CAYMAN ISLANDS (2 Oct 2008) — The Cayman Islands has approved a plan to sink the USS Kittiwake warship to attract more scuba divers as it struggles to revive its declining dive tourism industry. Following Florida's scheme to replace dying coral reefs with scuba diving theme parks comprised of scuttled U.S. Navy warships, tourism promoters in the Cayman Islands said the government will buy the USS Kittiwake. The 77-meter, 2,290 tonne Kittwake, which was built in 1945, will be towed from St. Eustis, Virginia to the Cayman Islands later this year. Tourism officials in the Caymans declined to reveal how much the project will cost but said they hope to scuttle the Kittiwake next year after contractors remove toxic materials from the vessel. Unsustainable tourism Once considered the best scuba diving holiday destination in the Caribbean, the Cayman Islands have steadily declined in popularity over the past decade after a spate of fatal diving accidents and a series of ill-advised decisions by local officials, tourism promoters and corrupt dive industry insiders. Under the tenure of Ocean Frontiers owner Steve Broadbelt and Divetech owner Nancy Easterbrook, the Cayman Islands Tourism Association's Watersports Committee adopted diver-unfriendly policies such as discouraging competition in order to artificially inflate rates, urging local dive operators to ignore government safety regulations aimed at enhancing diver safety, blaming tourist diving deaths on "pre-existing medical conditions", promoting eco-unfriendly resort development in pristine coastal areas and launching unsustainable diving activities that damage coral reefs, harm marine wildlife and compromise diver safety. Those policies gradually eroded the reputation and popularity of the Caymans and crippled its dive tourism industry as dive travelers increasingly opted for other Caribbean dive destinations that offer safe, affordable and environmentally sustainable scuba diving holidays. Among companies in the Caymans that went belly up were Bob Soto's, the Cayman Islander, Divi Tiara, Fisheye, Indies Suites, Parrots Landing, Seaview, the Sleep Inn, Spanish Bay Reef, Treasure Island and Treasure Island Divers. Eco-unfriendly and outrageously overpriced at $250 per night: Ocean Frontiers and Compass Point Condominiums. According to notorious owner Steve Broadbelt, a strident local tourism promoter who also owns a liquor store, his three-storey 27-room beach-front development left the area "pristine and untouched". Travelers who want to visit destinations that actually are pristine and untouched avoid the Cayman Islands, which has become synonymous with the Compass Point development and unsustainble theme park tourism aimed at cruise ship and scuba diving tourists. | | Call it the "military solution", the "Florida solution" or the "artificial solution". The Cayman Islands announced a plan to revive its declining dive tourism industry by sinking warships to lure dive travelers back to a destination plagued by exorbitant rates, dying coral reefs and unsustainable tourism. Cayman cronism "One huge obstacle to getting the Caymans back on track is the cronyism that puts the wrong people in charge, people who have tainted the Cayman Islands brand," said CDNN Editor Lamar Bennington. "To effectively rebrand the Caymans as a diver-friendly destination rather than an overdeveloped, mass tourism Caribbean theme park aimed at cruise ship shoppers and low-end "Son of Florida" artificial reef divers, you've got to throw the bad apples out — the industry insiders like Nancy Easterbrook and Steve Broadbelt who have systematically lied and repeatedly abused their positions to leverage their own businesses and line their own pockets." Confronted by the steady rise in "dive and stay" package rates, overdevelopment and crude attempts to blame scuba diving accidents on the victims, discerning dive travelers are understandably looking for safe, affordable, eco-friendly alternatives to the Cayman Islands and its predictable theme park "artificial reef" diving product. |
