SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES — “Sandals 2.0 isn’t messing about.”

Call it a declaration or a promise or just the simple truth, the future plans laid out by Adam Stewart, Executive Chairman of Sandals Resorts International (SRI), at this week’s Sandals STAR Awards at Sandals Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are a testament to not only the company’s commitment to the Caribbean, but also to the legacy of his father, the late Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, SRI’s founder and former chairman. 

Sandals 2.0, what the younger Stewart refers to as SRI’s plans to revolutionize its Luxury Included concept across the Caribbean, has manifested in countless ways in the last three and a half years since the founder’s passing. Three-quarters of a billion dollars have been poured into investments across the company’s Caribbean resorts, including Sandals Ocho Rios where “things are moving at the speed of light,” said Stewart. Sandals South Coast is brand spanking new (“Every single room and the new Rondovals that we’ve built are being elevated to take your breath away”), $200 million was poured into Sandals Royal Curaçao (opened in June 2022) to ‘Sandalize’ it, $110 million was put into enhancing Sandals Royal Bahamian, including the addition of 250 staff members, four-bedroom beach villas have been built at Beaches Negril, and ground is about to break on new Rondoval suites at Sandals Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which opened its doors this past March. 

“It’s been a dream taking things to the next level,” said Stewart. “Every decision that we are making, we make them intentionally, from rebranding our logos to bringing in consultants. We’re going to keep pushing and putting in little things everywhere we go.”

Of course, Sandals 2.0 isn’t just about enhancing existing properties; it’s also about building new ones. 

“Quite frankly, no one on the planet owns real estate like we do,” added Stewart. “My father bought real estate 25 years ago that we still haven’t built on. I don’t want to tell you too much, but we’ve also done several land acquisitions in the last six months alone, in destinations that I promise you no one’s coming to.”

Among these new developments is Dragon Bay Resort in Port Antonio, Jamaica, which Stewart visited this past weekend. Noting its 66 acres, two rivers, two bluffs and a majestic cove, he referred to Dragon Bay as “one of the top three sites that we own,” a significant investment that’s been years in the making.

“We’ve been waiting on this for years while the government of Jamaica builds highways all over the country, including one that connects Kingston to Port Antonio. What used to take three hours to drive between the two cities will now take one hour and 20 minutes.”

Stewart also highlighted development plans on the east coast of Jamaica, which he says is a completely “untouched wonderland” filled with botanical gardens and crystal clear rivers. It’s here where Stewart purchased the Blue Lagoon, declared a national monument in 2018 and ordered temporarily closed in August 2022 for remedial work. Now open to the public, the site, says Stewart, will eventually include “accommodations that are like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” including ones with “walls missing so you can sleep outside.”

“THIS PLACE IS UNBELIEVABLE”: SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

According to Stewart, there was no better place to highlight plans for Sandals 2.0 than at the new Sandals Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. As the 18th resort for Sandals and its first in the destination, the property offers 301 rooms and suites across 50 lush acres, in addition to a 300-foot linear pool, Vincy Overwater Two-Story Villas, 11 culinary concepts, five bars and much more. And if you ask Stewart, opening a resort on the island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was an easy decision, following a 2015 trip during which he shared a Hairoun beer with Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves. 

“I said to him, ‘This place is unbelievable.’ You can feel it; old world values, charm, zero crime, the place is clean and the infrastructure is amazing. This is quintessentially an untouched, undiscovered Caribbean island, the last of the true exotics,” said Stewart.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development and Culture, Carlos James, who’s also attending this week’s Sandals STAR Awards, personally welcomed travel advisors “home,” making them honourary Vincentians. 

“We believe that when you sell Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and when you sell Sandals Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, you’re selling something that you believe in, that you’re connected to, which is why we’ve brought you here this week, to feel the pulse of what Saint Vincent is,” said Minister James.

Air Canada operates one flight per week from Toronto to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines now through Oct. 20, 2024. This increases to 3x/week from Oct. 28 to Dec. 16, 2024, and increases again to 4x/week from Dec. 17, 2024 to April 21, 2025.

A PLEA FOR JAMAICA

A proud Jamaican, Stewart, who was appointed Ambassador and Special Investment Envoy for Tourism in Jamaica in May 2023, made a plea to all travel advisors in attendance to help flip the script on recent negative headlines about the island. In January 2024, both Canada and the United States issued travel advisories for Jamaica due to a high level of violent crime. But according to Stewart, the numbers don’t add up. 

“Today, Jamaica is at a 22-year low of criminal activity,” he said, adding that the government of Jamaica has tripled funding for its armed forces in the last five years. “Let me put it in math: Three million Americans travel to Jamaica each year, 56 had infractions. Two-thirds of those 56 are Jamaican-Americans who were doing nefarious things that they shouldn’t have. That statistically boils down to 0.002% of harm against visitors. We remain one of the safest places in the entire world.”

BUTCH’S LEGACY & REGIONAL RECOVERY

Stewart also made sure to acknowledge the resiliency of not only Sandals Resorts International, but also the entire Caribbean region amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Calling the last two and a half years “one hell of a ride,” he recalled his father’s heroic efforts to keep “the ecosystem” going, despite having to close properties in the wake of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

“The time between WHO’s declaration and closing every one of our resorts was just 10 days, and everyone went home. And I watched other hotel companies get on airplanes and fly out, leaving all their stuff. But I remain incredibly proud that my father made a decision to keep every single team member of Sandals Resorts on payroll in order for them to keep their benefits,” said Stewart.

And while headlines at that time largely focused on the end of travel as we knew it, Butch Stewart paid no heed, doing the exact opposite of what everyone expected him to do.

“He heard what everyone was saying about the end of humanity and socializing and said it was all foolishness. So he went out and bought two hotels, and everybody called him a madman,” said Stewart. “We have seen so many brands come and go, we’ve seen leadership of those brands come and go. People say to me all the time, ‘What does the Executive Chairman of Sandals do?’ I say, all I really do is follow my father’s footprints so that we can keep this extraordinary travel industry, that ecosystem, on fire.”

In addition to commending the travel industry – every cruise line, airline and hotel and resort company – for “dropping all competitive tensions to get the engine going again,” Stewart also thanked the travel advisor community for its steadfast support over the years, particularly following the pandemic. 

“People were saying that the travel advisor community was extinct, which is absolute rubbish. Because you remain the most powerful distribution means in the entire tourism ecosystem,” said Stewart. “My father put his money on the horse – the travel advisor – from as far back as the early 1980s, and if you ask me, it was the right bet to make.”