Cayman possible border reopening without quarantine by April or May!

[tkaelin]

Thanks. Btw where have you been able to dive during all this Damselfish?

 

[Damselfish]

Ha, not at all. Last trip was Cayman in 2019. I had a series of trips not happen between family stuff, schedule stuff, then Covid which wiped out an Indo liveaboard. For various reasons trying to do something now doesn't work for us. Plus we moved (unrelated to Covid) after a 3 year house hunt and the new place has been keeping us entertained.

 

[drrich2]

Sure, there are some people hurt by it, but for the citizens, the govt has been giving them some relief is my understanding.

The problem with that is from a saying I read some time back - The government cannot give anyone anything it did not first take from someone else.

The bill eventually comes due.

 

[AggieDiver]

The problem with that is from a saying I read some time back - The government cannot give anyone anything it did not first take from someone else.

The bill eventually comes due.

Oh, I totally agree with you there, but in the Caymans, it is a bit unique because of the money the government makes off of the fees and such charged on foreigners. The government is funded mostly by taxes and fees on money belonging to people who live somewhere else. We can have a debate about how import duties are really paid by the end user, but in the end, they are collected from the importer, not in the form of an income tax. So if they take some of that money and give it to citizens, it isn’t like it is in the US where they are giving people back a small portion of the money that they directly took from them.

 

[Manatee Diver]

The question for people that live in the Caymans, is the support just enough so they don’t starve, or does it actually pay the bills. People like @Divetech Cayman need a bit more than just enough to put food on the table. They have property, facilities, and boats that even if they are all paid off require upkeep. But if the support is just enough to keep food on the table, then when things finally open up, a lot of the small guys with limited cash reserves will be out of business. Probably having to sell out to large corporations that probably don’t care about diving as there isn’t the huge cash streams that they want.

 

[drrich2]

The Clearly Cayman folks just said that in light of the recent annoucment it would be 2/22 at the earliest that any of their Cayman resorts would be open and reminded everyone of their new resort on South Caicos.

They're going to have to change their name to 'Clearly Not Cayman.'

I doubt we'll ever know, but I wonder how many behind-closed-doors discussions have occurred amongst other Cayman Islands dive op.s regarding their options to branch out to other locations.

This is all the more important because a future of intermittent pandemics was predicted before COVID-19. At some point in the future, we may be looking another round of this. Heavily impacted industries (including U.S.-based ocean cruising - it's not just the Caymans) may need a little long range contingency planning.

 

[Kaneda13]

Our trip ended up moving to a sister resort in Turks & Caicos, so hopefully other people will be able to do that same.

 

[tridacna]

Our trip ended up moving to a sister resort in Turks & Caicos, so hopefully other people will be able to do that same.

When are you going?

 

[tridacna]

The question for people that live in the Caymans, is the support just enough so they don’t starve, or does it actually pay the bills. People like @Divetech Cayman need a bit more than just enough to put food on the table. They have property, facilities, and boats that even if they are all paid off require upkeep. But if the support is just enough to keep food on the table, then when things finally open up, a lot of the small guys with limited cash reserves will be out of business. Probably having to sell out to large corporations that probably don’t care about diving as there isn’t the huge cash streams that they want.

I have read that unemployed staff get $2,000/month. There is no income tax and mandated health care for all Cayman citizens.

 

[Manatee Diver]

I have read that unemployed staff get $2,000/month. There is no income tax and mandated health care for all Cayman citizens.

What about the business owners? $2k a month probably barely makes a dent in those bills.