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Small businesses, big ponds
Cayman Islands Tourism Association Executive Director Jane van der Bol lauded the role that small businesses play in the tourism sector, noting that together they make up the majority of employment opportunities in Cayman.
“Especially in industries such as tourism and finance, it’s critical that we have jobs for individuals and, and these smaller- to mid-sized businesses are the backbone that keeps that viable,” she said.
Prior to becoming head of the association late last year, Ms van der Bol spent some 25 years in the tourism sector, working for companies ranging from one with a staff size of four, all the way up to the fourth-largest travel company in the US.
She said her association provides a platform for tourism businesses to send unified messages backed by the weight of the sector as a whole.
“If we need to see a change regarding critical issues facing our country, with large and small businesses talking together, we can speak as one voice,” she said.
Membership especially benefits small businesses because the group is able to market the tourism product of the entire country, on a much grander scale than an individual small business could.