The Cayman Islands recorded another increase in stayover tourism in July, extending a nine-month run of year-on-year gains as stronger demand from the United States and Europe, additional airlift and improved hotel performance supported the sector.

Stayover arrivals reached 45,053, up 10% from July 2025, according to the Department of Tourism.

Between January and July, Cayman welcomed a record 333,747 stayover visitors, an increase of 11% from the same period last year.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism and Trade Development Gary Rutty MP said the continued increase was supporting businesses and employment linked to the industry.

“When our visitor numbers grow, our economy thrives,” Rutty said.

“This ninth consecutive month of increased stayover visitation and steady cruise numbers drives the advancement of businesses in this dynamic industry and sustains gainful employment opportunities for our nation’s people.”

The headline figures point to continued momentum in the higher-value stayover market, although the wider tourism picture was more mixed.

Cruise arrivals fell 23% in July to 43,380 as fewer ships called at the Islands. Despite the monthly decline, cruise visitation remained 4% higher for the first seven months of the year.

Combined stayover and cruise visitation reached 1,058,781 between January and July, up 6.2% year on year.

Hotel performance also strengthened, with occupancy reaching 66.7% in July, up 9.4 percentage points from a year earlier. Average Daily Rate increased 7.6%, while Revenue per Available Room rose 25.2%.

Hotel room revenue for the first seven months of the year was 18.3% higher than in the same period of 2025.

The figures suggest Cayman is not simply attracting more overnight visitors. Accommodation providers are also filling more of their available rooms while achieving higher average rates.

Record year-to-date performance, but July remains below 2019

Cayman’s 333,747 stayover visitors through July represent the strongest first seven months on record, according to the Department.

The result follows an unusually strong winter and spring.

March produced 64,213 stayover visitors, the highest monthly total recorded by Cayman, while the 2025-26 winter season was described by Rutty in Parliament as the strongest in the Islands’ history.

That performance provides important context for the July figures.

While 2026 has set a record on a year-to-date basis, July itself has not returned to its previous peak.

The 45,053 stayover visitors recorded this July were 6,537, or about 12.7%, below the 51,590 recorded in July 2019.

They were nevertheless above the 42,724 stayover visitors recorded in July 2016.

The comparison suggests the record performance so far in 2026 has been built on particularly strong months during the winter and spring rather than every individual month surpassing pre-pandemic highs.

For the whole of 2019, Cayman recorded 502,739 stayover visitors.

US visitors account for more than four in five July stayovers

The United States continued to dominate Cayman’s stayover market.

U.S. visitors totalled 37,910 in July, up 12% from a year earlier and equivalent to about 84% of all stayover arrivals during the month.

That concentration demonstrates both the strength of Cayman’s position in the U.S. market and its exposure to changes in American travel demand.

Inbound airline capacity from the U.S. rose by 3,147 seats, or 5.9%, to 56,541 during July.

The increase was led by services from Miami and Atlanta, while the new Austin service also contributed additional capacity to Grand Cayman.

U.S. visitor arrivals therefore grew at roughly twice the rate of inbound seat capacity.

That is not a measure of airline load factors, since the capacity figures also include seats used by residents and other passengers. It does indicate, however, that the increase in stayover tourism cannot be explained by additional airline seats alone.

The Department said Austin, Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Houston were among the U.S. markets recording stronger growth.

Canada shows longer-term growth despite July decline

Canada provided a more complicated picture.

Canadian arrivals fell 15.9% in July, when non-stop flights operated three days a week compared with four days a week a year earlier.

Despite that monthly decline, Canadian visitation was up 43.3% between January and July.

The contrasting figures show the difference between the performance of a single month and the broader trend during 2026.

Through June, Canada had supplied 26,674 stayover visitors during the first half of the year, up 48.9%. Its share of total stayover visitation had risen to 9.2%, from 6.9% a year earlier.

The market remains much smaller than the U.S., but sustained Canadian growth would give Cayman a broader North American visitor base.

European markets also advanced in July.

Arrivals from the wider European market increased 12.7%, with continental Europe up 26.7% and arrivals from the United Kingdom and Ireland rising 8.2%.

The Department attributed the gains partly to travel-trade activity, publicity and marketing in those markets.

Director of Tourism Rosa Harris said widening Cayman’s source markets would remain a focus during the rest of the year.

“As we reach the peak of summer and transition to fall, the Department of Tourism remains steadfast in enacting our strategy of sustaining and growing airlift, deepening relationships with the travel trade, diversifying our source markets and retaining a strong presence in key markets,” Harris said.

“We look forward to steadied visitation momentum across all our source markets throughout the remainder of 2026.”

Hotels benefit from higher occupancy and higher rates

The accommodation data provides some of the clearest evidence that increased stayover demand is translating into stronger commercial performance.

July hotel occupancy of 66.7% was 9.4 percentage points above July 2025, implying occupancy of about 57.3% a year earlier.

Average Daily Rate increased 7.6% at the same time.

The combination of fuller hotels and higher pricing pushed Revenue per Available Room, a widely used hotel-industry measure, up 25.2%.

That distinction matters.

An increase in hotel revenue driven only by higher prices could occur without substantially stronger demand. In July, both occupancy and rates increased.

The pattern extends beyond a single month.

Through July, occupancy was 6.8 percentage points higher than in the same period last year, Average Daily Rate increased 5.9% and Revenue per Available Room rose 16.9%.

Hotel room revenue increased 18.3% over the seven months, compared with an 11% increase in stayover arrivals.

July was the seventh consecutive month of double-digit year-on-year room revenue growth.

The gap between room-revenue growth and visitor growth indicates that accommodation revenue is increasing faster than arrivals alone, consistent with the combination of stronger occupancy and higher room rates.

Demand has also been absorbing additional hotel inventory. ONE GT opened in May, while first-half hotel occupancy still increased to 73.3%, up 6.4 percentage points from a year earlier.

Cruise traffic moves in a different direction

Cruise tourism did not share July’s stayover gains.

Cayman received 43,380 cruise passengers during the month, down 23% from July 2025, which the Department attributed to fewer ship calls.

The decline followed stronger results earlier in the year, leaving cruise arrivals 4% higher between January and July than during the corresponding period of 2025.

That divergence means July cannot be characterised simply as a month of across-the-board tourism growth.

Stayover visitation increased strongly, while cruise passenger numbers moved sharply in the opposite direction.

The distinction also matters economically because stayover and cruise visitors have historically generated very different levels of on-island spending.

Economics and Statistics Office data for 2019 estimated expenditure by stayover visitors at CI $617.6 million, compared with CI $156.4 million from cruise visitors.

Those figures are historical and should not be treated as an estimate of 2026 spending. They do, however, illustrate why continued growth in the stayover market can have an economic significance that is not captured by total visitor numbers alone.

Cayman continues to operate without dedicated cruise berthing facilities, leaving ships reliant on tender operations while the global cruise industry increasingly deploys larger vessels.

Hotel data provide clearest evidence of economic gains

Rutty linked the continuing increase in visitors to wider economic activity, saying growth in tourism supported businesses and employment.

The latest figures provide direct evidence of stronger trading conditions in the accommodation sector.

They provide less information about the extent to which those gains are flowing into restaurants, taxis, tour companies, retailers and other tourism-related businesses.

No corresponding July figures were provided for visitor expenditure, tourism-related employment or revenue outside the hotel sector.

That distinction is important because rising arrivals do not, by themselves, establish the scale of tourism’s contribution to household income or wider business activity.

The hotel figures offer a firmer measure: more rooms are being occupied, average rates are higher and room revenue is growing faster than stayover arrivals.

The next test is sustaining momentum

The next test for Cayman’s tourism industry is whether the momentum established during the record winter and spring can continue through the traditionally softer parts of the calendar.

The July figures provide several positive signals.

Stayover arrivals increased for a ninth consecutive month, hotel demand strengthened and Canada and European markets recorded substantial growth on a year-to-date basis.

They also highlight areas of exposure.

July stayover visitation remains about 13% below its 2019 peak. More than four in every five stayover visitors during the month came from the U.S. Canadian arrivals declined in July despite strong year-to-date growth, while cruise traffic fell sharply.

Harris said the Department would continue working to expand airlift and broaden Cayman’s visitor markets.

The effectiveness of that strategy will increasingly be measured not only by the number of people arriving in the Islands, but by how broadly those visitors are sourced and how much economic activity their stays generate.

For now, the clearest evidence is in the hotel sector: Cayman is attracting more overnight visitors, filling more rooms and generating accommodation revenue at a faster rate than arrivals are increasing.