Sandals and Beaches Resorts and Royal Caribbean Group have signed an agreement to form a new partnership in the all-inclusive resort sector, creating a joint venture aimed at expanding the Caribbean-born brands to more destinations around the world.
In a message to travel industry partners, Sandals and Beaches Resorts Executive Chairman Adam Stewart described yesterday as an important moment in the history of the companies, saying the partnership would help take the brands “to more people and more places around the world.”
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Stewart said the agreement builds on the vision of his late father, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, who founded Sandals and believed in the potential for a Caribbean company to compete on the global stage.
“When my father Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart founded Sandals, he never stopped believing there would always be so much more ahead for our brands,” Adam Stewart said, reflecting on the conversations they had about the company’s future and its potential for international growth.
According to Stewart, the partnership brings together Sandals and Beaches Resorts’ hospitality expertise and deep connection to the Caribbean with Royal Caribbean Group’s resources and capabilities. He said the arrangement will provide greater capacity to expand the brands globally while maintaining the qualities that have defined them.
“It means ideas born in the Caribbean and of the Caribbean will reach more shores in more countries,” Stewart said, adding that the expansion could create new opportunities for the company, its employees and the communities in which it operates.
Stewart also sought to reassure travel advisers that the partnership would not immediately alter their existing business arrangements with Sandals and Beaches Resorts. He said commissions, existing reservations and contracted rates would remain unchanged.
Travel advisers will also continue to receive support through Unique Vacations and their Business Development Managers, while existing agreements, marketing programmes and the tiered benefits of the Chairman’s Royal Club will remain in place.
“Sandals will remain Sandals and Beaches will remain Beaches,” Stewart said, emphasizing that the brands would maintain the relationships and support on which travel advisers have come to rely.
He said the planned expansion could also create additional opportunities for travel advisers by providing more Sandals and Beaches resorts and experiences for them to offer their clients.
As Executive Chairman, Stewart said he remains closely involved with the brands and expressed confidence in the opportunities ahead, while acknowledging the role that travel advisers and other partners have played in the companies’ growth.
The new partnership represents another major step in the international development of two Caribbean-founded hospitality brands that have built their identity around luxury all-inclusive vacations and the region’s culture and hospitality.
