Renovations complete as Little Cayman Beach Resort marks silver anniversary
Little Cayman Beach Resort is celebrating 25 years of hospitality with the completion of a major renovation project, which paves the way for future expansion.
It’s a Caymanian success story three generations in the making.
The dinner bell rings for the first time at the newly refurbished birds of paradise restaurant at Little Cayman Beach Resort, a first step in a planned expansion.
This is our 25th anniversary so we were due for a renovation, we also want to expand this is we want to pave the way for expansion, to add-on additional capacity in the future, said Micheal Tibbetts of Clearly Cayman Resorts.
Wednesday (21 February), Little Cayman Beach Resort marked its 25th anniversary with a small ceremony, in the shade of the same tree where a young Mr. Ttibbetts emceed the resort’s grand opening.
Mr. Tibbetts and his sisters Emily and Jessica represent the third generation to helm the family business.
We are incredibly proud of our family legacy, said Mr. Tibbetts. We go back to some of the first settlers in the Cayman Islands, to my grandfather [Linton Tibbetts] who really was a pioneer in business throughout the Cayman Islands, he built the first brac reef resort hotel in 1978, and my father [Dan Tibbetts] lived out his dream by building the Little Cayman Beach Resort.
No one knows what the next generation is going to do, but we know what this generation has done for the past two, and we say hats off to you, said Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell, a long-time family friend who was on hand for the festivities.
As tourism minister, he said it’s hard to understate the impact Little Cayman Beach Resort and its Cayman Brac counterpart have had on sister islands tourism.
Between Cayman Brac and Little Cayman they probably have 70% of the arrivals, said Mr. Kirkconnell. It is a dive destination for them, and they cater to a total dive package, which means you’re going to get the dive, you’re going to get the food, and you’re also going to get the room.
As for rooms, Mr. Tibbetts told Cayman 27 more are on the way, at both Little Cayman and Cayman Brac beach resorts.
We have oceanfront rooms now that are very popular, and so the concept would be to add onto those with similar oceanfront rooms that really kind of open up right to the beach, said Mr. Tibbetts.
And as you might expect for this family affair, members of the fourth generation were on-hand to help cut the ribbon.
16 new rooms are planned for both the Little Cayman and Cayman Brac beach resorts.