December 2016 | Business View Caribbean

22 23 out in the field. I would say that being verymuch involved in marketing and product has helped me to get a bird’s eye view in leading the strategic initiatives and cultivating partnerships with our industry, as well as media and the travel trade, to benefit the Cayman Islands’ economy through tourism. BVM: So it wasn’t a gigantic leap or learning curve when you got started, you pretty much had familiarity with all of the various elements of the operation? HARRIS: In terms of the global team, I have an excellent understanding of all of the markets that serve the destination. I’ve also had very close working relationships with our countrymanagers who report into our head office here in Grand Cayman. It wasn’t a quantum leap–and it cer- tainly has been a smooth transition.What is very exciting about being the director of tourism today is that we have two major re-development proj- ects on the horizon.The Department of Tourism is in a support role for a cruise-berthing initiative, in re-developing our port.We also have a project called the George Town Revitalization Project that ties in with the cruise-berthing project to enhance commerce in the capital city.Our airports in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac will go under construc- tion this year to expand the capacity, and that certainly will support our industry in welcoming more guests.We ended 2014 almost 11 percent up over 2013, and the Cayman Islands has experi- enced significant growth overall in cruise and air arrivals. BVM: What do you attribute that to? Were you expecting that kind of number and what do you think led to such a nice spike? HARRIS: The Cayman Islands as a vacation destination certainly had been trending very strongly all year in terms of visitor arrival statistics.At one point,we were up 12 per- cent consistently and I would say very strong creative marketing initiatives were behind the increase.Our global teamwas challenged to host in-market activations that were creative, engaging and memorable. I would say we remained top of mind with our target audi- ence,which led to the success. In addition, very good partnerships with the hoteliers and accommodations properties in the Cayman Islands led to the success with very attractive travel packages.Our visitation in support of tourism traffic has a very high return visitor rate; people just fall in love with the Cayman Islands once they have visited.This is attribut- ed to having a very positive and pleasant service while on vacation and truly experiencing Caymankind. BVM: You mentioned staying in front of the target audience in those markets–where is the bulk of your visitors coming from? Is the UK your biggest market? Is the U.S.? Is it somewhere else? HARRIS: Due to our close proximity to the United States, the majority of our airlift originates in the U.S. and it ac- counts for 80 percent of our visitation. Canada is second to INTERVIEW: ROSA HARRIS