Barry Collymore is at the forefront of Caribbean tourism. His resort in Grenada, Mount Cinnamon Hotel and Beach Resort, is a true gem sitting pretty on the exclusive Grand Anse beach. He also founded social enterprise, the West Indies School of Hospitality, or WISH Grenada, with the hope of making a lasting impact on locals and the industry as a whole.
We sat down with Barry to find out a little more about his impressive hospitality background, his exciting plans for the luxury resort and his deep love for Grenada.
When you took over the Mount Cinnamon Hotel and Beach Resort what initially attracted you to the property?
I am not sure many people know this, but I have a very interesting connection with Mount Cinnamon. When I first moved to Grenada in 1998, it was the first place I stayed as a tourist. I liked MC and Grenada so much that I decided to stay and rented an apartment at Mount Cinnamon. I lived there for three years as a tenant.
Years later in 2007, I joined Peter de Savarys team, and helped lead the redevelopment of Mount Cinnamon. I was later invited to join the board of directors of the company that owned Mount Cinnamon and served as a director until 2022, the year I took the reins.
So, to summarise, Grenada is one of the most magically beautiful places on earth, and Mount Cinnamon helps to create and illustrate this magic!
We are looking forward to seeing the results of the upcoming renovations. Tell us more and what can guests expect to see when the resort reopens in October?
It was important that we worked with someone local who would be able to incorporate stylistic nods to our culture, so we employed local architect Irina Kostka to redesign the restaurant, bar, pool, and lounge within the main resort building.
The resort will close for the month of September for the renovations, which also include soft updates to the Hacienda Suites and Villas, before reopening the first week of October. The brief to Kostka was to create spaces that combine a level of sophistication with a sense of place and are as welcoming as Caribbean culture itself.
I want the design to allow guests at the resort to feel as comfortable in shorts as in a suit, as well as encourage social interaction. A 360° bar will be added for this reason, while the pool area will be enhanced with lounge styling and a floating stage for an increased entertainment programme, and a new speciality coffee shop. The sense of place will come through bright colour accents on an otherwise neutral palette, and Grenadian and Caribbean artwork, much of which will celebrate farmers and suppliers.
The building is still almost in its original form from the 1980s and the focus for this project is to put a modern spin on the design, which will accentuate the character of the building rather than erase it. We want our guests to enjoy an authentic Caribbean experience and that will continue to come across in the new design and the warm, Grenadian character shared by the team. Sustainability and community are also very important to the resort and we are using local architects, contractors and many local materials where possible in the renovations.
Great quality produce and food is something you seem very passionate about. Tell us more about your involvement with leading Barbados-based, British chef Sophie Michell?
Sophie has worked in Michelin star kitchens, as well as consulted for UK restaurant brands and written several books, before opening Barbados’ first true farm-to-table restaurant. We are passionate about sustainability and fresh produce and I was so impressed with her innovative approach to food. Her experience will allow us to further develop relationships with farmers and fishermen across the island to procure produce locally where possible, as well as expand the resort’s own kitchen garden.
Tell us more about the types of guests that are staying with you? What changes are you seeing in the travel industry with guests visiting Grenada?
Our guest range is quite vast. We are the kind of resort where most people feel at home and very comfortable, as we have created a ‘home away from home’ environment here. Our traditional guests are family travel and honeymoon/romance travel. Our resort naturally lends itself to this type of travel. However we are seeing many more group trips and buyouts as well as women travelling on their own.
Where on the island – other than Mount Cinnamon – would you recommend to a friend visiting?
Grenada has such a great food culture that it would have to be an experience related to that. As I’ve already touched on, we’ve recently appointed top British chef Sophie Michell as food and beverage consultant to help develop the resort’s farm-to-table approach so we’re keen that guests with an interest in food are also able to see where our great produce comes from.
I’d definitely recommend a visit to Belmont Estate, a 17th-century plantation located in the north east of the island. Guests can enjoy an immersive experience in the organic farm, goat dairy and tree-to-bar chocolate making. For guests travelling with their family, the chocolate bar making experience at Tri Island Chocolate is a fun experience which lets you select various ingredients to add to a chocolate bar mould, topped with melted chocolate and chilled to take away with you.
I’d also recommend a sunset cruise with Savvy Sailing, which sees guests go out on a traditional sloop with crew who are all local boat builders and fishermen from the small fishing villages of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, which means plenty of local insight.
As co-founder of The West Indies School of Hospitality (WISH) – in collaboration with eCornell University and The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) – you have trained over 1,000 Grenadians in various hospitality fields thus far. What inspired you to start the social enterprise?
I spent a lot of time in property development, with a focus on building hotels – physical structures – and what I noticed is that we have not spent enough time building people. Hotels will open and then they have to bring in senior level staff from other countries. It’s not sustainable to keep doing this. The reason for importing skills should be to enrich your product, not because you have a scarcity of local skills. And that’s where the West Indies School of Hospitality (WISH) started. The best hotels in the world have experienced, skilled staff but also offer guests a sense of place and an insight into that destination’s culture by employing local people into their teams.
WISH has collaborated with eCornell University and The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) to create learning paths for Caribbean people in the hospitality and service industries for a more empowered, confident and efficient workforce, and in turn a more competitive Caribbean destination. WISH has delivered 2,000 scholarships to hospitality workers in Grenada and the wider Caribbean, in various hospitality fields from hospitality management and strategic hospitality marketing to analysing climate change and the global food and beverage system.
Factbox
Address: 26CJ+44F, Grand Anse St. George’s Grenada, The Lime, Grenada
Phone: +1 473-439-9900
Website: mountcinnamongrenadahotel.com
All imagery credit: Mount Cinnamon Hotel and Beach Resort
