Cap Juluca Resort in Anguilla has been voted top hotel in the Caribbean, Bermuda and The Bahamas by Travel & Leisure magazine’s subscribers in its Eighth Annual World’s Best Awards Survey. The hotels surveyed were judged in the categories of rooms and facilities, location, service, restaurants, food and value. The respondents were asked to rate hotels, islands, spas, cities, cruise lines and tour operators. There were almost 200,000 evaluations on the questionnaire. The results of the poll were published in the August 2003 issue of the magazine.

This is the most prestigious award that Cap Juluca has received in recent times. The Andrew Harper Grand Hideaway Hotel Award was obtained in December/January and earlier this year Travel & Life presented the property with the Best Caribbean Resort Award.

Managing Director of Cap Juluca, Eustace Guishard, showed off the Travel & Leisure Award at a press briefing on Tuesday, August 12. “What I have here is what you call the world’s best award from Travel & Leisure…It is really a pleasure for me to say that Cap Juluca was named number one hotel in the Caribbean and this is the first time we have ever won this award. This is very meaningful to me as an Anguillian because the history of this hotel is about 12-15 years old and we had a lot of challenges and there are still a lot of challenges, but this is the first management team that has ever been able to take this hotel to this height. It is practically all Anguillians.” He was grateful to his staff, management team and Dion Friedland for giving them a free hand to operate the hotel.

The management team working with Mr. Guishard comprises George Reid, Caryl Connor, Gillian Richardson, Patricia Bryan, Jeff David, Richardo Perez and Phyllis Fleming-Banks, all serving under a Board of Directors.

“It is really a pleasure to know that we as Anguillians can accomplish so much,” Mr. Guishard said. “This outstanding honour is consistent with the feedback we receive from our guests. We are very proud of our superb staff, all of whom deserve recognition and praise for the contribution they have made in helping us achieve this distinction.”

Editor-in-Chief of Travel & Leisure, Nancy Novogrod, said readers of the magazine had an eye for quality and Cap Juluca was the quintessential island resort. It is “sophisticated and located on a silky white sand beach,” she commented. “With those fantastic whole sand domes and turrets, it looks like a Moroccan palace.”

The secluded and romantic resort is located on a 179-acre retreat with 58 spacious luxury rooms and junior suites; seven suites and six pool villas located in 18 very private white Moorish style two-storey beachfront villas. All rooms have ocean views and are air-conditioned. There is a junior Olympic-size swimming pool and a choice of two beaches: Maundays Bay and Cove Bay.

Mr. Guishard said the crown land was leased for development as a showpiece of the island’s tourism industry and lamented that such an outstanding property like Cap Juluca was locked in a long-standing ownership dispute. He said, that according to the lease, the hotel should have had between 160 and 175 rooms. He was of the view that the Government could deal with the matter, but the ownership issue is before the courts. Mr. Guishard emphasised that notwithstanding the dispute the hotel was doing exceptionally well and a search was on for villas to accommodate the overflow guests at the resort. He gave much commendation to Florida-based Robin and Sue Ricketts whose marketing efforts are keeping a constant stream of guests booking reservations at the resort.

He was concerned however, that the continuing legal battle was frustrating and retarding the further development of the hotel and thereby resulting in the loss of a great deal of money in revenue for the Government and the property itself.
“We need to bring a resolution to this because we are not going anywhere,” he added.

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