News from Cayman - November 2005

[gotocayman]

The 2005 hurricane season is over! The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season is the busiest on record and extends the active hurricane cycle that began in 1995-a trend likely to continue for years to come. The season included 28 named storms (Tropical Storm Epsilon was heading into the Atlantic), including 13 hurricanes of which seven were major (Category 3 or higher). "This hurricane season shattered records that have stood for decades-most named storms, most hurricanes and most Category Five storms. Arguably, it was the most devastating hurricane season the country has experienced in modern times," said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.
Unfortunately, on Cayman there are still many properties that haven't been repaired following the destruction cauSed by Hurricane Ivan last year. Pedro St. James Castle itself won't be open for some time (the grounds are open and being used to host corporate events, parties, etc). Like many places, delays have been caused by a lack of agreement on insurance settlements and difficulties in finding qualified contractors. The damage includes the roof of the great house, and water and flood damage to the theatre and cafeteria.
Cayman Airways received a final payment cheque for US$1,050,000, to settle claims the company made following hurricane Ivan. With this payment the overall insurance settlement received totaled US$1.5 million.
November 2005 proved to be a wet month (over 11 inches - average for November is under 7 inches), with several Pirate's Week events cancelled or postponed. The continuing rain and flooding also caused damage to some roads, or delays in repairing damage caused by Hurricane Wilma.

A ruling placing Indies Suites in liquidation has been overturned. Court president Justice Edward Zacca said "We have held that where there is a claim for unliquidated damages, there must be a judgement of the Court that turns the claim into a debt before you can petition". Owner of Indies Suites, Ronnie Scott, said that this result should allow for a reasonable settlement with Indies Suites club members.

Construction of a new shopping centre, Countryside Shopping Village, has started in Savannah. Companies that have said they will move into the centre, due to be ready late 2006, include Cayman National Bank, Foster's Food Fair and Subway.

The Rotary Club's Gun amnesty has had some success, with 20 firearms and numerous rounds of ammunition being handed in. 19 of the guns were handed in on Grand Cayman, and one on Cayman Brac. Firearms included .22 and .32 handguns and a 12 bore shotgun.

The new Governor, Stuart Jack, has arrived in Cayman and has been sworn in. vGovernment has published proposals for a Freedom of Information Bill. The Bill will make it easier for the public to get access to official documents, Copies of the proposed bill are available online at www.gov.ky/pls/portal30/docs/Folder/SITE83/LOCALISSUES/FREEBILL.PDF

At the fifth annual tourism conference held at the Westin Hotel this month, Minister for Tourism Charles Clifford talked about some of the initiatives under consideration. These include berthing for cruise ships to make disembarkation/embarkation easier and to therefore allow longer time for visitors on island, and improving facilities at Spotts for when bad weather closes access to George Town Harbour. Another Government commitment was to disperse cruise visitors around the island. Mr Clifford said this measure would "reduce the congestion in central George Town and on the West Bay Road and at the same time move some of the economic benefits from cruise tourism into the Eastern Districts of Bodden Town, East End and North Side". He also said that tourism room stock was expected to hit 80% of pre-Ivan levels in time for Christmas, and that by March 2006 should be 93% of pre-Ivan levels.

The dolphin swim developers are pushing ahead with their project and are optimistic of getting the necessary approval from the Planning Department. Gene Thompson said, "Depending on how everything goes we hope to be operational in the third or fourth quarter of next year. We expect next year to be the year we get up and running". Dolphin Discovery (Cayman) Ltd. has a lease agreement with Cayman Turtle Farm to use the site of old holding tanks for turtles damaged in 2002 by Hurricane Michelle. The dolphinarium, although it will be run independently, will operate as part of new tourist attraction Boatswain's Beach.
However, the Keep Dolphins Free in the Cayman Islands group lead by Billy Adam, is campaigning against the development and has added environmental concerns to their publicity. The group are quoting evidence from the Global Coral Reef Alliance that raw sewage flushed out from captive dolphin facilities, along with rotting uneaten food can cause algae blooms that are damaging to coral reefs.

Spotts Dock has now been approved for use as a secondary cruise ship port as it now has been upgraded to meet the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code. However, it can only deal with three cruise tenders at a time, so the number of ships that can utilise it at any one time are limited.

Following last month's introduction of visa restrictions for Jamaican's entering Cayman, the Jamaican government has retaliated by introducing visas for visiting Cayman nationals!

Tourism figures for October have been released and are available at http://www.caymanislands.ky/statistics/. Air arrivals were up from 8,494 in September to 11,104, but cruise visitors were down from September's 118,466 to 65,651. This low figure was atributed to over a week of no cruise visitors because of Hurricane Wilma. The hotel occupancy rate of 50.4% was the highest October figure since 2000. The average hotel length of stay of stay-over visitors was 5.4 days - the highest monthly figure since March 2000.

Robert

[filter14]

Thanks once again for the updates, Robert.

[sunny]

Any word on New Year's festivities?

[gotocayman]

Situation still stands that all public venues have to stop serving alcohol and stop music by 11:45.