TORONTO — Despite increased competition throughout the region, the Cayman Islands has reported another year of record-breaking arrivals in 2018, maintaining its market share and surpassing all previous years of recorded visitation.

A total 2,384,058 passengers were recorded in 2018, representing an 11.05% increase over the same period in 2017. Last year also saw an increase in stayover visitation with 463,001 guests, an increase of 10.66%.

As a double accomplishment in ‘firsts’, over 50,000 stayover visitors travelled to the destination within a single month, happening twice in 2018 (March and December).

Canada had a big impact on arrival numbers, seeing a 7.46% increase in Canadian visitors. A total of 26,603 Canadians travelled to the Cayman Islands in 2018, and what’s more, last year saw five months of record Canadian visitation (January, May, September, November and December).

The increase in demand for Canadian travel to Cayman has led to stable increases in Air Canada’s capacity to the destination, while WestJet increased flight frequency as well. Both airlines will increase the frequency of their nonstop summer flights from Toronto to Grand Cayman to twice a week from May to October 2019.

“The Cayman Islands Department of Tourism and our island partners in Grand Cayman are thrilled to see a continuation in record breaking Canadian visitation to the destination,” said Raymond Mathias, Business Development Manager for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism. “We are delighted with the expanded airlift service and the positive impact this has had on driving travel to the destination, as we continue to build on the growth we’ve already seen in 2018.”

For more information go to www.caymanislands.ky/statistics.