Sunday, May 10, 2009

New Newsletter

We just sent out our May newsletter -- including details on how to save money on your travels to the Cayman Islands, a glimpse of one of our favorite restaurants and a list of some of our favorite things to do on Grand Cayman.

Not a newsletter subscriber? Go to CaymanIsBest.com and sign up today.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Not so Hot Travel Stats

The Cayman Island government just published the February travel stats -- not so good. Air travel was down 12.8% from a year-ago. Travel had been down 9-11% over the last several months. Cruise arrivals was down 22.3%, which is worse than the 17% decline in January and the 9.5% decline last year. Unfortunately the world economic slump is having an impact.

Great news if you are considering a Cayman vacation. On Delta, air fairs are about 50% off and hotels are making great deals. Book at CaymanIsBest.com.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Now Book Reservations at CaymanIsBest

We've done it -- finally we have our agreements in place with one of the best travel sites on the internet -- Hotels.Com. Not only do they excel in hotel bookings -- I just booked a trip for next week and I couldn't get the same rate directly from the hotel company -- but they also have cruises to the Western Caribbean (read GRAND CAYMAN).

Our site can be your one-stop travel site for visiting the Cayman Islands, or anywhere in the World.

We have some of the best airfares in the sky -- and we can book directly with condos as well as hotels on Grand Cayman.

I've been blown away by our partner's ability to get great travel deals.

Try it out at CaymanIsBest Travel.

See if we can't get you great deals on your cruise, hotel, condo or airline needs.

Enjoy Grand Cayman,

Jeff

Saturday, January 24, 2009

4th Quarter Cayman Travel Down 11%

In 2007 air arrivals were up 9.1% from 2006 and arrivals came close to the level set in 2003, easily surpassing travel levels from 2004-2006. Despite record fuel prices and a U.S. recession, arrivals were up 9.8% through August and monthly had increased over the prior year for 16 consecutive months and 35 of the last 36 months. Yet beginning in September 2008, traffic began to lag as the worldwide economy slowed. For the last four months of 2008, traffic was down 11% and for all of 2008, air traffic increased only 3.9%. It’s tough to know what 2009 will bring, but all indications are that air travel in 2009 will be down 5-10% from 2008 levels.

TOURIST AIR ARRIVALS BY MONTH

Month 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Jan 25,689 9,601 20,163 23,726 25,845
Feb 32,022 13,202 25,004 27,947 30,380
Mar 37,248 18,810 31,493 35,146 38,425
Apr 33,903 15,423 28,403 27,003 29,978
May 25,502 12,061 21,172 23,427 25,722
Jun 26,890 14,008 24,251 25,837 27,971
Jul 33,118 16,610 24,256 26,895 30,008
Aug 23,191 11,917 18,064 19,481 21,629
Sep 4,982 8,494 10,155 11,457 10,330
Oct 1,968 11,104 14,634 15,102 14,710
Nov 4,215 14,979 22,276 25,227 19,731
Dec 11,201 21,592 27,386 30,255 28,150
TOTAL 259,929 167,801 267,257 291,503 302,879


Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Thoughts on St. Kitts / Nevis

Just got back from St. Kitts Saturday evening -- great trip. The medical school that we have been working on for a year has now been approved the the Prime Minister has signed the documents. We are off and running. Had the opportunity to walk portions of the old sugar cane land that we will buy from the government for the school. I'm impressed by the government's desire to move the economy from sugar to services. The island seems to be making great progress.

Why am I writing about St. Kitts in a CaymanIsBest blog? Simple -- while St. Kitts is beautiful and relatively undeveloped, for what most baby boomers want from our island get away, it doesn't come close to Grand Cayman. Air service is much less frequent - not as many good restaurants -- not as many quality inns, etc.

We also took a boat over to Nevis (about a 35 minute ride) -- which is the home of the Four Seasons resort and several nice private resorts that used to be sugar plantations. Nevis is a great place to get away -- very quiet, a little more upscale than St. Kitts. The Premier of Nevis is working hard to use the island's natural volcano to create geothermal energy -- very impressive project.

I'm impressed with both islands and their respective governments. Yet if I'm going to live on an island -- as contrasted with vacationing -- then I continue to prefer Grand Cayman.

Talk with you soon -0--

Jeff

Friday, January 9, 2009

New Look for CaymanIsBest Blog

Hope you like it -- we've completely renovated our Blog. Now it is integrated into the CaymanIsBest.com web site -- which is filled with great information about the Cayman Islands, along with special reports on working on Grand Cayman, how to get permanent residency in the Cayman Islands and our how-to guide for buying real estate on the islands.

We love the Cayman Islands, and hope you are able to get there soon.

All the best,

Jeff

Friday, January 2, 2009

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from CaymanIsBest!!

2008 was a tough year for most of us and at CaymanIsBest, we are looking forward to seeing lots of Cayman sunsets in 2009.

We have released our January 2009 Newsletter -- our subscribers received it yesterday evening. To get a copy, click on the Title of this Blog and it should take you directly to the newsletter. We will have it up on the web site in a day or two.

The newsletter has our take on "What Makes Cayman Grand", gives an update on real estate activities, profiles an amazing dessert at one of Grand Cayman's historic restaurants, and highlights our new Special Reports.

Come Monday we are all back to work, so have a great long weekend and check out the newsletter.

Jeff
Return to CaymanIsBest

Book Travel With CaymanIsBest