Grenada’s Spice Island Beach Resort postpones reopening

Spice Island Beach Resort on Grenada’s Grand Anse Beach has pushed its reopening back a year to October 2021 in the hope that the Covid-19 pandemic will have subsided by then.

The 64-suite, family-owned luxury resort had originally set a tentative reopening date of Nov. 1. It now plans to use the lockdown period to embed safety and health protocols and to further enhance the property, according to Janelle Hopkin, president and managing director of the resort who succeeded her father Sir Royston Hopkin to the post following his death in February.

The Hopkin family took the precautionary decision to delay reopening “to protect our guests, our family and our employees from the spike in infections that we have seen across the Caribbean as islands and hotels have reopened,” said Hopkin.

“Our employees, many of whom have been with us for years and have become an extended family, would like nothing more than to welcome guests back to Spice to relax away from the crisis,” she said, adding that “we have been watching what has been happening internationally and have made the decision to wait.”

The resort, which has a 45% repeat clientele, plans to work with the guidelines of local and international health officials regarding Covid-19 to make the necessary adjustments to its operations “and adapt to the new normal once travel and social restrictions have been eased internationally,” according to Hopkin.

The family has committed to completing ongoing enhancements that began two years ago.

“My intention is to complete the work my dad began by sticking to the master plan he unveiled in 2018 and rolling out a new and improved resort in 2021,” she said.