Business View Caribbean | October 2019

20 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN OCTOBER 2019 dining to more formal settings. Bespoke weddings, celebrations, and honeymoons are a Carlisle Bay specialty – where romance meets excitement in a laidback atmosphere that has patrons returning year after year. Camilla Sukamaran started working at Carlisle Bay Resort in the summer of 2018 as Assistant Manager and has excelled as Acting General Manager since March 2019. According to Sukamaran, “Carlisle Bay Resort is owned by Harcourt Developments, a family company out of Ireland. The Chairman, Patrick Doherty, bought the resort in Dec. 2003 and runs the business with his five sons and one daughter. Harcourt has about 120 other companies – shopping centers, residential developments, hotels, and visitor attractions – in Ireland and the U.K.” The resort’s popular Jessie Grill restaurant at the end of the beach was expanded and refurbished last year with a bigger kitchen, enlarged dining area, stylish new furnishings, and the creation of a better bar space. “We’re a very sporting resort,” says Sukamaran. “We have a lot of buildings and we do a huge amount of annual repairs and maintenance, so much to paint. You never seem to finish; you get to one end and start all over again. It’s madness; especially, if the building is on the beach, because of the weather. It’s a constant labor of love to keep it looking top-notch.” When Hurricane Irma tore through in Sept. 2016, Antigua was extremely lucky to miss the brunt of the storm, while sister island Barbuda was absolutely wiped out. Adding to the emotional and economic dismay, tourist numbers dropped considerably throughout the entire region. While tourism is increasing again, now, Sukamaran cautions, “Whether it is actually improving, depends, because there is always something else to factor in. In 2018, the hotels and resorts here benefitted from business coming to us because many resorts in places like BVI had to close. So there was a little bump last year in occupancy from that but now, on top of worrying about