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Canada Stays Strong For Sandals

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Sandals Resorts International says its following in the Canadian market remains strong, regardless of whether thermometer mercury plunges during winter.

Company CEO Adam Stewart told travelpress.com during a Sandals reception in Montego Bay Friday that the milder winter that much of this country has been experiencing as of late hasn’t translated into Canadians forgoing winter vacations with the Jamaica-based company.

Stewart said “lower product” resorts are more likely to be vulnerable to milder winter weather than Sandals. “It doesn’t affect us the way it does others … The Canadian market has been more stable than we anticipated.”

He added that a weakened Canadian dollar hasn’t been curtailing Sandals bookings in this country either.

Stewart later told a broader audience that Sandals had a “great year” in 2015, while Sandals chairman Butch Stewart told the same gathering that “our winter is running 9% ahead of last winter.”

Sandals says it’s continuing to innovate and grow, with Adam Stewart telling the gathering that Sandals plans to eliminate the need for guests to check in at front desks before 2016 is over, with guests to be “whisked in from the airport to your room,” thanks to technological advances.

The company reports spending $180 million upgrading properties in Jamaica, with over-water-bungalows at Sandals Royal Caribbean costing $1.6 million each.

The company is praising its presence in other parts of the Caribbean, with Butch Stewart noting it has 27 restaurants on St. Lucia alone and some 180 restaurants collectively.

He said the company is looking at other destinations as potential sites for its resorts, although he didn’t identify any. “In terms of expansion, we have our eyes everywhere.”

He also labeled Sandals as the only all-inclusive company to have a loyalty program.

Meanwhile, Butch Stewart used the gathering to praise Sandals’ long-running ties with the travel agency community. A “35-year-love affair” between Sandals and agents ensures that an agent’s “client is going to come back happy,” he said.

Seen here during a Saturday visit to Sandals properties in Negril with a foreign media delegation are one of Sandals’ butlers; Sandals Negril Beach Resort & Spa general manager David Latchimy; Butch Stewart; lawyer Clayton Morgan; Sandals Negril hotel manager Jackson Weech; and popular Jamaica media personality Duke.