven't developed such a passoin for cruising....you might have better results.

 

Not sure. I would love to see some data on this.

[waterrats]

According to some cruise line reps, it is unlikely that cruise ships would choose to port at Spotts Bay. This is due to fuel costs and the cruise lines say it costs just as much to hold their position without anchors as it does to cruise.

 

Joe

[Giventofly]

I wouldn't bet on that. I remember watching a special on RCI's Brilliance of the Seas on Travel Channel, and there are several ports in the Med that forbid anchoring, and RCI uses GPS and thrusters to hold position...RCI had to agree to not drop anchor to call on these new ports.

 

Forgive me if I don't have the documentation or links to back this one up...as it was a television documentry.... but I do know that reef preservation is becoming a HUGE thing for tourism based seafaring nations, and don't be surprised if you start to see more of this type of thing, especially as new ports open up. In places like Georgetown, the damage is done, and the reefs off of that city will NEVER recover in our lifetimes....but for new or alternate ports of call, with all the modern technology we have, there's NO reason to damage more reefs.

 

Just watch!

[drew sailbum]

The cruise industry contributes to the Cayman economy, but Cayman is not as dependent upon it as some other locales.

 

Quotes from article in Cayman Net News

The Caymans’ tourism industry, which represents about 50 percent of the colony’s gross domestic product...

 

...about 2 million visitors arrive every year, with most either diving or snorkeling on famous sites like the North Wall or Stingray City.

 

Yet cruise ships are an important and growing part of the Caymans’ tourism industry. Thirty-six percent of tourist revenue comes from 1.7 million cruise ship passengers who visit each year...

 

So assuming the numbers in the article are approximately correct...

• 50% of Cayman's GDP is comprised of tourism revenue.
  
• About 2 million tourists visit Cayman annually.
  
• 1.7 million cruise passengers contribute 36% of Cayman's tourism revenue (18% of overall GDP)
  
• 300,000 stay over tourist contribute 64% of Cayman's tourism revnue (32% of overall GDP)

Doing the math this yields...

• There are 5.66 cruise tourists for every stay over tourist (or 17 for every 3 if you like whole numbers)
  
• Each stay over tourist generates approximately 10 times the tourism revenue of each cruise passenger (not surprising since hotel stays are not something cruise passengers spend money on much)

And all of it means there are powerful reasons to balance the needs and wants of cruise guests and stay over tourists. Cayman cannot afford to alienate one group at the expense of the other.

[rosemail]

Hi Drew,

 

I agree with your assesment/conclusion, but I think it is important to factor in length of stay in assessing relative value to the economy. Checking the DOT statistics, I gather that average stay of on-island visitors is roughly 6 days (5, hotels, 7 condos). Cruise visitors are virtually all one day (or less). :)

[LovetheSea]

I was just in Grand Cayman last week. The ships were in the usual place as always and they had their anchors out. All three ships.

[nellydean]

Mark,

and as the US produces one quarter of the world's greenhouse gases but fails to sign up to any international agreement to help the environment, then that must be an American thing

 

if helping to save some precious coral reef is a British thing then I'm all for it, and I speak as someone whose cruise ship (liberty) includes GC as a port of call this summer

[Mark]

I can understand your point and appreciate it...but did you know that one of the big polluters in the world today is Australia...seems to me that is a British thing...sort of...can never tell the difference between an Australian and a Brit as far as accent just like many Europeans can't tell the diffference between the US and Canadians

[Giventofly]

I was just in Grand Cayman last week. The ships were in the usual place as always and they had their anchors out. All three ships.

 

We're not talking about the usual place of anchorage, outside of georgetown. This thread is discussing the alternate anchorage, called Spotts Bay, which has been deemed an anchor free zone.

[nellydean]

Oh dear, Mark, Geography not your strong point then?! (Only about 12,000 miles out).

 

Actually, you can tell the difference between a Brit and an Aussie quite easily. A Brit will romance you, whereas an Aussie's idea of foreplay is: Brace yourself Sheila!

 

Plus, their water goes down the plughole the wrong way - how weird is that?! :)

 

Seriously, I am all for everyone being able to travel anywhere in the world, and would hate to think that a particular place is forbidden to cruise ships. However, businesses have a corporate responsibility these days to protect the environment, cruise lines included, and so they either agree not to drop anchor at Georgetown if necessary, or they go elsewhere - if that's what it takes to stop the destruction of coral then I would be happy to call somewhere else. These places rely on tourism to a large degree to survive, but it should not be at the cost of their natural resources. You only have to look at the destruction of the rain forests in South America to see what an enormous impact that has had, not only on the local environment, but also on a global scale in terms of greenhouse gases.

 

On a lighter note, I would be very interested to see a huge cruise ship doing the doggy paddle off-shore :)

[mintjulip123]

I read the article, and I understand that this does not affect georgetown. I snorkled at spotts bay last time I was in GC, and that's where we tenderd in on the Dawn. The coral is beautiful there, and needs to be protected.

 

That said, I still think that there is a growing sentament among island politicians and environmentalists against cruise ships. In april, The Cayman Islands was formally warned by a delegation from the United Nations about the environmental damage it's doing to it's reef system for short term financial gain by allowing so many cruise ships to anchor in so many places(among other issues).

 

David C Smith, a UNDP program specialist told the Cayman Officials that Cayman must protect its diving tourism market by attempting to shift to a land based tourism market.

 

“Diving tourists make a lot more money than cruise ships,” he said. “These are what you want – not people who simply come in, buy a $20 t-shirt, then leave.”

 

They also supported a moritorium on new structures being built along seven mile beach, due to erosion issues.

 

Less than a month after this meeting, the new anchoring announcement was made. I simply predict that more legislation regarding cruise shipss will be coming out of the Caymans in the near future. Just an opinion, but it seems to be a trend.

 

I have been to GC several times and there is not that much to see or do there and would prefer that the ships make a different stop. If the residents/politicians don't want or need the money from the cruise ship passengers then hopefully the cruise ships will find an alternate stop.

 

Karen