{"id":3851,"date":"2016-12-04T11:45:35","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T17:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/?p=3851"},"modified":"2017-03-26T10:55:59","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T15:55:59","slug":"more-than-400-guests-celebrate-sandals-royal-bahamian-re-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/?p=3851","title":{"rendered":"More Than 400 Guests Celebrate Sandals Royal Bahamian Re-Opening"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image013\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More than 400 invited guests and hundreds of hotel visitors ate, drank, danced and mingled with Prime Ministers from two countries and leaders from the global travel industry as they celebrated the grand re-opening of Sandals Royal Bahamian Spa Resort & Offshore Island on November 18, 2016.
\n<\/p>\n

\"image012\"<\/a>

The Most Honorable Andrew Holness, left, Prime Minister of Jamaica, meets with Bahamas Prime Minister, The Most Honorable Perry Christie, center, and Sandals founder and Chairman Gordon \u2018Butch\u2019 Stewart prior to the official re-opening<\/p><\/div>\n

Speeches honored the Sandals Foundation\u2019s donations of more than $27 million in seven years in the Caribbean and lauded Sandals\u2019 achievements \u2013 20 properties in seven countries with 14,000 employees.<\/p>\n

\"Left:<\/a>

Left: Sandals Resorts CEO Adam Stewart touted Sandals standards for over-the-top training and service excellence; Right: Bahamas Deputy Prime Minister Philip \u2018Brave\u2019 Davis<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaker after speaker credited Sandals Resorts founder Gordon \u2018Butch\u2019 Stewart for his vision and shaping the all-inclusive resort brand. The Bahamian Deputy Prime Minister Philip \u2018Brave\u2019 Davis\u2019 reflected his \u201csingular commitment to exceeding customer\u2019s needs through rigid standards of quality for service and innovation.\u201d It was that word \u2013 innovation \u2013 that has supported and guided the Sandals success story. Mr. Stewart himself confessed that when he first wanted to add luxury to all-inclusive, there were those who had their doubts, but 35 years after the Sandals brand was born, it is the only resort brand that has made the Fortune 500 list five years running.<\/p>\n

Now, Adam Stewart, who serves as Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sandals Resorts International, says \u201cthe combination of beach, romance, luxury, fine dining and extraordinary service clearly marks Sandals around the Caribbean and in The Bahamas.\u201d Those who came to see the newly-renovated hotel following a multi-million-dollar makeover that forced it to close its doors for 10 weeks found themselves joining those who used the occasion to applaud the man who created the Sandals brand.<\/p>\n

Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, called Stewart the \u201cguru of Caribbean tourism.\u201dObie Wilchcombe, Bahamas Minister of Tourism, said Sandals was the most recognized brand in the Caribbean and thanked Stewart for investing so deeply in The Bahamas and for operating its training facility, Sandals Corporate University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirty-five years ago, in the face of warnings of the financial ruin for prospective investors in the Caribbean hotel industry, Jamaica\u2019s Gordon \u2018Butch\u2019 Stewart took the risk anyway,\u201d said Davis. \u201cButch invested in one hotel in Montego Bay and took risk after risk, growing the now world renowned brand at breakneck pace to include 20 properties today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis did not reveal the ups and downs that Butch Stewart endured because he took a risk. There were tough times, especially at the start, but Stewart battled on, zeroing in on the winning recipe for romance. He understood that it involved the sea, a beach, fine dining and over-the-top service in an all-inclusive luxurious environment, a pampering atmosphere couples would crave. Service has remained a cornerstone of the Sandals brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who has been trained by Sandals can get a job anywhere in the world,\u201d said Stewart, who has consistently insisted on training the Sandals way \u2013 hire for attitude, teach the skills.<\/p>\n

\"Left:<\/a>

Left: Performances by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Band, Visage, Valley Boys Junkanoo, fire dancers and other entertainers; Right: the popular Bahamian band Visage performed during the celebration<\/p><\/div>\n

Stewart himself was the one who cast light on the reason for the celebration as he looked around at the lavish event that included all Bahamian talent and tributes to local culture in the culinary, performing and visual arts. Performances included the Royal Bahamas Defense Force Band, Valley Boys Junkanoo rush-out, Visage, fire dancers, live artists and a feast for hundreds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis hotel, Sandals Royal Bahamian,\u201d Stewart said, looking over a crowd that numbered more than 1,000, \u201chas never looked more beautiful than it does tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about this resort and the Sandals & Beaches brand in general, please visit our Sandals & Beaches pages<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 400 invited guests and hundreds of hotel visitors ate, drank, danced and mingled with Prime Ministers from two countries and leaders from the global travel industry as they celebrated the grand re-opening of Sandals Royal Bahamian Spa Resort & Offshore Island on November 18, 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[533,777],"tags":[625,524,716,734],"class_list":["post-3851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-destinations","category-sandalsbeaches","tag-beaches","tag-sandals","tag-sandals-foundation","tag-sandals-royal-bahamian"],"fifu_image_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4060,"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851\/revisions\/4060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premiercustomtravel.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}