6 | Coconut Bay Beach Resort & Spa
other resorts reside. It allows those employ-
ees to gain skills and training to begin careers
in the hospitality industry, while also helping
Hawken cover all the service bases in a resort
that boasts 82-percent annual occupancy.
“As the only major resort on the southern
half of the island, it was very, very difficult
finding skilled labor that was willing to re-
locate down to the south,” he says. “Once
we realized that, we changed the strategy to
more of one that gave people an opportu-
nity, putting them through a lot of training
and seeing who would end up being excel-
lent hospitality ambassadors and staff.
“The majority of these people are the sole
breadwinners, even if they are young school-
leavers, so at least they’re bringing some
money to households that had little. It is a
win-win. We’re developing our own work-
force, training them from scratch and they
are bringing home some money to assist the
families in the household.”
Coconut Bay experiences its peak season
between late November and early May, and
draws about a third of its annual business
each from Great Britain, the United States
and Canada. The British traffic is a product,
Hawken says, of the resort being the closest
family friendly, all-inclusive facility in the
Caribbean that’s reachable from London via
