A sense of jubilation and commitment pervaded Belmond Cap Juluca on Wednesday, October 30. That was when the several hundred employees joined in an exciting scavenger hunt and property beautification day on the eve of the reopening of the five-star resort.
From 8 am to noon the workers spread across the resort bordering the half-moon shaped Maundays Bay Beach repainting various areas, removing debris and trimming overgrowth, leaving the courtyard and vegetation strikingly-manicured and attractive.
Management personnel were on hand at each location motivating the already geared-up employees, while the culinary team busily prepared a sumptuous luncheon for them. The lunch was served at The Cap Shack, an outdoor food and drink service facility on the beach at the western end of the property.
There, General Manager, Mr. Tiago Moraes Sarmento, took time from his busy schedule to thank the employees for their work and to interact with them.
Asked to speak about the reopening of the property following a good deal of preparatory work, he said: “Today we started a 24-hour countdown for the reopening of Belmond Cap Juluca. After such a challenging and extraordinary year, we gave ourselves sixty days to reconvene and work on the facilities of the resort. The feedback of our employees and guests is crucial for a successful business. We got a lot of feedback throughout the first year of the reopening of Belmond Cap Juluca and we worked hard during the past sixty days on tweeting the things that we had to do.
“We are excited to announce that before Thanksgiving we will have a new fitness centre. We have an extraordinary new landscaping design. We have new menus across the food & beverage outlets; and more important than anything we have a team who is extremely motivated to perform really well throughout the coming season. We have also focussed a lot in the past month on training our leaders in developing management and leadership skills and training our employees in technical and skills sets.
“We are really ready and these are exciting times. When you feel happy and excited the first thing is to share with your team and that’s why today we thought of doing a full clean-up of the 180 acres of property of Belmond Cap Juluca including Maundays Bay. We are now finalising this with an amazing barbecue for all of our 380 Julucans. It is all very exciting and I am very, very happy and I am happy that you came here.”
Commenting on the tourism season regarding Belmond Ca Juluca, Mr. Sarmento stated: “The season looks busier than ever. We expect this Christmas and festive season to deliver 40% more than our results last year which were amazing and 2020 is expected to be around 20% better than 2019 which was already a year beyond any expectations.”
Following the party-like lunch, there were a number of contests and prizes for the employees. The prizes included a dinner for two at Malliouhana and a Calypso sunset cruise.
Everywhere at The Cap Shack the employees shared an atmosphere of camaraderie and delight which they will no doubt carry on the job as they welcome the resort’s discerning guests to Anguilla.
