THE debate over whether a permanent cruise ship berth should be built in the Cayman Islands is heating up leading into a referendum in the overseas British territory on 19 Dec. Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell told the Cayman Compass that a cruise port was needed to “continue to grow the...
THE debate over whether a permanent cruise ship berth should be built in the Cayman Islands is heating up leading into a referendum in the overseas British territory on 19 Dec.
Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell told the Cayman Compass that a cruise port was needed to “continue to grow the product” and that if one was not constructed, the Cayman Islands’ cruise sector would inevitably “start to fall away”.
“That section of our tourism product employs 4,500 people, it provides over US$200 million a year in income and it represents over 80% of the employment for Caymanians in the industry,” Kirkconnell said.
However, a groundswell of support from groups opposing the build has also gained momentum, with Cruise Port Referendum Cayman group recently posting a video from a campaign event condemning the govt plan as causing “more problems than it will solve”.
A spokesperson for the group, Chris Saunders, argued that “cruise lines are not our friends but our competitors”.
“Their objective is to get as much money spent on their ships as we are trying to get as much money spent on land,” he said.
Saunders also suggested that cruise lines generate more than US$3 billion a year but the bulk of the money was going to the US, with only a “tiny fraction” of the money being spent in the region.
