Welcoming 309,091 stay-over visitors for 2011, the Cayman Islands has outperformed its projected arrival figure of 302,000 visitors to record a bumper year for tourist arrivals.

The 309,000 stay-over visitor figure represents a 7.2 per cent increase over the 2010 performance and is the best stay-over visitor arrival figure the Cayman Islands has recorded in 10 years.

The month of December 2011 showed the best stay-over visitor arrival figures for any December since the year 2000 and with 33,353 visitors landing on Cayman’s shores, represented a 6.3 per cent increase over the arrival figure of 31,391 for December 2010.

Announcing this positive development at the Cayman Business Outlook forum on Thursday, 19 January, Premier McKeeva Bush, who is also Minister for Finance, Tourism and Development, noted that the latest figures point to a continuation of the positive trending that stay-over arrivals have been showing for 16 months in a row.

“Stay-over tourism arrivals have also been positive for 26 months out of the last 28. So out of the last two years and four months we have been positive for two years and two months, when many other destinations have actually had negative arrival figures. Unfortunately our Cruise arrivals for the month of December have continued to fall, registering a 9.2% decline over December 2010 and an overall 12.3% decline year to date.”

Comparing the Cayman Islands’ performance with other Caribbean destinations, the Premier noted that out of 24 countries that report their arrival statistics only four who reported through September 2011 had recorded arrival increases greater than seven per cent and the Cayman Islands’ level of improvement had been surpassed only by Cuba and Curacao.

“We can be justly proud of these positive numbers, which are the result of the plans and strategies that this government has been putting in place – both in response to the continuing effects of the global recession, as well as from our own forward-thinking and long-term strategic approach to this very important sector,” Mr. Bush noted.

He commended the Department of Tourism and the Islands’ private sector partners for being “unified, innovative and consistent with their efforts” to promote the destination.

“The Cayman Islands is regarded as a premiere destination of choice, which is evidenced not just by our growing numbers but by the visitor acclaim we have received, including being named as the number one destination in the Caribbean by TripAdvisor travellers. This speaks to the efforts made by the DOT and our tourism partners to distinguish ourselves in ways that are welcoming and wholly satisfying to the visitor experience,” the Premier added.