Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands – The Cayman Islands tourism industry recently achieved a major milestone in the accommodations sector through the significant growth of over 7,000 rooms licensed and available to visitors.
This includes over 1,000 new rooms added within the past three years alone, with the condominiums and villas categories accounting for 73% of this increase.
Now standing at 7,027 rooms available across the three-island nation–Grand Cayman has 6,646 rooms, followed by 220 in Cayman Brac and 161 in Little Cayman–the condos and villas category represents the majority share of accommodation types now available with 4,310 rooms versus 2,717 rooms in the hotel category.
“We have seen continued interest from the community to embrace entrepreneurship opportunities in tourism through homesharing, which accounts for 32.2% of the total rooms now available,” stated Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism, the Honourable Moses Kirkconnell.
“Through the Ministry and Department of Tourism’s commitment to facilitating annual training and educational forums led by international partners such as Airbnb, as well as meeting regularly with potential developers to provide business solutions, we are extremely proud to now offer the largest and most diverse room stock numbers available to our visitors.”
In total, as of 31 October 2019, there are currently 799 licensed properties representing 9,958 beds.
Ongoing aviation strategies led by the Ministry and Department will continue to provide travellers even greater access to the destination through new key hubs in North America and beyond with their preferred airlines.
Maintaining and growing air access remains a top priority to ensure that the accommodations sector will continue to benefit from tourism, a key pillar of the economy.
Looking forward, the Hon Minister of Tourism shared: “As the Cayman Islands gears up for what is anticipated to be another active winter season around the globe, we encourage our tourism partners—whether new to the industry or long-established—to continue providing our world-renowned warmth through our Caymankind hospitality and our rich cultural experiences. The efforts we make today will secure friends of Cayman for a lifetime and allow others to share in the essence of “Dreaming in Cayman”. We congratulate all tourism partners as we continue to work together to maximize our destination achievements.”
