THE Caribbean’s most successful tourism and hospitality brand, Sandals Resorts International (SRI), started 2025 by announcing a rebranding thrust that further deepens its global character as a fully genuine Caribbean product.
After four-plus decades testing waters- purchasing old and building new properties while expanding the all-inclusive Jamaica-born network catering to couples across the Caribbean region – SRI eventually transformed the very nature of Caribbean holidays.
Concentrating on ever-improving its hospitality product to keep attracting visitors to Caribbean shores, SRI — under the forward-looking leadership of Founding Chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart –weathered all storms in its first 40 years.
Founded in 1980 with its first hotel at Montego Bay in Jamaica, Sandals overcame early obstacles from initial stiff resistance to its introduction of pre-paid all-inclusive holidays by the established hotels that grew on the then-predominant pay-by-cash European Plan approach.
By the end of its second decade and the start of a new century in 2000, SRI’s large footprints were visible on beaches across the region as it expanded and deepened the success of the brand with a consistent and costly — but fruitful — international advertising campaign that ensured its brand and deep-discount offers were seen in every tourism source destination globally.
Century 21 also coincided with the start of SRI’s fifth decade under the leadership of the late Founding Chairman’s chosen successor, his youngest son, Adam.
In Adam’s first four years at SRI’s wheel, the chain entered the ‘Sandals 2.0’ era, featuring a self-sustaining international network of collaboration with travel agents and advisers everywhere that automatically adds greatly to the growth of each host island’s tourism stock.
Outside Jamaica, Sandals properties today proudly fly SRI’s flag highly in Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Curacao, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG), expanding both employment generation and national tourism earnings.
After several decades of annually winning top awards for every high-end luxury category service it delivers in every Caribbean destination it sells, SRI’s impregnable marketing machinery simply keeps visitors coming- and returning.
The ‘2.0’ branding brought the SRI product to even higher heights in Curacao, Jamaica and SVG, while expanding and improving on all other properties Caribbean-wide.
So successful has the ‘2.0’ branding been for the multi-island destination that the SVG administration announced last month (February) it’s already trying to woo SRI to establish another top-brand ultra-luxury Sandals property to join its first at Buccament Bay, formally launched in 2023.
SRI also opened the last year of the first quarter of Century 21 with another new branding exercise aimed at further widening and deepening its reputation as the Caribbean’s best holiday planner and provider of the best all-inclusive regional tourism product- as voted by regional, continental and global stakeholders, including visitor responses.
Having contributed significantly (if not the most) to the recovery of Caribbean tourism after COVID-19, SRI’s planning for the future is within the context of positive reports of improved tourism figures regionally.
According to a February 23, 2025, Caribbean Journal report quoting data from analytics firm STR:
‘Caribbean hotel occupancy was 72.9% in January, up 2.2% compared to the same period in 2024, while average daily rates were up 3.8% to $404.08’, and ‘Revenue per available room was up by 6.1% in January with an average of $294.39.
‘That momentum continued from December, when the region’s hotels posted a 1.9% increase in occupancy after months of decline…’
STR had surveyed 2,142 properties comprising some 286,608 rooms in the wider Caribbean region.
Sandals’ latest Caribbean branding (for 2025 and beyond) was launched on December 28 last year.
Called ‘Made of Caribbean’, its new drive is described as ‘a global, multi-media advertising campaign’ (covering both Sandals and Beaches Resorts) to usher its latest brand direction of ‘pure Caribbean expression’ and ‘unveiling an evolved visual identity’.
The new platform is also designed ‘to inspire travellers through authenticity, expertise and a genuine connection to the islands’, while the campaign spans linear television, digital, print, social, outdoor and international advertising in key markets.
Executive Chairman Stewart refers to ‘the vibrant soul, rich traditions, and natural beauty of the Caribbean’ that had set the campaign’s tone, highlighting the two SRI brands’ commitment to be a joint champion ‘for the islands and its people.
Drawing from its strong, deep and wide Caribbean heritage, SRI’s new campaign captures its distinct approach to all-inclusive vacationing, offering visitors more than just ‘the standard experience’ and ‘emphasizing the warm spirit of family that’s welcomed guests for over four decades.’
An article in the March 6, 2025, issue of the weekly New York Carib News concluded: ‘From thoughtfully crafted cuisine and design aesthetics to warm hospitality and curated adventures, ‘Made of Caribbean’ is an open invitation to connect people to the real Caribbean.’
Executive Chairman Stewart, who’s successfully stewarded the family-owned business since 2021, launched the campaign saying: ‘My family has called the Caribbean home for more than six generations, and there is no one who knows or loves this region more. ‘We are Caribbean.
‘We believe the Caribbean connects us all, it’s part of our soul and we want to share these unique experiences and this joy with the world.”
But that’s not nearly all…
SRI also opened 2025 with a special 128-page publication entitled ‘Get Closer in The Caribbean, ’ covering its nearing two dozen resorts in eight Caribbean islands, inviting future visitors with ‘Greetings from Our Caribbean- Your soon-to-be home away from home.’
It says: ‘The Sandals resort experience is a promise’ and ‘a feeling you’ll find only in the Caribbean’, that’s also felt in ‘the texture of salt on your skin and the touch of a warm breeze on a sandy beach.’
The invitation continues: ‘It’s how we welcome you home with our loving smiles and the inviting sounds that fill your heart and mind. We call it natural vibrancy; you call it Paradise!’
And SRI says this is only a sampling of bigger things to come.