SANDALS BENEFIT
ONE of the men responsible for the Beaches Resort, which will replace the existing Almond Beach Resort in St. Peter, is saying that the massive, state-of-the-art property will rake in millions for Barbados’ economy annually.
Deputy Chairman of Sandals Resorts International, Adam Stewart, told members of the local media recently that the Resort which is still a work in progress, is expected to generate around US$75 million in economic footprint.
“So all in quick mathematics, we are probably looking at about 130 plus million dollars a year, of economic impact, between all of our hotels [in Barbados],” he said.
In fact, Stewart revealed that on that same day, Sandals started conversations with Prime Minister the Right Honourable Mia Amor Mottley and members of her Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Government, not only regarding the potential of the highly anticipated project which is expected to create 18 000 permanent jobs, but about Sandals plans to deepen its relationship with Barbados.
“Our company, between public relations and marketing, we are creating about a billion media impressions a year that say ‘Brand Barbados’. The Barbados marketing campaign has taken off at somewhere about 25 per cent of the total global spend of Sandals Resorts, to make sure that markets that may not have been coming here as frequently, or may have never even heard of Barbados, particularly in North America. Barbados is so unbelievably strong out of the United Kingdom, so from the marketing side, we are very happy with what we are doing,” Stewart said.
The Deputy Chairman said the construction phase should start in January, and is expected to be completed within 26 months, at a cost of US$400 million.
“Our company has never undertaken anything nearly that large before. It will be the best work that we have ever done; an unbelievable amount of creativity, new initiatives and programmes for families, and we think it is going to revolutionise family vacations in Barbados,” he said.
Speaking during the interview which took place at the Maxwell Coast Road, Christ Church-based Sandals Royal, where Sandals Resorts International hosted the Sandals Overdrive event, in response to a question regarding the controversial topic of concessions given to Sandals by the former Democratic Labour Party administration, Stewart remarked that “concessions are something that happen worldwide”.
“If we were to move our head office from Jamaica to New York, the City of New York would give us concessions to get there. So concessions are not a Caribbean phenomenon, and what we measure is total economic impact, including employment, the local linkages – starting with the taxi drivers, local entertainers, craft vendors, local Ministers that we hire that conduct our weddings... So the conversation that we are now having here is what are our consumptions, what is the industry ready for, and more importantly how can we work with our farmers to get them here in Barbados to prepare it for consumption patterns?” he said. (AH)