Cayman Islands Print AdvertI am sure many of us have seen the totally enticing commercials that come on the TV for the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Barbados amongst others. They are all really very attractive and invite you to come and have the most relaxing, exciting, just can’t stop talking about vacations ever. I have to admit in the past few years I have been impressed with the magazine adverts for Cayman (not because I am the guy in the photo, even though I am) but because they are well placed attractive photos that really depict what most tourists want to come to Cayman for. Thank god that the ‘H2GO Find your element’ campaign is over. Caymans TV commercials have not yet progressed that far.
After announcing that tourism is declining you really do have to ask yourself, why ? I personally think it could be the way the money is being spent in marketing as well as the fact there is increasingly becoming less and less places for tourists to choose from to stay on the island. In the last 4 years we have lost the Hyatt, Treasure Island, Indie Suites, Sleep Inn (or whatever it was since) as well as many condos redeveloping and units being bought by companies or individuals that no longer rent them out.
I know in a short 10 second commercial you have limited time to get your point across but I have a feeling a better job could have been done. However the big problem is the placement of the adverts on TV, they were between two shows completely unrelated to travel or tourism and so missing any kind of demographic you may want to target. See the recorder adverts below, I only caught two and had to record them off the TV with a video camera rather than direct record to PC.
Cayman Islands UK advert from Caymaniac on Vimeo.
Cayman Islands UK advert from Caymaniac on Vimeo.
I didn’t see this when you wrote it in February. At this point 6 months after your post, I’m not sure that Cayman has a marketing problem. I think it’s more of a product offering issue.
Our costs versus the American dollar in recessionary times can’t compete with other tourist destinations. Long term, everyone has their eye on Cuba. People are placing bets on when the government will approve gambling
(not whether or not they’ll approve it – when) versus Cuba opening up to the US and which will happen first. There are obvious capital investments that the Cruise Ship industry will force upon Cayman in terms of docking for without tenders – at the same time the government is desperate for funds for the “imminent budget crisis” – enough to consider direct taxation.
There are some obvious long bets being made on the health of Cayman’s tourist industry based on some drastic changes being made in the near future – if these do pan out – it may be too little, too late. I don’t believe that tourism will die in Cayman but its size relative to years past is certainly in jeopardy.