April 30, 2024
SandalsResorts Executive Chairman Adam Stewart opened the hospitality leader’s 18th resort this month, creating the widest variety of choices for guests in the award-winning brand’s history, from its new nature-forward enclave in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the stately and historic Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau, Bahamas.
It has been a long and vision-fueled road for Sandals, a journey that began with the executive chairman’s father, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart who opened his first hotel in Jamaica in 1981.
“Little did we know that 43 years later the Sandals brand would grow from one 99-room hotel in Montego Bay to a top 500 brand known on the world stage as a super brand, the only Caribbean born commercial super brand known across the United States, Europe and Canada with over 84% brand penetration and recognition,” said Adam Stewart said during the official ceremony in St. Vincent.
For the tourism-driven economies of the Caribbean, it is hard to imagine the landscape without Sandals and the impact the ever-evolving beach-plus-romance based brand has had. A regional carrier, Frontier Airlines, named an aircraft after the late Sandals founder. The road leading to the new resort in St. Vincent is being built and named in his honour.
But perhaps more than any other property in the Sandals portfolio, the Royal Bahamian stands out for its historic importance and as a symbol of a brand constantly reinventing, reimagining itself and uplifting the product offerings, even as guests demand and expect more of a vacation experience.
Sandals opened the hotel in 1996 and over the decades since has continually treated the property with the dignity that a grand dame deserves, making it one of the first to have a full fitness centre and spa (though in early days before fitness became an inalienable right, in the basement). It was not just the history that set the Royal Bahamian apart – that the Beatles had stayed there at the height of their popularity when they wanted to escape overwhelming crowds or that royalty had graced its halls and ballroom. The grace of her lines, her tall windowpanes, the elegance all spoke to an age of understated splendor and with each renovation, the integrity of the architectural treasure remained intact or was enhanced.
Major upgrades to the property took place in 2016 and again in 2022, when the Royal Bahamian opened following a $55 million investment that expanded and transformed the once abandoned and now revived jewel of Cable Beach.
Chauffeurs waited curbside to transport VIP guests in Rolls Royce limousines. White-gloved butlers stood ready to serve welcome drinks and champagne. And any remnant of the all-inclusive as a money savings decision vanished, replaced by a vacation option that oozed luxury and romance and the fine art of dining.
It was that kind of dream that Adam Stewart brought to life in St. Vincent this month, culminating a decades-long friendship between the prime minister of the island nation with his late father, the founder of Sandals.
“This is a multi-generational act in the making that began with my extraordinary father Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart and Prime Minister Gonsalves many years ago,” the executive chairman told a crowd of officials and community leaders. He noted what he dubbed the Sandals Effect, the confluence of actions when Sandals comes to town. “First and foremost, we market the destination of a new or existing property as we are with both St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The landscape that makes up this incredible archipelago will benefit. Directly and indirectly for linkages, tour operators, taxi operators, restaurateurs, musicians, farmers, fishers, entrepreneurs, hardware store operators, the entire ecosystem and connectivity we plan to make sure that the entire world knows.”
Next month the new resort will host some 300 top travel advisors from around the world, the largest contingent of international travel professionals to ever visit Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
“It is an understatement really to call Sandals a brand,” declared Prime Minister Gonsalves. “It has become an existential part of our Caribbean civilization. This civilization is tailor-made for tourism and Butch Stewart has helped to shape this aspect of the material to help sustain us. I think that when the history of the 20th into the 21st century is written, there would be a towering place for this legend.”
