Cruise line dropping Cayman
(CNS): Businesses dependent on cruise tourism are in for another rocky year after a decision by Carnival Cruise Line to reduce the calls its ships make to the Cayman Islands.The new tourism minister confirmed that he spoke to the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) by telephone just before Christmas and was informed that cruise passenger arrivals from Carnival are projected to fall by nearly a quarter of a million this year as ships by-pass Grand Cayman in favour of ports with cruise facilities. Cline Glidden said he has discussed the issue of the cruise berthing project with the governor, who supports the project provided the procurement process is transparent and robust.
Glidden, who was appointed tourism minister in the wake of the arrest and ousting of former premier, McKeeva Bush, was involved with the original failed negotiations with both DECCO and GLF Constriction over cruise berthing.
However, after the premier’s decision to stop the talks with GLF, Glidden was moved off the project and was replaced by George Town backbencher Ellio Solomon, who was involved in the talks with China Harbour Engineering Company. Those negotiations were stopped last month when, after more than 18 months, the former premier finally backed down from his stand-off with the UK’s overseas territories minister, Mark Simmonds, and agreed to put the project to a proper tendering process.
Despite the 8.3% increase in passenger arrivals this year, businesses relying on cruise tourism are increasingly struggling, with shops in downtown George Town closing on a frequent basis. The re-routing of the Carnival Breeze as well as other ships, which have been re-allocated to Roatan, Honduras, and to European routes will have a significant impact on figures for 2013. Nevertheless, the new minister said the losses will be offset by increases in passenger numbers from other cruise lines.
According to the Port Authority, scheduled calls for 2013 are at 508 and projected total cruise passengers are approximately 1.4 million, which is in line with annual average figures over the last few years. In a release from his ministry on Friday, Glidden said the increase by other cruise lines illustrates the value placed on the Cayman Islands as a jurisdiction of choice for cruise tourism, but the issues over tendering illustrated the need for proper berthing facilities.
Officials from the ministry said Governor Duncan Taylor has made it clear that he has no objection to the proposal to develop cruise ship berthing facilities so long as procurement procedures are in line with international best practice and are transparent and robust. The government is expected to begin the new tendering process shortly, but as a result of the last three years of wasted talks it will be some time before Cayman has cruise piers.
Glidden added that his ministry will work closely with all stakeholders to mitigate the effects of the reduction in cruise ship arrivals and will keep the public informed as matters develop.
Category: Local News
One would think, given the significance of tourism to the Cayman Islands economy, that we would have legions of MBAs devoted around the clock to innovating and enhancing the "Caymanian-ness" of our offering. This is what our competitors do, why shouldn't we take our stake more seriously? CITA is run like a small part-time local charity, with rarely an opinion or voice on anything important. I'm not even sure what the DOT does except spend our money on Million dollar Sponge Bob boondoggles. How sad is that?
Here that’s an everyday kind of sadness
One of the funniest posts I have read for a long long time. I loved the concept of "legions of MBAs". What is wrong with doing what is always for public functions like this in Cayman – hire the ineffective child or spouse of a child of a captial owning clan family and give them the support of the otherwise unemployable child of a political ally?
And then you unloaded the cracker of playing the "Caymanian-ness" card! Seriously you should do stand up. Most of the problem of recent campaigns is that they seem to do nothing else but think there is such a card in the first place. "Caymankind" was woeful, amateur twaddle. Other than diving Cayman has almost nothing to offer that is special compared to other islands. There is no beautiful mountains or jungles or top class beaches. The people are no more or less friendly than anywhere else.
If Cayman wants to boost tourism it probably needs to extend the runway and do some sweetheart deals to allow the building of large new hotel complexes and, with them casinos. But who is going to sink capital into a nation where the closure of a small strip of road is considered a challenge to national identity?
It ain’t your road
And thus shines the type of warm, friendly spirit which underpinned the "Caymankind" campaign.
If Cayman wants to boost tourism it probably needs to extend the runway and do some sweetheart deals to allow the building of large new hotel complexes and, with them casinos. Take you head from out of the sand and get real! Las Vegas with some of the largest new hotel complexes all with casinos is having major difficultiies in increasing or boosting their tourism numbers likewise in Florida and Bahamas. Cayman need to once again define its market and stop trying to be all things to all people, develop a niche market and stick with it. We cannot have our cake and eat it too.
It would be helpful in an article like this to have an official comment from the Department of Tourism regarding an announcement such as this that would outline:
1) The projected revenue loss to Government coffers from this announcement
2) How this loss is balanced by the increases by other cruise lines
3) And the net result of points 1 & 2. Does this mean a $500K loss to government revenue? Or a 50K shortfall?
I believe this type of disclosure would faciliate better overall discussion on the topic.
To continue the discussion of whether fewer cruisers versus more cruisers in most beneficial to Cayman. In my opinion, I believe there is an opportunity in the Caribbean market for a destination that brands themselves as focussing on stayover tourism, by limiting (or eliminating) the cruise passenger from visiting. If you read local forums from the region, or Tripadvisor, you will often find stayover guests asking what days to avoid shopping, certain tours, and other questions pertaining to the overcrowdedness caused by tourists. Anguilla may be the leader as a mostly stay over guest destination and it will be interesting if they continue to build on their position or if they diversify to attract more cruise guests.
Cayman is in no way in a financially stable enough situation to try such a radical shift at this stage, but perhaps a long term strategy to work towards. I've always maintained that it was sad to see Cayman develop similar attractions as other destinations (such as Dolphin Encounters), often at the suggestion of cruise lines, simply making the destination a copy cat of other islands for cruise ship guests. Authenticity carries value however it takes great courage and discipline to be different, especially in tourism.
Personally I would like to see an expansion of the airport and runway, more small tour operators who focus on small groups and personalized service, and minimal port expansion that excludes major retail or hotels. But I am certainly no expert- just my two cents.
The elephant in the room is:
"No vision, no leadership, no intelligence."
See below.
I think the entire region has suffered at the hands of the Cruise Ship operators.
Cayman has the history of seafarers. I wonder how many Caymanians are employed on these ships? Or Jamaican's? Or people from Aruba, Barbados, Curacao…. I have never seen a job fair here, or even an ad for crew. My guess is that there are few if any regional workers employed on any of these vessels.
We need a little port. Two fingers, four ships maximum. And when Carnival and the South Florida Cruise association come calling, welcome them back… Once they start hiring from the region.
Cruise ships are full of caribbean employees. They don't need to have job fairs because people who seek to work on the ships actually get off their butts and approach the companies themselves for employment. This idea may sound foreign here in Cayman, as it is so much easier to wait for someone to ask you to work for them than it is to get out there and actively seek employment. Seriously, people with attitudes like yours are Cayman's worst enemy.
Cayman had a reputation for cheap non-unionised seamen who would accept poorer working conditions than others in the same market. I would like to see how far "history" gets you on the resume. Especially when than "history" is now practically unknown to anyone outside of Cayman.
Whoever you are you’re so full of shite, you know nothing of our maritime heritage. We were paid what then were market rates and indeed we worked on Unionized ships, with many caymanians serving as Union Delegates on the ship. So whoever you are shut ya damn mouth about things you don’t know. It is regrettable that the Merchant marine trade has not been maintained, but you are totally out of order and should just slip away before the Duppy come fa ya.
Perhaps it was anger issues like this that lead to the demise of the merchant marine trade. Seriously Cayman had no more more a martime heritage than many many other places. It was just in the myopic world of Cayman which venerated those who went to sea, because there was nothing else to do at the time, that this otherwise ordinary status was turned into something special. It is history. It is quite irrelevant today.
I am not the original poster but that is a ridiculous, unfounded comment.
We are proud of our maritime heritage and we have much to be proud of. No one was "venerated".
Your heritage is never "irrelevant".
It is irrelevant in the context in which it was raised, namely present day cruise ship employment.
Do you people want tourists on this island, or just their cash? Be honest. Learn from Hawaii- they bend over to make every single tourist FEEL WELCOMED the moment they step on the plane to Hawaii.
Many of you would scratch your heads now- what is it, "Feel Welcomed"?
Do you want to get paid for your job, or just go in and feel warm and fuzzy about your boss all day. Just askin.
Not such a bad thing as things will not get worse in a town that can't handle what it does have.It may even reduce the number of Jamaican taxi drivers shouting at tourists.
It also means a final goodbye to the Chinese hopefully. So let's get back to a steady pace of quiter life that we can all enjoy without clamoring for the last dollar of blue collar Carnival cruisers.
OK let;s turn the Christian Heritage site as a landscaped car park for GT as well as an organised pick up point for cruisers on cruiseship days…..It can't be too complicated surely…?
And what are we supposed to do with the ten foot bust of caymans first premier that was going on top as the symbol of Christianity ??
good comment
Get the same company who builded the cruise dock in Honduras to build the dock here. Hire some Caymanians and put the prisoners to work.
The Guy who introduced the Chinese to Cayman, and the politicians who waited for benefits wouldn't like that.
20 years ago I said and wrote repeatedly that the cruise industry wasjust not worth it in the long run for Cayman. We should focus on high-end stayover tourists, not cheap mass tourism of the cruise cattle car variety. I was not alone. Many others expressed concern if not outright protest over increasing cruise visitor numbers. Many years ago, before it was hollowed out and silenced by anti-environmentalists such as McKeeva Bush and Ezzard Miller, the National Trust was very vocal about the high price Cayman would pay for catering to cruise ships. But we committed to cruise ships. The politicians, the Chamber of Commerce, and a few influential business leaders said "the more the better" and that was that.
These ships have destroyed a significant amount of our coral reef that will never recover. We treated Cayman like a disposable consumer good. "See it, trash it, leave it" could have been our tourism motto in the 90s. We changed Grand Cayman from a unique and special destination into a bad version of a boring Florida Town. And all so we could sell a few tshirts and carved coconut heads (made in Guatemala, of course) to the lowest spending tourists to ever travel the world.
No vision, no leadership, no intelligence.
People constantly complain about politics here. But what do we expect? Look who runs and who gets elected each time. No one in their right mind would call the field each election year the "cream of the crop". Our choices are limited to ego-maniacal greedy incompetents who obviously care more about personal careers and wealth than the country.
Cayman had better start electing its best and brightest to positions of power or things will only get worse. A country can only take so much.
"No vision, no leadership, no intelligence."
Sad but true.
A few years ago I picked up a couple from Florida and their two small daughters at the airport. On the way to the hotel, the 5 year old girl said in a disappointed voice, "this looks just like Florida".
Truth out of the mouths of babes.
But it doesn’t ‘look just like Florida’
It looks like the ugly tacky classless bits of Florida.
What is wrong with you?
From the thumbs up on the comment, the only thing wrong with the poster was that he dared to say what most people think.
He dared anonymously type what some expats on here think.
Politicians that don't expect a "commission" from every capital project as a pre-requisite, would make a nice change from the recent past.
Great comment!! God given jewels in the form of Cayman Islands are turned into fast food joints instead of a posh vacation spots. Everyone would have won.
Cruise ship tourism aside one moment, Cayman is losing stay-over tourist dollars to other destinations at a rapid rate and will continue to do so because it doesnt offer much value for the money being spent anymore. Having travelled in the Caribbean & Central America, which you can consider the competitors in our market from a 'local' comparison , many other destinations have much to offer that Cayman just does not have, purely due to geography and location, with the culture & history of the area added on. This is not the fault of the Government, Mac or the people of Cayman. Back in the 70's & 80's,we were a hard show to beat, what with 7 Mile Beach & the thriving scuba dive tourism of the day, Condo development & investment in realty. Thriving off-shore finance & investment .The old Holiday Inn, Spanish Bay resort & the ladies cooking on the beach at Rum Point. The tourists of the day loved the Caymanian people which enhanced their visit & experience because the tourists got to interact with the locals.
Look at today. Tourists read about muggings at East End & Barefoot Beach, the rising local gang culture of crime & murder. Trouble in Government. Looking at the ugly monolith of The Ritz & the Fort Lauderdale architecture of a shopping mall otherwise known as Camana Bay. Environmentally unfriendly Dolphin parks. Dont think that Caymans image on social media does not affect tourism.
We are limited in what we have to offer the tourists now. Their departure elsewhere illustrates just how much.
I just had a sudden stroke of genius. Why don't we build the sea port in PHASES to save time and money! As we build one, we can use the revenue from it to build the next on and so on and so forth. Within 3-5 years we could have them all done.
Forget making deals with shady foreign business people such as CHEC (ask Jamaica). The government can take out loans from our local banks and develop a more solid plan to bring in revenue (eg. additional kiosks, building leases). We NEED the ports and we need to restore life to George Town. Camana Bay has been cyphoning off all of the major George Town investors for years, so we need a plan to attract new key investors.
Building the piers in phases with surrounding kiosks and other facilities is the best way to go. If we can manage two to start, that would be great, but if not, then at least one of them needs to be done ASAP.
Let's get 'er done!
Me son dont know what planet ya living in, we can’t borrow until we reduce our horrendous deficit. Has that not sunk in yet. If you still don’t get it call thebLeader of the Opposition Alden McLaughlin a d ask him how we hot to where we are.
You will never be shown appreciation for your very sensible post. The poorer people of the Cayman Islands are being neglected badly and our government are the worst offenders. We have very ill Caymanians who are listed as poor relief clients of the DCFS and they are not able to get food to eat, except from considerate neighbors. There are ill and bed-ridden Caymanians, who need incontinence supplies and every month they are told that there is no money to help them. Apparently, our current government, even after the political coup, does not really care about us, the Caymanians. Think they care about how much money they can make from the pieces of our island that they are sell/giving away. I THINK WE NEED A COMPLETE NEW GOVERNMENT COME NEXT MAY. NOTHING BEATS A TRIAL, BUT A FAILURE.
Well if da ship don’t come in…………
There goes White Trash Wednesday and my favorite game…..Count The Mullets.
How dare you to be discriminating against people because of their social or economic status? What you think Cayman is Heaven? And justst what kind of trash are youd ?
Gee thanks, I bet you weren't saying that when you were enjoying their dollars. Doesn't sound like CaymanKind does it?
its sounds like the caymankind i know…..
Jackass
The cruise line is obviously not comming any more is because the BIG SHIP cannot come. We do not have the DOCK FACILITIES, but you all would not listen to MCKeva Bush. Just wait there is more to come by stabbing the man in his back.
Hopefully one day we will understand why on earth an almighty God continues to allow both the forty percent of intelligent voters as well as the 60 percent of dumb voters in Cayman to continue to suffer at the actions of the eternally honerable McKeeva Bush.
Thank you very much McKeeva Bush. Hopefully your a** will rot in jail.
This will probably be challenged, but I say let them go. This is great news. Their passengers spend little and are not the demographic Cayman needs to attract. They undermine the experience od stay over visitors and the cheap T shirt shops they encourage deface George Town and discourage visits and visitors from higher end ships. Keep it exclusive Cayman, or die under a mound of bottom dollar visitors providing no profit for locals and devaluing Cayman as a brand.
Fools and their money. Thank you Grand Cayman for being a great example for the rest of the world on what not to do and more important why! You teach valuable lessons to all of us without the big money loss. Please never change. You are needed and appreciated.
Personal enrichment……..caused a lot of damage to our islands.
And you are not rich???
I could say many things that have damaged these Islands
I am beginning to be very glad that there are many planes departing daily . . .
The door hit me in the ass a few years ago – i’m loving life no matter what.
Wait soon Cuba will be taking the Cruise ships! Obama lifted more sanctions and opened up Cuba the day he was re-elected.
XXXX
I am glad, the fools would not listen to Bush when he was telling Cayman that we needed the dock. I hope you all have to close down all your shops down town.
In less than 30 days, Obama….
Hey, sideways here, did anyone else notice that Mac did not put "Honourable" by his name for his New Years Message that was published in the paper today?
I thought he and Juju and them passed a law that made certain people "Honourable" for life? Does he now believe that he is not deserving of the title honourable?
Mac who?
I wish Dart would just take this on, atleast we know whatever he does he does well ie Camana Bay. Town needs some serious rejuvenation, and none of these clowns have managed to get anything really exceptional done.
At this point all this finger-pointing about who dropped the ball is becoming tedious, we need action- save the lip service.
Dart had a lot of downtown retail. I don’t see a great success with that. Just a big fat mess and a lot of closed stores.
This has nothing to do with us having a docking facility or not. Take for example Antigua who just a few years ago built 2 finger piers. The cruise arrivals there have been dropping steadily ever since, despite having the piers.
http://www.caribarena.com/antigua/tourism/tourism-news/101455-big-decline-in-cruise-ship-visitors.html
The cruise industry is not interested in this island or any other island for that matter. They are only concerned with getting as much profit out of their business as possible. They trample on every one in their way with absolutely no regard for the island or the islanders.
They force local businesses to use their booking system with threats of losing contracts should they book directly with the company and not through the ship. They dictate as to what services, photography, retail etc is to be offered on local excursions.. again with the threat of losing the contract should this not be adhered to. They have even set up local photography business's to follow their tours.
We would be far better off without them!
Sadly we sold out years ago and now have to live at the mercy of the red, white and blue smoke stacks!
I agree with you 100%I have been saying this myself for years but NO ONE wants to listen especially our Govt members.I think too much "ass kissing"comes to mind.Our SRCity tours should be putting much more in the locals hands but they are being forced to take a small "pittance"of the fee being charged on board these ships.Thats one reason that some local boats have to take so many passengers which in turn takes away any possibility of the cruisers coming back as stay over visitors which in my humble opinion is the answer to our tourism problems.STAY OVER VISITORS.Look how well the island did before the advent of so many cruise ships.Our week long visitors are the ones who put us where we were then and we nead to go back to that way of thinking.The island CANNOT sensibly handle more than (at most)4 ships a day.Time will tell and maybe with a new bunch of LA members their way of thinking might well bring us back from the brink.Lets hope so.
Well said Mr. Milburn.
Out of all the people in the world I've met who visit the island regularly, ALL first came here on a cruise. The last friend I had visit, his father first came here in 1980.
They left Wednesday.
That's strange…. All my acquaintances come here by plane. NONE of them first came on a ship. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
Maybe they will come back when we get our Christian Heritage thingy completed?
Or maybe if we change Pirates Week to Christian Heritage Week. That is bound to make them reconsider.
Everyone is commenting about the lack of money cruise ship passengers bring to the island. Well, I can say, I was a cruise ship passenger and after I landed in Grand Cayman – in 2003 off a Carnival cruise ship – I came BACK to Grand Cayman. I now visit as a stay over guest 2 – 3 times PER YEAR, staying in a hotel, eating in restaurants, shopping, going to the Botanic Park, and renting a car. Cruising is a great introduction to places that people may not get to or may want a taste of before booking a week stay.
The biggest bee in my bonnet right now is over taxation of guests to Cayman. We are planning our winter trip and I nearly choked when I saw that the new driver's permit is up from $7.50 per driver to $20.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Add to that, no longer is the permit good for 6 months. It is ONLY for the one visit. If you come to Cayman 5 times throughout the year, you have to pay $20. And before anyone says that if you can afford to come to Cayman, you can afford to pay, I'd ask you to reconsider.
Times are tough. Any business should be thrilled that ANYONE is in their establishment spending money. I cannot believe people when they write about New Yorker's in wife beaters. It is probably these attitudes that DETER people from spending. This is rude and uppity.
yep its caymankind economics where they think they can tax themselves out of a recession….zzzzzzzzzzz
Add the lost revenue to McKeeva's bill.
I would support the construction of the piers ONLY if they are strictly p-i-e-r-s (no shops etc.).
The main objective of this project is (should be?) to enhance and increase the tourism potential of our (arguably already saturated) country.
If retail space, hotels, casinos etc. are added to this project then that objective will be sidelined and effectively, an entirely new dynamic will be created.
Caymanians have never before been more sidelined by the proceeds of our cruise tourism therefore, I will support the project if it aims to address this issue.
Anything other than that simply translates to someone else reaping the benefits.
I refuse to finance such madness.
However, if the piers allow for the ships to dock for longer, which results in my family and friends being better patronised in their various establishments island-wide, then we could sit at the table and have a discussion.
*Think of it this way. Imagine if people spent thousands of dollars to come to (Grand) Cayman and they never managed to get out of downtown George Town?! Is that not the height of obscenity?
With respect, you might be completely missing the fact of how important cruise tourism is to the Cayman economy and in particular to supporting a wide cross section of jobs. In good times cruise tourism injects well over $100 million annually into our economy – and the benfits spread to many people.Ask the bus drivers.
Without the support of cruise tourism, our overall tourism would be "walking on one leg", dependent on "stayover tourism".
We do need cruise tourism and as many other types of tourism as we can get.
Hi Poster,
Thanks for replying.
However, you seem to be under the impression that I am against cruise tourism. This is not the case.
Furthermore, there is a difference between the local economy versus "Caymanians" benefitting from the proceeds.
One point I was trying to highlight is the way Caymanians have been sidelined from the benefits of cruise tourism. This is the result of many things including sub-standard wages, importation of cheap labour, global commercialisation of the waterfront, cheap imported goods on sale, etc. (In fact, your reference to the bus drivers being the usual Caymanian beneficiaries of cruise tourism speaks volumes, wouldn't you agree?)
The essence of my post was my position against an elaborate and over-developed "port" (new shops, new restarants, new casinos, new hotels) that will do little to improve the situation as is.
Granted, it may generate more "money within the economy" – but that is nothing new in Cayman. Never before has "Cayman" generated so much money – yet never before have so many Caymanians been left out of the rewards.
While that may mean very little to others, being a Caymanian, I take issue with this reality.
I fully support any project that will serve to genuinely enhance our tourism product and the overall standard of living of Caymanians.
who, leave the money stuff alone and get back to your roots.
The enemy of the Cayman working class isthe Cayman ruling class.
Very true.
The enemy of every common man in the world today is the respective ruling class.
Why "troll" me, buddy?
Truth too much for you?
Sucks to see your ill-conceived beliefs shattered by simple common sense, doesn't it?
So smarty pants, how is this pier going to be funded? Because CIG sure has no money to pay for it.
Um…how about with the increased revenue from passenger fees, increased duties from businesses purchasing goods, and an overall increase in economic activity?
Or we could just reduce waste in the CS. We should save enough at least for one pier this year now that BM is not flying the friendly skies.
Had Mac not f'd up with the GLF/CHEC thing, we probably wouldn't be in this position now. Yet he will twist this and try to tell you all its because we didn't go ahead with CHEC. As is usual, only fools will believe him.
This is indeed bad news for Cayman. Other countries are gaining from our poor planning! It is quite a sight to see the Genesis class ships sail by to neighboring Falmouth Jamaica. While we sleep others are 2 to 3 years ahead. It is indeed sad to see so many businesses closing in Cayman. Prepare and Plan are key ingredients for the success of any business and government.
We do not need a big port.
They built a nice little dock in Honduras in a little over a year.
http://www.bananacoast.com/index.html
In Grand Cayman this is called "honorable" accountability. In other words they fail and you pay for it.
Honourable 4 Life! bossy
Not sure your story is written 100% accurate. I guess its semantics.
The GLF was stopped. It was nothing to do with GLF not accepting anything as much as it was that Mr. Bush seemed to have wanted CHEC in place not GLF. Mr. Glidden stated that everything asked of GLF was in fact done by GLF and its was Mr. Bush not feeling comfortable with the financing situation which to most of us was a crock of @#@.
So Mr. Glidden was put down but went quietly and for that I blame him.
So Mr. Glidden when you think about the fact that we will be loosing X amount of dollars next year take a good long hard look in the mirror because it was YOU and your then and now associates that willingly let Mr Bush trample all over you and then appoint someone with no experience or education in that specific field to take your place.
Andfor the West Bayers who could loose their jobs because of this I BLAME YOU. You stand behind Mr. Bush, not even sure why I give him the Mr. title either. Well because you stand behind him why he does what he does to our country. It's not all West Bayers just the ones that follow this bafoon mindlessly.
This is just something to add to his long list of UNaccommplishments and cost to our country.
I can only hope the people of the Cayman Islands etch this in their minds come the next elections and send the UDP party a clear and equivocal message about what you think of them.
Do they not teach the difference between loose and lose in schools here? The words are used wrong on this site so many times, or perhaps its all the same person commenting.
Actually I believe you should have said "used wrongly", before you criticise others and imply your education is better, look in the mirror!
Excellent! As a product of our public school system it is really annoying to hear expats constantly spout off about how poor it is, assuming that their own is superior to it.
"In informal language wrong can be used as an adverb instead of wrongly, when it means ‘incorrectly’ and comes after a verb or its object:
My name was spelled wrong. — I’m afraid you guessed wrong.
Wrongly is used before a past participle or a that clause: My name was wrongly spelt. — She guessed wrongly that he was a teacher."
Source: Usage Notes for definition of "wrong / wrongly / wrongfully", from the website for Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
So next time you will know how to rite it rite… er… ritely… uhhh… ritefully…
…awww… to hell with it!
WOW.
Really? WOW.
ohhhh noooo cheap American cruise line with cheap tourists who nickel and dime everywhere not coming here? what a loss…
It's the loss of revenue to govt. that is at stake.
the caymankind mentality…….
the millions of dollars that goes to Government to pay for driveways, jet set vacations, vote buying,court settlements, basically all the things government pays for that only a few people get to use. Your right. what a loss….
Is this a big deal? I would like to hear from the merchants in town on the issue. I understand they hate Carnival becauseits cheap passengers don't spend a dime.
Let's get the smaller, more upsacle ships in here!
How?
Interestingly, you blame Cline who has only been the Minister for a few days but you credit Charles Clifford who was the Minister for a whole four years and during a time when the Government spent millions on roads, schools and the Government building but he couldn’t deliver a port. He had more than the 24 months that he was claiming to need. Something seems wrong with your allocation of blame but then again it might just be me. But maybe it is something to do with your process over substance?
By being more exclusive.
Then what is the government going to run on. They get a fee for every cruise tourist.
Cline it is ironic that you are now the new Minister of Tourism which is stuck with this issue that is affecting many Caymanians. Perhaps you will now recall Charles Clifford's advice and warning to you, when you were tourism councillor, that if the UDP abandoned the plans which he left for cruise berthing which had started with the EIA , that you would achieve nothing in this term. Mr. Clifford said that this was because the EIA, planning, design and procurement is at least a 24 month process. But of yeah thats right Cline you said "substance over process". Look at where that got us !
And for those who believe that we don't need cruise tourism……do the calculations. Average spend per cruise passenger US$125 x 1.6 million passengers per year = US$200M per year.
Head Tax US$13.50 per passenger x 1.6 million passengers = US$21.6M per year.
So I ask the question : should we still forget about cruise tourism and remove US$200M from circulation in our local economy and US$21.6M in direct revenue from the Government's coffers ?
A VERY CONCERNED RETAIL STORE EMPLOYEE !
If the whole country had listened to Mr. Clifford and all the warning signs he brought to light about the Big Mac and his fries years and years ago Cayman would now be a lot better off!!!! Yes Mr. Glidden has to now deal with the black eye but he and all the others helped cause it by their deafening silence all these years and nodding their heads up and down instead of left to right!!! They should all have a big stiff neck by now too!!
Mr Clifford was in office he usually NOT available to meet anyone and he was instrumental indismembering the excellent relationship we used to have with the Cruise Lines.
If he had had his way we would been left with a huge container island sitting 30 foot above George Town Harbor. Anyone remember that one??
Oh. And anyone remember Chuckie 's anti-cruise visitor statements?
Who you is ? Stop smoking that Bush weed man !
Anyone who listened to Chuckie would know that he understood the value of cruise tourism to the Cayman Islands.
Who hosted the largest conference ever held in the Cayman Islands……..the Annual Florida Caribbean Cruise Conference which attracted over 1200 delegates to the Cayman Islands ?. It was the Honourable Charles Clifford, Minister of Tourism. Now tell me Mr. Bushite, are those the actions of a man who is against cruise tourism ?
I say stop smoking that Bush weed !!!
Hosting a conference did what for local merchants? Local watersports operators? The conference cost Cayman more than $1million dollars!!
As I Caymanian now living in the States, I have never understood the infatuation with the cruise ships and a berthing facility. A berthing facility has many more negatives than positives. the bigger question is why there has been little to no effort placed on reducing the cost for stayover visitors? There was once a time when the value for a Cayman vacation was much higher but now with competition from the Bahamas, Mexico and the Bahamas…Cayman is simply losing visitors that will spend money!
You hit the nail on the head. For years people have asked to make the overnight tourism product more attractive and nothing has happend. We want people to come and stay and spend crazy money, yet our beaches and roads are littered and 7 mile beach now looks like Miami beach (or any other South Florida destination). For years people have asked to develop some sort of eco tourism product for which people tend to pay good money. Yet we continue to cement the place down to the last square inch……….
The port should be in Red Bay where it can be a safe harbor used 12 moths a year and downtown George Town can be rehabed to a beautiful capital city all Caymanians can be proud of. The finger piers are really ugly and will further errode the looks of George Town.
Those few South Siders who will bust a gut need to get over it.
Why does thinking outside the box scare people so much?
There are lots of other liners with smaller boats that use tenders at several of their ports, including Disney and Holland America. If this is a Carnival and a Royal Caribbean capacity issue with their 3 or 4 mega-liners (with no others planned, and whose ships may or may not have ever been envisioned to call here), just get them to finance the development with FCCA and local stakeholders. Our little country shouldn't have to finance 100% of this. This is how airports and other major infrastructure deals get financed all around the world. I can't believe we would be willing to get hustled into constructing their infrastructure for them, spending Billions to spare some t-shirt and seashell shop the misfortune of bankruptcy. Let them go bust on their own, as a nation, we don't need to drown in sympathy for thenext 150 years.
I agree. If people want to come to the Cayman Islands, they will find a way to get here.
What makes you think that people WANT to come to Cayman? There is a lot of competition out their making it as easy as possible for people to visit. We are so special that we never make it easy to come to Cayman or to do business here. Cayman is fighting for survival and you are living in a dream world.
Sorry but you are way off base on this comment. Just add up all of the commercial activity that is associated with cruise tourism here and then estimated the trickle down effect that all those businesses and their employees create when they pay their bills. Cayman is losing jobs daily and you are saying that it is OK. I talk to Caymanian everyday that aren’t working, can't pay their bills and are very willing to work. I even had one try to convince me, just 2 hours ago, how even $5 an hour is still better than nothing. (I suspect that he was also willing to poach a few conch and lobster to make up the difference) And that was coming from a man who used to earn $20+ an hour in construction work. I've seen pregnant wives and girlfriends cry and you are saying that we should reduce our employment and that it's OK for businesses to go broke, fire their staff and close their doors. That’s ridiculous thinking, irresponsible behavior and maybe displays a hint of the smug competitive jealously that has kept the Cayman Islands, the Jewel of the Caribbean, from building a clean, modern, attractive cruise berthing dock 20 years ago. Cayman needs to be adding industries and economic activity to its economy. Not a little but a lot. The alternative is more taxes, less services and real poverty. If I follow your trend of thought, then we should also close the airport and then let the airlines rebuild it, since they are getting rich at our expense. Hopefully you have a much better idea how we aregoing to employ the 7,000 Caymanian that are not working, this week. Even with a new dock we will very likely never recapture the quality Cruise business that we had. Like a bad marriage once you move on you don’t go back, so even if we do all of the right things now it might be too little, too late, so your wish may come true anyway. Too bad, it didn’t have to happen but Caymanians are generally selfish, especially if someone else is making some money from their ideas and investment. 40 years of stupid will eventually catch us out. I guess we could pray.
Dennis, I respect and admire you but with the trickle down going to Jamaican Taxi drivers, American bar tenders, Canadian dive masters, Filipina shop assistants, and corrupt politicians, while Caymanians have received scraps at best, this Caymanian doesn’t give a damn. You employed and trainded Caymanians, but much of your competition never did. Businesses could have employed locals, and trained them, and had them as genuine partners, but two generations of government regulators not doing their jobs: dat wha you get.
So expressed another way, you would advocate that we, as a country, should saddle several generations of our youth with Billions in misguided debt, to spare some of your poacher pals the misfortune of earning $5 an hour – even though there would be no assurance that these ships would come here anyway, or that they would be full, or that people would even bother to disembark? Please find someone with a calculator that can help you with the math.
A while back the Chamber obtained a survey that showed that air arrivals generated more revenue for Cayman than cruise ship arrivals. It is no surprise that despite the increase in arrivals by cruise ship passengers it does little for Cayman. So far this port has and will cost us large sums of money and we don’t even have it yet! The Econmic zone has been given numerous concessions including nominal work permit fees for work permits and the usual rules applicable to work permits have been waived, but that has also born little fruit and so far Cayman has not and will not benefit! So what of the rest of us that are paying high work permit fees, high trade and business licence fees, especially small businesses! Seems that government is prepared to sacrifice for mere possibilities no matter how slim they are and exploit the rest of us to the ultimate detriment of Cayman. I’m not saying we don’t need a port I’m just saying lets keep it all in context
Had Mac not fired GLF (clearly without just cause) we would surely have berthing piers in place by now…or very close to completion.
And since the former premier cannot provide just cause for his actions to fire GLF and move to hire CHEC (without following proper procurement…and against his own port board's advice) then the former premier Mac should be held personally accountable. By way of paying back settlement monies, monies lost due to loss of potential income, fines for abuse of process/office and/or XXXX!
Otherwise, as said on another thread, terms such as "accountability, transparency and good governance" are seen by our society as worthless! Nothing more than soundbites used to "sound" like Cayman is interested in doing the right thing.
For a jurisdiction with so very many attorneys it's truly disheartening that none will step forward as an example to do the right thing.
I know the whole thing is disheartening, but until Mac got wind of a chance for himself and poked his fingers in the pie, the whole matter WAS being dealt with properly to a large degree. Proper process WAS being followed, and after protracted negotiations with Dart, it was felt GLF would provide value to the island and get the project done. Whilst the process was not perfect, it was at least likely to bring transparency to the process and also likely to have received the blessing of the Governor. It is utterly disheartening that one man could damage the process so badly, but we MUST move on from there and get the project going again, with at least the same levels of transparancy, if not more. We also do NOT need to spend billions and billions of dollars we do not have either – a basic dock with safe additional capacity to offload numbers of cruise passengers safely is all that is needed. We must not add yet further to the cost of coming here.
I am too busy migrating funds to other places to waste time on this. And anyway, now the good times are over, why would I care, since I, and my large pot of money, will be moving elsewhere in the near future.
As you said: "accountability, transparency, and good governance" are seen in your society as worthless. Too bad Caymanian voters not smart enough to at least copy a society that does it right. Especially given the waste and problems Cayman has to endure because of it.
11:57 there is no society that does it right, you have as much corruption in yours as mine,Mr clean.
It's our own fault. We have been dicking around on this project for at least 20 years but we seem to be unable ever to come to decisions for the good of the country, rather than sections of the voting public. Like the Dump.
It is the voting population's fault. The majority of residents are not to be lumped into the blame.
should have let dart build the port!
Yes but only after better terms. Dart wanted 99 years to recoup their investment which greedy. This should have been negotiated down to around half that.
if reduce the lease from 99 to 50 years then there is no profit to keep the dock in well maintained. Spread the cost more as like other many businesses round the world.
Yes, it does appear that Mr. Dart is greedy.
well where have you got since then????
And Government would be getting their duty and fees the whole time for free. Yep your right! Not enough money for nothing for Caymanians to be happy with it. Nothing is better. You are sooooo smart.
No way!!!! That way shows Dart to be smart and us dumb. We would rather just continue to pretend we are smart. All evidence to the contrary.
What about Atlantic Star? I believe they gave government a proposal in that they would have build it for almost free, why are the correct information not given to the public about this deal? Did someone ask what is in it for me? and the answer was the people of the Cayman Islands will get a proper dock! please tell the people the truth! Until the political corruption stop this country will continue to regress.
Please consider the fact that if we build berthing facilities that have shops within the facitlity that the shops in downtown will still suffer and G.T. will become a ghost town with nothing but an unsightly concrete eye sore on our beautiful waterfront. All we need is two piers that meet the berthing requirements PERIOD. This will also minimize the environmental impact to our ocean environment. No surveys and consulting necessary….Thats the facts.
Where is the beautiful waterfront of which you speak?
You must be referring to the waterfront with tress for shade, park benches in waterside parks and safe sidewalks or boardwalks to stroll and walk on.
You mean Camana Bay?
Georgetown is a ghost town since a while.
Yeah, and the rest of Guyana is not any better.
In other news, everyone else in Cayman is over the moon that there will be less Carnival cruises stopping in Grand Cayman. Angry overweight New Yorkers wearing wife-beaters hardly add to the ambience of the island.
I was goona say…we are missing the point that cruise shippers do not bring in huge $$ for Cayman vs. those stayover tourists, and that Carnival in particular are not exactly the creme of the cruise ship business. Is this really a huge loss when compared to the uptick in cruise arrivals from other cruise lines? From cruise ship tourists who spend less, to those who might spend a little more?
As a small island, we need to make sure we get value for the strain on our infastructure large numbers of tourists create. I actually se this as positive.
Someone here actually has brains., like Anon
But angry overweight Caymanians do? To you!
I have noticed that the classier the establishment the fewer fatties there are.
Said the angry overweight Londoner in a football jersey
You wish, sweetie. Football jerseys have their value, they are the equivalent of a large sign over the wearer's head that says "Pleb Alert".
So that's why there are so many of them in England, Patricia. Now we know. By the way, I love it when you call me "sweetie". Very Caymanian of you.
Perhaps these angry New Yorkers wearing wife-beaters are married to the likes of Patricia X.
You got to be kidding me Patricia X with your laughable comment.
Have you ever been to New York? There aren't that many fatties here! Sorry but those angry overweight penut butter and jelly tourists are usually from Pennsylvannia or New Jesery. Check you fat facts first! : )
Manhattanites don't cruise on Carnival.
Patricia's always good for a laugh.