Barbados is seeing the benefits of having the Sandals hotel brand here and tourism officials are anticipating even greater returns as Sandals Resorts International ramps up its promotional message around the globe.
Chairman of the up-scale, internationally recognised Caribbean hotel chain, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, disclosed he had been making a promotional thrust into the world’s most lucrative tourism markets such as China. As a result, Barbados stands to benefit from the Sandals marketing might in a way, Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy said, “we could not pay for as a destination”.
Sealy said last week that Sandals was doing “a lot of work” in Europe, an indication that the company understood the importance of diversifying its sources for visitors even though it was reaping success in already established markets.
Such a marketing drive, Sealy suggested, was in consonance with Barbados’ strategic marketing initiatives recently put in place to lure more visitors from the currently low-producing European market.
Sandals broke ground on Tuesday for a 222-room expansion to Sandals Barbados, which was opened in 2015. At the ground-breaking ceremony Sealy announced that of the record 591 000 visitors coming to Barbados last year, “at least 20 000 of them have stayed at Sandals.”
The Dover, Christ Church property represents Sandals largest investment ever in a hotel project and the company’s chairman Stewart said he had long eyed Barbados as a great prospective destination to fly the Sandals flag.
Referring to the way Barbados was enjoying the spin-off benefits of his first all-inclusive hotel on the island, Stewart pointed out that guests of Sandals Barbados were venturing outside the Christ Church hotel to take advantage of activities in the St Lawrence Gap and Dover areas. Some guests he said were going even farther, beyond the hotel’s activities organised in-house, to experience other features and attractions in Barbados’ tourism offerings. (GC)
