The Cayman Islands Tourism Association (CITA) in partnership with the R3 Foundation, is offering a ten thousand US dollars raffle prize to entice people to get their COVID-19 vaccination.

“To support the call for action by the Minister of Tourism, the CITA Board felt that in order to reach the percentage of vaccinated people in Cayman needed to re-open our borders, a big prize draw was required to get people’s attention,” said President of the CITA Mr. Marc Langevin. “We are hopeful that such a large cash amount will get the attention of people that are delaying getting their first shot.”

In addition, the CITA will be purchasing from local tourism businesses impacted negatively by the closure of our borders, an additional fifteen thousand US dollars’ worth of gift certificates to be added to the raffle prize list. The funds used for these raffle prizes have been graciously donated by the R3 Foundation.

“R3 Cayman Foundation is proud to have partnered with CITA in relation to their COVID-19 vaccination drive. As part of our recovery mandate, we want to help our local tourism industry to recover from the tremendous job losses that have been caused by the pandemic so that those affected can regain employment and thereby provide for themselves and for their families. Assisting the jurisdiction to achieve a high vaccination rate by fully utilising the available vaccine resources is one way to achieve this, whilst at the same time protecting our community as far as possible from COVID-19.”

The overall goal of providing such generous prizes to the raffle is to reach the percentage of vaccinated people needed to open the borders so the tourism industry can once again thrive.

Hon. Kenneth Bryan, Minister for Tourism and Transport, said “I am very pleased by the partnership between CITA and R3 in support of the national vaccination drive. The substantial cash prize and other donations to the raffle will hopefully motivate more people to go and get vaccinated. I encourage all civic minded businesses to donate generously to the raffle fund and prizes”.

Although the goal of the raffle is to give people who have not yet been vaccinated a push to do so, both the CITA and the R3 Foundation felt it was appropriate to offer the raffle and prizes to all Cayman Islands residents that have been inoculated.

Hon. Sabrina Turner, Minister for Health and Wellness, also urged everyone to do their part.  â€œWe appreciate the support of the R3 Foundation and CITA and I am most grateful for this generous donation as we push toward the goal of safely reopening our borders. Please protect yourself, your family and your community by coming out and taking the vaccine,” Minister Turner said.

For more information about the COVID1-19 vaccine, please visit, https://www.exploregov.ky/faqs/covid19-vaccine. The current vaccination schedule can be found on the Health Services Authority’s website at https://www.hsa.ky/public-health/coronavirus/.

To learn more about the R3 Foundation, please visit, https://www.r3foundation.ky/about. To become a member of the CITA, please visit, https://www.cita.ky/membership. To schedule a visit by the mobile vaccination team, please email [email protected].