Letter from Brian Murphy General Manager of Carlisle Bay to staff:
As you are fully aware it has nearly been one full year since Carlisle bay has been faced with challenges that Covid-19 has brought upon our shores.
As a hotel and as a community we have learned to live and work side by side during these challenging times.
From the recent news reports locally and globally it seems that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
However, in saying that, we still have a long way to go before the travel industry returns to normal where we can welcome our guests back to Carlisle Bay without having the worry about potential lockdowns, curfew and receiving a negative COVID test before returning home. With the news of the rollout of the vaccine globally and even locally there is hope for international travel returning.
The UK have advised international travel will not resume before 17th May 2021. The announcement was made by the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson on February 22nd, 2021. The UK has atrised that they will review this date on 12th April 2021.
Despite the efforts of Carlisle Bay’s UK and North American Sales Team by implementing further specials and increasing commissions to entice new business; the Resort has seen a reduction of $1.2M per Room Revenue for the first 4 months of the year, to which an additional $600K which was forecasted for Food and Beverage revenue; thus bringing the combined total loss to just under $2M to date.
Considering this new information, Carlisle Bay has taken the decision to extend the current layoff period until May 10, 2021. Please understand that this decision was not taken lightly as we are all aware of the impact the past 12 months has had on everyone financially. We will continue to provide Food Care packages for all laid-off team members which will be distributed on every Friday to try and lessen the financial impact.
We will endeavour to support you with any queries that you may have, and we will keep all our employees updated through regular communication as developments arise by email. If you have any queries, please email me at brianmurphy@carlisle-bay. com.
We trust that this current challenging time will come to an end soon and we hope that we will be back to normal levels of trading soon. Thank you for all your effort and hard work.
We deeply regret that it has come to this but unfortunately it is beyond our control.
Yours sincerely, Brian Murphy – General Manager Carlisle Bay Resort Limited Tel +26RA Carlisle Bay, Old Road, St. Mary’s, Antigua, West Indies