What’s On The Horizon For: Cayman Islands Tourism Board

Despite being the last territory in the Caribbean to open after the pandemic, the Cayman Islands has shown resilience in its recovery. During 2024, the destination welcomed over 430,000 stayover visitors, marking a 2% increase on the previous year with March 2024 recording the second-highest number of arrivals in history.  

The rise in visitation can be attributed to CIDOT’s marketing activations, attendance at travel trade shows and an uplift in air connectivity. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Cayman Islands saw a significant increase in its airlift between January and December 2024 with 884,279 airline seats, an increase of 8%, and 5,342 flights into the destination, an increase of 461 over 2023. 

Visitors from the United States saw an uplift of 1.4% with the destination seeing strong performance across all regions, particularly the Northwest which was up 12.9% year-on-year and the Midwest with 10.1% increase from 2023. This increase was driven by enhanced services from United Airlines from Newark, Washington DC and Houston. JetBlue also increased to 3X-weekly flights from Boston while Delta Airlines added more frequency on its Atlanta and Minneapolis routes. Sun Country Airlines also resumed its direct, seasonal flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) in December.  

Canada continues to show growth with visitor numbers increasing by 5.3%, recording its second-best annual performance in history. Air Canada and WestJet enhanced direct services from Toronto totaling 237 flights into the destination in 2024, an increase of 36 flights.  

Continental Europe gained positive momentum with a 12.3% growth in visitation throughout 2024 with UK and Ireland visitors increasing by 3.9%. 

Gary Hendricks-Dominguez, deputy director of international marketing and promotions at CIDOT, told Routes the destination’s short-term strategy is to maintain its existing routes, improve load factors and continue to be a good partner to work with. During early 2026, Cayman Islands will see an addition of over 600 hotel rooms, driving demand for additional air service. 

Owen Roberts International Airport (GCM), the islands’ main international airport, is also undergoing a runway extension aimed in part at attracting long-distance flights. Hendricks-Dominguez said: “With the new runway extension, this opens continental Europe as a key target for air connectivity. We currently have a London service with BA, but this can add additional destinations such as France, Germany and Italy. We’re in active discussions about how we can add direct service from these markets.” 

Exhibiting at Routes Americas 2025 in Nassau & Paradise Island, Hendricks-Dominguez added: “It’s been amazing. Routes allows us to connect directly with key airline individuals and ensures we can have those discussions in a setting that is transparent, comfortable and productive. A lot of our business decisions and opportunities come from connections we make during Routes.” 

Setting a strong pace for 2025, CIDOT recorded its second-best stayover visitor numbers in January 2025 and is hosted the CAPA Airline Leader Summit this April, bringing together global and regional aviation leaders to analyze the key trends in aviation across North and South America. CIDOT also enhances its communications with airline partners and efficiently promotes the destination to key aviation stakeholders through its Routes 360 profile.