It was a-trip-like-no-other for 361 travel agents who, thanks to Sandals Resorts International (SRI), actually became visitors to its latest Caribbean luxury resort, which they’d been feverishly selling daily.
The holidaymakers-turned-visitors arrived on several non-stop flights from the USA to Saint Vincent & The Grenadines (SVG), for the Sandals Star Awards ceremony.
Hosted on the evening of May 16, 2024, the sparkling event allowed SRI’s top executives and travel managers to thank, reward and award the travel advisers who’d sent the most clients to its 24 properties across nine Caribbean islands.
The annual ceremony had been forcibly paused by COVID-19 and this year’s quickly followed the soft-launch of SRI’s first property in SVG on March 27, joining others in Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI).
Working Holiday
The travel advisers’ weeklong (May 13-17) working-holiday included welcome receptions, resort tours, late-night and beachfront entertainment.
They also attended a Social Media Marketing and Destination Forum, a Wedding Forum and Showcase, a Local Vendors Craft Market and a Sandals & Beaches Business Review Session.
But the unusual visitors were also on tenterhooks, as major North American airlines serving the Caribbean were redesigning bookings systems in ways that could erase their future commissions.
Their case has been taken-up by the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) at the highest levels in Washington, but the mere thought that this could be their last Sandals Star Awards Ceremony was enough to haunt them with daily nightmares.
Momentary Uplift
However, the thankful travel advisers stopped living in limbo, even momentarily, during the Sandals and Beaches Review Session at the resort’s spacious conference centre, on the morning of May 16.
Sandals Executive Chairman Adam Stewart delivered his inaugural address (in the top SRI post) alongside ever-effervescent Vice President for Sales and Marketing Gary Sandler, SRI CEO Gerhard Rainer and Unique Vacations Inc. CEO Jeff Clarke.
St. Vincent & The Grenadines Tourism Minister Carlos James, ASTA’s President & CEO Zane Kerby and CEO of Inter-Caribbean Airways Trevor Sadler also addressed the celebrated guests.
Durably Delightful
Stewart offered a durably delightful and deeply-insightful account of his visionary father Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s long legacy of dedication to Caribbean tourism — and his equally-endless determination to ensure the company he’d built from its first cornerstone over four decades would overcome the COVID crisis.
Never one to ‘waste a good crisis’, Adam recalled of his dad, SRI’s Founding Chairman did everything possible, including the unimaginable, to keep the chain afloat and its flag flying top-mast.
During COVID, Adam revealed, ‘Butch’ demonstrated his determination to ensure SRI survived the pandemic by not just keeping SRI’s resorts open, but also purchasing two new properties.
Using the down-time to upgrade, upscale and renovate, SRI also developed the COVID-19 Health and Safety Protocols that Caribbean governments and hotels would eventually employ.
SRI’s Founding Chairman quietly battled illness while busily building the resilience systems that would buffer SRI from COVID.
No Easy Ride…
In December 2020, the grandmaster of the Stewart Family’s holdings gathered the clan and entrusted his youngest son, Adam – already his co-pilot in SRI’s cockpit – to continue the transition beyond COVID, to the next Sandals Era.
It wouldn’t be an easy ride for Adam, who, too-soon after his dad’s ultimate flight to Destination Unknown on January 4, 2021, then lost his dear wife, Jill.
Ten Success Stories
However, pain and irreplaceable losses aside, in just 40 months — including the 1,700 days since SRI lunched its ‘Beaches’ resort in Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI), Executive Chairman Adam has led the family and SRI through the following ten (10) post-CVID success stories:
1. Three new properties in three years: Beaches TCI (2021), Dunn’s River Part 1 (2022), Sandals Royal Curacao (2023) and Sandals SVG (2024)
2. SRI spent hundreds-of-millions adding value to its properties (including 243 fine dining facilities)
3. Over-20,000 are employed across its 24 properties, with over-18,500 enrolled at Sandals Corporate University
4. Sandals Foundation (SRI’s philanthropic arm with Heidi Clarke as Executive Director) is 15 years old, after spending over-US $100 million giving institutional support to projects in SRI’s Caribbean destinations – like that in Curacao, turning discarded driftwood and other dumped sea waste into useful products, ranging from football goal-nets to plastic stands for electronic gadgets
5. SRI’s shared Health & Safety protocols helped Caribbean’s tourism score the fastest-recorded post-COVID recovery globally
6. Sandals SVG is the latest ultimate ‘Sandals 2.0’ destination
7. The Post-COVID Sandals recovery era saw the upscaled conversion of Butch Stewart’s dream-acquisition, Dunn’s River hotel, in 2022
8. Dunn’s River’s journey into ‘Sandals 2.0’ status is on the cards and will feature its aqueducts of pure mineral water
9. A new Beaches property is planned for Barbados; and
10. New developments and continuing plant extensions are planned for SRI properties in Jamaica (including Runaway Bay and Dragon Bay) and introduction of new value-added products like ‘Rolls Royce’ and ‘Super-boat’ guest experiences
Sandals 2.0 Era
Sandals SVG is just the latest SRI post-COVID and Sandals 2.0 Era success story.
The multi-island state’s Tourism Minister highlighted the role of the Argyle International Airport (AIA) that serves as both a global gateway and international conference centre.
James also recalled that SRI kept 500 Vincentian resort staff employed during COVID, deploying them to the chain’s various resorts.
The minister assured that while the SVG government will develop the last unspoilt Caribbean destination, there was no intention to engage in ‘Mass Tourism’ – something the SRI Executive Chair later certified wasn’t on SRI’s agenda, either.
Connecting the Caribbean
Inter-Caribbean Airways’ CEO Sadler explained how the 32-year-old airline grew from a single Cessna 172 aircraft bought for pleasure by Lyndon Gardner, a TCI native, who later transport workers from nearby islands to build TCI Beaches.
He also acknowledged his Founding Chairman benefitted from fellow SRI Founding Chairman’s friendly advice on building an airline dedicated to ‘Connecting the Caribbean’.
Today, Inter-Caribbean also connects all SRI properties.
Valuable Contributions
ASTA’s Kirby assured worried celebrants he’ll continue pressing for their cause everywhere, also thanking SRI for acknowledging and rewarding the entity’s members’ valued contributions SRI and Caribbean tourism’s successes.
Unique Vacations’ President Jeff Clarke said Sandals SVG was an indication of where ‘Butch’ Stewart wanted SRI to go and his eternal commitment to ensuring travel agents, advisors and agencies were kept active and paid commissions to keep the industry’s Wheels of Fortune turning.
He told those gathered: “We spend a lot to up our value, but we could not have been here without you!”
Staying Relevant
SRI CEO Gerhard Rainer waxed philosophical, asserting that the last three years of SRI’s changes had changed life for so many in such short time, because SRI understands that every person facing pressure or wanting pleasure needs a place like this…”
He added that “life memories” are “the most important experience all visitors enjoy” and SRI – and promised that, “as the-most-Caribbean-branded-of-all” and the region’s only luxury resort chain, SRI will “remain competitive” by “staying relevant”.
Where Next?
The Executive Chair confessed that much of all he did was follow in his father’s footsteps, reminding all that the Founding Chairman “did it his way, every day…”
With the company since childbirth, he ended his presentation asking: “Where do you want us to go next?”
However, from what’s been seen and learned from the four-plus decades of SRI successes between Gordon and Adam Stewart’s stewardships, who would wager even-a- cent of a bet on what next to expect?
Every new SRI property is better than the last one – and Sandals SVG is the-very-latest, with its 11 fine-dining restaurants and full access to 32 islands, five airports and a whole Ocean of Love!