GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND (27 Apr 2005) -- According to the Miami Herald and the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, diving in the Caymans is now "...more enjoyable than before" thanks to a miracle called Hurricane Ivan. Repackaging the horrible destruction of "Ivan the Terrible" into a benevolent natural force that created spectacular new dive sites probably has more to do with the amount of money the Cayman Islands Tourism Association spends on travel advertising in the Miami Herald than any objective, scientific comparative analysis of marine species abundance and diversity at such overhyped and eco-unfriendly dive sites as Stingray City. Despite official government spin and obedient newspaper columnists paid to gush about silly theme park dive sites magically revitalized by destructive hurricanes, savvy dive travelers and responsible travel agents - those that understand the importance of satisfied repeat customers - still avoid the Cayman Islands because the reconstruction effort lags far, far behind the "too much too soon" promotional hype. Still mostly in ruins And that's the problem. No matter how loudly tourism promoters attempt to drum up more business with fanciful reports about the miracle of "hurricane-enhanced" diving, most of the tourism infrastructure in the Caymans remains, according to the government's own official reports, dead. Mark Bastis, president of the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, admits that nearly 60 percent of pre-hurricane hotel room capacity has not yet been repaired. Worse, 70 percent of the condos and guesthouses in the Caymans are still in ruins. While some dive operators are up and running, many have packed up and followed dive travelers to Honduras, Bonaire and other Caribbean destinations that were spared the destruction of last year's hurricanes. Only one dive center remains on the less developed east end of Grand Cayman Island and the dive industry buzzword throughout the Caymans these days is "artificial reefs". Shipwreck City: The Florida solution While tourism officials and dive operators work overtime on the makeover of "hurricane-enhanced" dive sites, the official Cayman Islands dive booster handwriting is all over the underwater walls and it spells "urban development" rather than "natural beauty". Local business promoters want to repackage the Caymans as "Shipwreck City", an underwater amusement park based on what some call the "Florida solution". The problem that confronted Florida was how to keep a multi-million dollar dive industry viable after overpopulation, bad planning and mismanagement of coastal resources wiped out 95 percent of its coral reefs. Rather than bite the bullet and clean up its polluted coastal ecosystems, Florida started sinking old decommissioned military vessels - dubbed "artificial reefs" - to provide dive operators and their scuba diving customers with underwater amusement parks. | | Too much too soon? Only seven months after 'Ivan the Terrible' ravaged the Caymans, tourism officials are struggling to spin the once popular dive destination as 'even better after the hurricane'. But savvy dive travelers and responsible dive travel companies alike continue to avoid a dive destination that is still mostly in ruins. The problem with artificial reefs is that no matter how much you pay a hotel developer (who happens to be related to a renowned environmentalist) to eco-spin a big ugly rusting ship sunk to make money, it's still a big ugly rusting ship sunk to make money. Anybody who says otherwise, including Jean-Michel Cousteau hired by the Cayman Islands Tourism Association to eco-spin the project as dive industry's answer to the worldwide decline of coral reefs, has either been paid to lie or is completely ignorant of scientific studies that suggest artificial reefs may actually accelerate coral reef degradation. Tiger Woods sets up for a dive on his RIB dive tender off the stern of 'Privacy'.Floating Woods In its article promoting travel to the "hurricane-enhanced Caymans", the Miami Herald could not resist floating a name of one famous visitor as an example of divers who recently visited the Cayman Islands. But ironically and as always, Tiger Woods steered well clear of both repaired and unrepaired tourism infrastructure in the Cayman Islands by bringing his own hotel, fully-equipped dive center and dive boat: the 151-ft luxury yacht aptly named 'Privacy'. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
