Overview

The Basics

Three islands located in the Western Caribbean just 150 miles south of Cuba make up the Cayman Islands. Together, Grand Cayman island, Cayman Brac island, and Little Cayman island, have a landmass of 100 square miles. They are formed by a limestone outcropping of the Cayman Ridge, which is the tip of a submarine mountain that extends from the southeast coast of Cuba all the way to the Misteriosa Bank near Belize. As the islands’ foundation is porous limestone, there are no rivers on the Cayman Islands. The limestone foundation also accounts for the incredible transparency of the sea surrounding the islands.

The largest of the three islands, Grand Cayman, is 22 miles long and 8 miles at its widest points. Grand Cayman is also home to the capital city, George Town. Of the three islands, Cayman Brac is considered to be the most scenic. It is only 12 miles long and just over a mile wide with a large bluff that rises west to east along the island and culminates in a sheer cliff 140 feet above sea level on the eastern tip of the island. Coral reefs offering ideal conditions for anglers and divers surround all of the islands.

Trade winds cool the warm and humid environment. During the summers temperatures range between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit and between 72 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit in winter. May and October are the wettest months and there is an average annual rainfall of 46 inches.

Both Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac have international airlines that are served by six major airlines offering flights to US and European cities. There is a daily direct flight from Miami to Cayman that takes just over an hour to complete.

English is the official language and Caymanians tend to have a brogue that reflects Welsh, Scottish, and English origins. A significant proportion of the population immigrated to the Cayman Islands from Jamaica and commonly uses Jamaican patois.

As of July 2006, over 45,000 people lived in the Cayman Islands. The vast majority of the population lives on Grand Cayman while only 1,200 live on Cayman Brac and 120 live on Little Cayman. Non-Caymanians from 113 different countries make up a little over one-third of the population.

When discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1503, he named them “Las Tortugas” referring to the great number of sea turtles surrounding the islands. Roughly eighty years later, following a visit to the islands on a sea voyage, Sir Francis Drake re-named the islands The Cayman Islands after the local word for crocodile. Under the Treaty of Madrid, the Cayman Islands officially became a part of the British Empire in 1655. The islands were treated a dependency of Jamaica for the following 300 years. In February 1794, the Cayman Islands were granted freedom from taxation by King George III as a reward for the brave rescue of ten merchant vessels from the Royal fleet that ran aground.

More so than many Caribbean nations, the Caymanians are a maritime people. The lack of many native inland resources made it necessary for Caymanians to live from the sea and may have encouraged them to become good sailors. This may also be the reason that recreational scuba diving is believed to have originated in the Cayman Islands. Scuba diving is now a staple of the islands’ extensive tourist industry.

Government and Economy

Although Jamaica was granted independence in 1962, the Cayman Islands chose to continue to be a British Crown colony. The Constitution established in 1972, made The Cayman Islands a British Dependent Territory headed by a Governor who is appointed by the Queen for a four-year term. The Governor appoints three official members to the Executive Council. These three members are joined by five elected members who are selected from the 15 elected representatives in the Legislative Assembly.

The current government, elected in 2005 and lead by Kurt Tibbetts of the People’s Progessive Movement, has offered to hold a referendum on the issue of independence. This is a change from the former government lead by McKeeva Bush which supported only supported an increase in the amount of power granted to elected officials. In any case, the seeds of greater independence for the Cayman Islands were planted in the mid-90s when an amendment to the constitution set the groundwork for a new ministerial type of government and the five elected members of the council became known as Ministers and are now given a set of responsibilities by the Governor.

The Cayman Islands’ economy, dominated by tourism, which accounts for 70% of its GDP, and financial services, is flourishing. Citizens of the Cayman Islands have one of the highest standards of living in the region and unemployment is only 7%.

The Cayman Islands tourist industry largely attracts high-end tourists. Of the more than one million people who visit the islands yearly, the majority are tourists from the US or are cruise ship visitors.

Over the past 25 years, the government of the Cayman Islands has made a concerted effort to turn their nation into one of the top financial jurisdictions. This effort has been helped by the fact that the Cayman Islands have never had any kind of taxation with the exception of stamp and import duties and registration fees. The key sectors of the financial services industry are banking, insurance, trust management, and mutual funds. Currently more than 40,000 foreign companies are register in the Cayman Islands. These companies as well as the financial sector as a whole are regulated by the Cayman Monetary Authority, which is an independent body.

The Cayman Islands have a good reputation for legislating away questionable businesses supported by drug money or money laundering. Not only have they signed mutual legal assistance treaties with the UK and the US, but also they are a leading member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).

2001 brought an economic rough patch for the nation that was worsened by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. The attacks caused heavy damage in the tourist sector and disrupted international banking. In response to these difficulties, the government temporarily cut certain import tariffs and stamp duties. Despite the recent economic troubles, at $35,000 USD per head, its GDP is still one of the highest in the world.