Already famed for being the culinary capital of the Caribbean, the Cayman Islands is now set to boldly go where no Caribbean island has gone before and become a new hub for space tourism. 

Nestled in the western Caribbean, south of Cuba and west of Jamaica, the Cayman Islands is home to delicious cuisine, rare flora and fauna and the famous Seven Mile Beach with its powdery white sand and crystal clear waters. With over 365 different scuba diving sites many visitors will have explored the incredible underwater world of the islands, but now they will be given the chance to see them from a whole new perspective whilst up in space.

Plans have been approved to develop four major rocket launch pads along Seven Mile Beach allowing visitors to enjoy the highlights of Grand Cayman before heading off above the earth’s atmosphere and into space.

A spokesman from the Cayman Aeronautics and Space Administration (CASA) said: “We are extremely excited to be the first Caribbean island to launch this type of tourism.

It is an ambitious project but one that we hope will really take off as a way to attract more people to experience these beautiful islands, both on and above the earth’s surface.”

Don McDougall, regional manager for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, Europe said: “We are always looking for new attractions to offer the thousands of holiday-makers that visit the Cayman Islands every year. Space tourism is something we have always been interested in and the sands of Seven Mile Beach provide the perfect platform for these launch pads.

The launch pads will also be a tourist draw in themselves as there aren’t many places in the world where you can be up close to a rocket taking off.”

The project will take four years to complete with the first Cayman Space Tour taking off on 1 April 2021.