When many U.S. travelers think of the Cayman Islands, they mostly think of wealthy offshore bank accounts, beaches and luxurious resorts.
But the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism says the island also has some of the Caribbean’s best restaurants and most delicious recipes and it’s initiating a new marketing campaign to attract more U.S. travelers.
Last week, the department had a partnership with Los Angeles-based meal kit delivery company Chef’d that lets U.S. travelers order meal kits containing ingredients of Cayman Island recipes.
Rosa Harris, director of tourism for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism said, “Unless you try something, you don’t know how successful it’ll be. We were more specifically concentrated on a luxury, millennial, young professional clientele who is cooking at home and open to different kinds of cuisines.”
The meal kits are available through September 15. The Cayman Islands is trying to leverage Chef’d’s west coast footholds to help it reach more travelers from large markets such as California. Texas and northeast U.S. markets such as New York, which are already large source markets for the Cayman Islands, are also targets for the campaign.
The Cayman Islands’ food scene also attracts plenty of star power that many travelers aren’t aware of. World-renowned chefs and food personalities such as Eric Ripert, Daniel Humm, Anthony Bourdain and Emeril Lagrasse come to the Cayman Islands regularly for the Cayman Cookout.
For a small island country in the western Caribbean, Cayman Islands boasts more than 230 restaurants such as Ripert’s Blue, the Caribbean’s only AAA Five Diamond restaurant. The meal kits range from $13 to $16 each and take between 40 to 90 minutes to prepare and cook.
The Cayman Islands is trying to break away from traditional kinds of marketing campaigns that do more telling than showing. With the meal kits, consumers can directly engage with island recipes.
