Posted on August 25, 2025
Marriott boss says project will boost tourism and create jobs
On a typically scorching Cayman day this week, tourists in bathing suits step off the Grand Cayman Marriott Resort deck and straight into the clear blue water. Snorkellers, paddle boarders and wave-runners drift in the shallows. It’s an idyllic scene but one key ingredient is missing.
“Right now we have no beach,” said general manager of the hotel, Hermes Cuello.
“If we can get three or four rows of chairs back, we will be very happy.”
For years the resort has been ground zero for Seven Mile Beach’s erosion problem. Now it hopes a new replenishment project can be the start of a resurgence both for the business and for the famous attraction.
Cabinet approved the project to deposit up to 8,000 cubic yards of fresh sand on a stretch of shoreline fronting the hotel earlier this month. The sand will be held in place with low-profile rock structures.
It is the beginning of the end of a long battle for the hotel, which has submitted various applications for different projects over a number of years.
“Over the last four or five years, we lost 40% of our business,” Cuello said.
He believes the replenished beach, which will be open to the public, will help create around 150 more jobs at the hotel, attract lost business and bolster government revenue.
“Regaining the beach will be an incredible help — not only for our hotel, but for the whole community. From food vendors and fishermen to water sports, attractions and accommodation taxes, everyone benefits when we’re back in full business,” he said.
The Marriott is aiming to restore the beach to its former glory.
Despite its picturesque ocean-side setting, he said, the Marriott had suffered badly through the loss of its beach.
“The reality is that tourists come to Cayman because we are known by our white sand, pristine beaches. When they want to vacation in a resort, they want to stay on the beach and Seven Mile Beach is our main product. It’s what we sell to the world. If you have resorts, condos without beach, that’s not Cayman.”
That’s why he hopes the Marriott project will be the start of something bigger for the deeply eroded southern section of Seven Mile. He said the project, which includes low-profile rock structures to help keep the sand in place, was essentially a “demonstration project” that could serve as a blueprint for the rest of the beach.
“There is a bigger effort needed, but we want to start moving forward and show that this is something that could work for the island,” he said.
A computer-generated image shows how the modified beach would look.
The Marriott project will involve sourcing appropriate quality sand, likely from the Bahamas, and depositing it in front of the hotel. Cuello said the final cost and timeline for the project was yet to be determined and he acknowledged the beach would not be back overnight.
In the longer term, he believes government and the private sector could work together on a much-larger replenishment project, including regularly topping up sand that is lost during storms.
