Thursday, July 22, 2010Cayman Tourism

Eugene Bonthuys The Future Of Stay-Over Tourism

Tourism is big business in the Caribbean and Cayman faces tough competition from locations throughout the region. With tough economic times continuing, attracting those tourists who are still able to travel is vital.

What does Cayman need to do to attract these tourists? More to the point, which tourists should Cayman be aiming to attract?

Due to Cayman’s relative wealth within the region, wages are comparatively high, while the need to import goods makes it quite expensive. These factors make it tough to compete for the budget tourist, especially when the availability and cost of flights are brought into consideration.

High end

Cayman has long been viewed as a high-end destination, and this sector of the market can generally still afford to travel. However, these travellers can be notoriously fickle, which means Cayman will need to present a product that can measure up.

According to Melissa Ladley, public relations director at The Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, being competitive in the Caribbean tourism market will not require Cayman to reinvent the wheel.

“It doesn’t take a casino, it doesn’t take a big water park; it’s the little things. Paying close attention to the guest experience and what they’re lacking is what has really made the difference for us,” she said.

According to Roger Ponce, hotel manager at The Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, the Cayman Islands presented the group with the opportunity to create something unique.

“We’ve got an incredible location. We have the beauty of the Island, the cleanliness, the safety, the ease of getting in and out of that airport, all of those components come together to create such a spectacular setting,” he said.

Even with international travel experiencing a downturn, The Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman had been doing well, according to Mr. Ponce.

“Our property has proven that it is not how low your rate is or how robust your package is out in the marketplace. It is about service, it is about value, that is what it comes down to,” said Mr. Ponce.

From the experience at the property, Mr. Ponce surmises that the luxury customer is more than happy to pay premium rates for a holiday, as long as the resort can deliver on the promises made.

Innovation

However, gaining loyal return customers can be a double edged sword, as guests often want to experience something new when they return to a resort.

“We want to give the guests that are here 10, 15, 20 times something different that they can experience and take back, and have a unique experience because that’s what it comes down to,” said Mr. Ponce.

When marketing the property internationally to select travel agents, Mr. Ponce also found that the question of new features at the resort comes up repeatedly.

“One of first questions from the travel agent is “What’s new at your property?”

They have to be able to pitch something different, so we are setting ourselves a goal that every year we are going to have something different for our guests to experience and to enjoy,” said Mr. Ponce.

This drives a constant search for new ways to make the guest experience special, from innovations like floating day beds to programmes to keep younger guests busy, allowing parents to enjoy a relaxing holiday as well.

All-inclusives

Throughout the region, all-inclusive resorts have often played a large role in driving tourism.

The lack of such resorts in Cayman can be viewed as a shortcoming in the tourism product the country is able to present.

However, because of the abundance of good restaurants as well as the safety of Cayman, all-inclusives might not be as necessary as in other parts of the region.

The original intent of some of the all-inclusive resorts was to keep guests inside the boundaries of the resort, as the surrounding area was not considered as safe enough. The best way to do this was to offer the guests everything they needed right there, all included.

Many all inclusive resorts used to be aimed specifically at the budget traveller. However, more recently it is the convenience of an all inclusive holiday that has drawn many tourists, more so than the price point. Even on an expensive holiday, they want to be able to budget properly, and know that there will not be many additional expenses.

“People just wanted to be able to define the cost of their vacation, so it became less and less about the price and more and more about how convenient it was,” said Tom McCallum, principal of McCallum Solutions. Mr. McCallum represents a number of clients in the tourism industry, including the Reef Resort.

Local perspective

As one of the few resorts on Island to offer and actively market all inclusive packages, the Reef Resort in East End has seen some interesting trends in the market as far as all-inclusives go.

“The Reef Resort has a significant number of all inclusive guests in the winter months, paying winter rates. A very large proportion of those guests have not just not been to the Reef before, but they have not been to the Cayman Islands before, so we are gaining new customers for the Cayman Islands who flat out wouldn’t have come to our country,” said Mr. McCallum.

“There are a large chunk of people who visit the Caribbean who are all-inclusive customers and will not come anywhere other than an all-inclusive,” he continued.

Due to its location in the outlying districts, the Reef Resort has certainly benefitted from offering an all-inclusive option. However, Mr. McCallum still believes that Cayman as a destination does not need all-inclusive resorts as much as other destinations do.

“We’ve often argued this point that you don’t need to do all-inclusive in Cayman because you can rent a car, you can jump in a taxi and go up and down Seven Mile Beach and there are tons of good restaurants. Why limit yourself,” he asked.

Although the Reef Resort gains many return customers from its all inclusive packages, Mr. McCallum finds that few of the returning customers take the all-inclusive option the second time around.

“We felt that in a couple of years of launching all-inclusive, we would get to a point where we would have up to half of our first-time visitors take all-inclusive as an option. But we’ve always felt that at least three quarters of our repeat visitors would not,” according to Mr. McCallum.

“Once you’ve experienced Cayman, you feel comfortable coming back; you feel comfortable not taking all-inclusive.”

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