Covid-19 and Cayman travel...

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Are LTD and CUD ops surviving? I sure hope so. I was supposed to be heading there for 3 weeks tonight.

I had been going out with LTD about once a week since things opened back up, but we were getting only 2-4 divers per trip. They have not gone out the last two weeks. I'm hoping for the best, as they are one of my my go-to dive ops. Great people.

Don't know about CUD. Their web site gives no information about their current status. Have not seen their boat out anywhere.
 
Right now, most dive employees are living off their pension contributions, which government allowed everyone to withdrawal. At some point this is going to end, and the dive sector for the most part will implode. The residents and locals have been quite good at supporting the dive ops, but in a recent CITA meeting, the question was asked, how much of your annual revenue are you bringing in now? Most answered less than 5%. That's obviously not sustainable. Work permits are not getting renewed, and many dive employees are forced to leave the island. There are companies who have let 80-90% of their staff go. If the borders were to open tomorrow, they'd take months to get back up to speed, just in recruiting new staff.

The Cayman Islands Government has sort of backed us into a corner. We are now COVID free, so well done. However if we open our borders, we will no longer be COVID free. If we remain shut, our economy will slowly grind back to the 1960's. I believe our only hope is some sort of rapid testing, but I'm not optimistic on that either. Think of how long the Saturday queues are (were) at the airport just for customs. Add a medical test onto that, it will be madness.



It seems from chatting around, there's about 5-6 dive ops on the island still running the odd trips. There are other dive ops who I see on FB posting they are out and about, but this is mostly the owners exercising the boats and doing some social media. I haven't seen them have actual customers aboard. The rest have literally shut the doors.


this paints more of a grim picture than I was hoping. I follow Red Sail and a few places on FB and they are keeping up a good outward presence but your description sounds pretty dire. I agree, they went all in on no infections and were successful. But if they ever open up again to travel, it will be a risk of getting it on the island. If that risk is unacceptable they may never get back to the popular dive destination they have been for decades.

I am hoping a vaccine is developed by this November ( Trumps claims it will be ) and tourism kicks back in for everyone. I may hold off on booking my trip for next summer. The idea of rapid testing makes the most sense. Take a test at the airport when you land, you are done and enjoy your vacation. Hope that works out.
 
But what to do if the airport test is positive?
 
We are now COVID free, so well done. However if we open our borders, we will no longer be COVID free.

The Cayman Compass wrote of 2 new cases Wednesday and 1 new case on Thursday. What a tough decision it is to make on opening borders.

Fortunately for most of the resorts I have been checking with they are starting to get booked up. That is a good sign.

With our timeshare, we can currently book at a few locations now all the way through Dec. 2021, but don't see the point of booking even that far out in advance - something will be available somewhere when the time comes, time being the pandemic is over.

I am hoping a vaccine is developed by this November ( Trumps claims it will be ) a

I'm going with mid 2021 - unfortunately.
 
The Cayman Compass wrote of 2 new cases Wednesday and 1 new case on Thursday. What a tough decision it is to make on opening borders.

Those were inbound travelers on a repatriation flight and we're placed in quarantine on arrival. Fortunately no local community spread cases here the past couple of months. But it does highlight the challenge of opening the borders.
 
Hit a 'paywall' and couldn't read the article. If you don't mind, what does the proposal entail and did they name possible resorts?

Thanks...

You come to the AI and stay at the AI for your entire stay. Basically quarantined to the resort. Clearly Cayman and the Ritz were mentioned.
 
You come to the AI and stay at the AI for your entire stay. Basically quarantined to the resort. Clearly Cayman and the Ritz were mentioned.

Thanks. Not sure how that will work out but it could still be an option for some people. Cayman has done a good job containing community spread to this point, I hope something like this proposed 'resort bubble' would continue to keep Covid in check.
 
Hit a 'paywall' and couldn't read the article. If you don't mind, what does the proposal entail and did they name possible resorts?

Thanks...

some excerpts:

"Hoteliers believe visitors could safely vacation at their resorts in an all-inclusive-type environment, without mingling with the wider community."

"Michael Tibbetts, of Clearly Cayman Dive Resorts, has a presence on all three islands, through the Little Cayman Beach Resort, Cayman Brac Beach Resort and Cobalt Coast Grand Cayman. He said the concept of bubble resorts was particularly well suited to the Sister Islands. Tibbetts believes Clearly Cayman’s businesses, which offer all-inclusive-type stays with dining, diving, beach and water-sports access on site, would be able to offer marketable vacations to guests without them needing to leave the confines of the property."

"He said the same standards – including masks, social distancing, enhanced cleanliness and a higher degree of training and diligence from staff – that are now deployed in isolation facilities could be the basis of protocols for bubble resorts."

They are looking at how to implement this at all the hotels, although the AIs are certainly positioned best to offer this.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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