FORT LAUDERDALE — Jamaica is going to be more than OK after Hurricane Melissa; it's going to be even better, Adam Stewart, executive chairman of Sandals Resorts International, told a ballroom full of travel advisors at CruiseWorld here.
The Sandals resorts that were hit hardest by Hurricane Melissa will reopen "completely transformed to the next level," Stewart said Thursday. Those three resorts — Sandals Montego Bay, Sandals Royal Caribbean and Sandals South Coast — are scheduled for May 30 openings, while five others on the island that were less severely impacted will reopen Dec. 6.
Stewart urged the travel advisors in the room to keep selling Jamaica even in the hurricane's aftermath.
"Tourism is the fastest transfer of wealth to these developing islands," he said. "The single best thing that we can do leaving this conference today is to continue to sell the Caribbean, and in particular Jamaica."
He said he chose to attend the conference to personally and directly deliver a message of Jamaican resilience.
"My passport is a blue Jamaican passport," Stewart said. "We love Jamaica. We love the Caribbean, and with your help, we will continue to make it bigger and better."
Five Sandals resorts are in good enough shape to almost reopen, but the company is waiting a month to do so to ensure that its employees, particularly those on the southwestern side of Jamaica, can recuperate from the storm, Stewart said.
Sandals storm relief efforts
Sandals has donated $3 million so far to hurricane relief and has donated its corporate airplanes hangar for relief operations.
When the hurricane struck, Sandals kept customers there for free until it was safe from them to return home. Stewart chartered a plane for their return and brought it back to Jamaica with 150,000 pounds of relief materials, he said.
Gary Sadler, executive vice president of sales and industry relations at Unique Vacations, joined Stewart onstage to give away free trips to the Caribbean.
"The best way to help us to recover in the Caribbean, just as Mr. Stewart said, is to make sure that you sell more hotel rooms," Sadler said.