Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (31 July 2015) Following another consecutive record breaking year in 2014 the Cayman Islands has remained in a modest growth position year to date June 2015. Overall air arrivals for 2015 have remained steady with year to date arrivals increasing by 1.43 percent. The month of June saw a slight decrease in stay over visitors when compared to the same month in 2014. Year to date 2015, there have been 213,495 air arrivals, compared to 210,491 for the same period of 2014.

Cruise arrivals for the Cayman Islands have shown a marked increase with a 9.21 percent increase for the month of June 2015. The total numbers of cruise visitors in the month of June were 94,511. Year over year statistics also demonstrate that cruise visitation for the first six months equalled 908,881, a 5.50 percent increase over the 861,517 visitors in for the same period in 2014.

“We understood heading into the shoulder season that arrival figures would be challenged,” said the Minister of Tourism, the Hon Moses Kirkconnell. “Despite the minor decline for the early summer period, I am pleased the destination has maintained positive growth in arrivals for both air and cruise.”

At 32,573 stay over visitors June 2015 saw the second highest June visitation rate for the Cayman Islands since 2000.

Director of Tourism, Mrs. Rosa Harris shared, “My department’s 2015 forecast indicated a slowed growth due to capacity constraints. The Department of Tourism continues to work very closely with our tourism partners through marketing and promotional efforts to flatten the seasonality of tourism. We are encouraged by the continued confidence demonstrated by airline partners through the addition of new and expanded winter service from key markets in the US, such as Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C.”

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

IMAGE: Stingray City – ieyenews.com