News Clip Showing LCBR Renovations and Future CB and LC Expansions

[KathyV]

See this link:
Renovations complete as Little Cayman Beach Resort marks silver anniversary

The film clip shows a glimpse of the new dining room at Little Cayman Beach Resort and also talks about the planned expansions at both Sister Island Clearly Cayman Resorts, 16 new rooms will be added to both LCBR and Cayman Brac Beach Resort.

It's their 25th anniversary at LCBR so congratulations to them!


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 pave the way for expansion, to add-on additional capacity in the future,” said Michael 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.”

 

[RCB1882]

Thanks for the video share.

I grabbed the renditions of the expansions for CBBR and LCBR, which appear below in that order.

 

[KathyV]

Thanks for the video share.

I grabbed the renditions of the expansions for CBBR and LCBR, which appear below in that order.

View attachment 507371 View attachment 507372

Thanks!

It's good that they are adding some more rooms to both LCBR and CBBR because they can book up fast (especially LCBR) and sometimes it can be difficult to get a room for the dates that you want, but I wonder if they also plan to increase the number of flights into LCM?

There have been times when rooms were available on LC but we couldn't get flights from GC to LC on the date(s) that we wanted. The Brac airport is much larger and can accept larger planes and even jets, including flights that land after dark - but the LCM airport only takes small planes and only during daylight hours - which can be short during the winter when rooms are in the highest demand.

Cayman Air has been increasing the number of direct flights to GCM from major cities in the US but that still may not work for someone trying to get from a distant city like Denver to LC in one day. The flights to LC are limited so unless you arrive at GCM by early to mid-afternoon, so you may have to overnight on GC just to get over to LC the next morning. That adds to the expense and inconvenience of traveling and it eats up vacation time.

The news clip indicated that Moses Kirkconnell was at the recent celebration at LCBR and he is the Deputy Premier for the Cayman Islands and also the elected representative for the Sister Islands, so he is surely aware of the limited flight options for getting to LC. Perhaps Cayman Airways are also working on ways to increase the number and times for flights into Little Cayman? That might also help to alleviate some of the problems with delayed luggage.

We will have to see what the future holds for some of our favorite Caribbean dive resorts!

 

[AggieDiver]

Getting some lights on the LC runway would fix that problem and allow them to run another twin otter flight each day. But being privately owned hampers making any big changes to the airport.

 

[KathyV]

Here are some images of the new dining room at LCBR, it looks really nice!

 

[KathyV]

Getting some lights on the LC runway would fix that problem and allow them to run another twin otter flight each day. But being privately owned hampers making any big changes to the airport.

I know, but Deputy Premier Kirkconnell was at the recent celebration for the renovations at LCBR and he said that approximately 70% of the visitors to the sister islands stay at the Clearly Cayman properties. He was also involved in the recent expansion of Cayman Airways services, including the direct flights from Denver; so he must recognize that the limited flight availability to/from LC causes a bottleneck. Hopefully his voice will help move the government to improve that situation.

 

[AggieDiver]

I am not sure there is much that they can do. From what I understand, the list of improvements that the government wants on LC starts with full security measures for all passengers like all other airports have. That is pretty much a non-starter with the current ownership of the airport. Any other changes (like lighted runways to allow later flights) would also come with higher costs for having a fire crew available longer hours and the Cayman Airways folks in their office longer. So I don't foresee it happening any time soon. There is periodically talk of building a new airport on LC that would be owned and operated by the government. I hope that never happens. I am willing to put up with flight schedule inconveniences if it keeps them from overdeveloping the island.

 

[markmud]

But being privately owned hampers making any big changes to the airport.

Why is that? If anything, it should make it easier. With a positive pro forma, the proverbial ball can start rolling.

Is there a no-growth faction on Little Cayman?

Just curious,
markm

 

[AggieDiver]

Why is that? If anything, it should make it easier. With a positive pro forma, the proverbial ball can start rolling.

Is there a no-growth faction on Little Cayman?

Just curious,
markm

My understanding is driven just by what I have seen written about the issue in the past, and a few conversations with folks on the island, but I think it is a cost/benefit issue. The airport is owned by a private citizen or company. They don't really want to make any changes and kind of like the island the way it is now. If the government wants changes made, they are going to have to pay the airport owner a pretty penny to do it (in part because everything is more expensive there), and their preferred list of things they will pay for starts with upgraded security, and lights are farther down the list. With such a small population on LC, and the push to grow the economy of CB taking precedence, there isn't a good value proposition to the Cayman government to pay for airport upgrades, extra costs for overtime for fire personnel, cayman airways counter personnel, and extra flights. They just can't make a good case that the benefits to the country are there to spend the kind of money needed to do what they really want.

 

[KathyV]

Thanks for the video share.

I grabbed the renditions of the expansions for CBBR and LCBR, which appear below in that order.

View attachment 507371 View attachment 507372

Here's a couple of more pics of the renovations at LCBR showing the atrium and the lobby; it all looks nice and fresh!