On its popular Today Show, NBC, one of America’s leading television networks, is hosting a special destination wedding in which Anguilla and Cap Juluca Hotel are among the four finalists selected from some 100 competitors. The other destinations that won selection are Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, Canada; Lake Placid in New York State; and Biltmore Estate in Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina.

L-R: Eustace Guishard, Mimi Gratton and John Benjamin

Chairman of the Anguilla Tourist Board, John Benjamin, Mimi Gratton, Executive Director of the Hotel and Tourism Association and Eustace Guishard, Manager of Cap Juluca, called a press conference on Wednesday, September 8 about the grand affair. It was to announce Cap Juluca’s selection as one of the finalists and to urge persons here and in the rest of the Caribbean to vote for the property, citing the great publicity and other benefits it entails for the island and region. The voting by computer on www.msn.com ends at 12 noon on Tuesday September 14 with the results available the following day.

While the week-long voting is in progress, NBC will be featuring a three-hour show each day from 7-10 a.m. to enable millions of viewers to see the details of what they are voting for with respect to the destinations. An NBC television team visited Anguilla for four days last month and filmed scenes of Cap Juluca and the island for the purpose.

The couple to be married in the winning destination is Nikki and Buddy of Kentucky, an American state which features heavily in tourist arrivals in Anguilla. There were 100 couples in the contest of whom four were finalists. The winning couple scored a massive 200,000 votes which speak to the wide coverage the event and the destinations are receiving.

In anticipation that Cap Juluca may win the NBC “Today Throw a Destination Wedding,” Mr. Guishard told the media of work being done to prepare the beach for the marriage and to give the property a general facelift, now that the hotel is closed for the season. It will reopen for business on or about October 29. The wedding it is gearing up for is slated for November 19.

Mimi Gratton, pointing to the awards won by Cap Juluca over the years, (including its recent rating as number one in the Caribbean and third among the top 20 international resort hotels), reasoned that the property had a good chance of winning the NBC destination wedding.

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