Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (8 June 2015) Air arrivals into the Cayman Islands have surpassed 150,000 in the first four months of 2015, an increase of almost 4.40% over the same period in 2014.

In the month of April, the Cayman Islands received 36,017 stay over visitors, which is a slight increase (.43%) over the same month in 2014. This brings the total air arrivals through April this year to 151,657, an increase when compared to 145,270 guests in the same time frame last year.

“These numbers prove that the overall tourism strategies and marketing efforts of the Ministry and Department of Tourism are working,” said Deputy Premier and Minister of Tourism, the Hon Moses Kirkconnell. “The ongoing mission of the Cayman Islands is to keep the destination at the forefront of the mind of today’s savvy traveller, which requires a constant evaluation and review from a strategic level. This, in turn, leads the Cayman Islands tourism industry to constantly transform, innovate, and aim higher to attract guests both as first time visitors and repeat guests.”

Similarly, cruise arrivals in April showed a significant increase over the same month last year with 175,225 people coming ashore this year compared to 134,646 in 2014, an increase of 30.14%. Through April this year, a total of 719,298 cruise passengers visited Cayman compared to 677,663 in the same period last year, an increase of 6.14%.

Director of Tourism, Mrs. Rosa Harris, commented: “I am very pleased to see the continued successes of our destination maintaining a competitive level of growth that will undoubtedly set us on the right path to end the year positively. The people of the Cayman Islands offer authentic Caymankind experiences, which continue to carry visitors to our shores. Our goal is to continue to provide our visitors with quality customer service coupled with memorable only-in-Cayman experiences.”

For more information, please visit the website: http://www.caymanislands.ky/statistics.aspx

IMAGE Rosa Harris