Island Routes: A Decade Of Success

Island Routes is celebrating its 10th anniversary. What started with a handful of tours in Jamaica in 2009 has expanded into a successful business operating in 12 countries and offering more than 500 tours for travellers.

“We’re celebrating 10 years this year, the company was formed in 2009, the same year The Sandals Foundation was created,” David Shields, vice president of sales at Island Routes told Travel Courier Digital. “It was conceptualized as a branded item for quality tourism activities throughout the Caribbean by Adam Stewart. He had been on a tour of Africa with high quality experiences and seeing how tours were being delivered, he wanted to create the model within the Caribbean and Island Routes was formed.”

What was formed primarily to support the Sandals and Beaches business is now the ground handler for Air Canada Vacations in Jamaica and Booking.com.

“Our tour portfolio is quite expansive,” he said. “We have over 500 tours across the region. Our markets extend in the Eastern Caribbean, Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, Turks and Caicos, in The Bahamas we’re in Nassau and Exuma. We’re also in some destinations where there are no Sandals Resorts: Cancun, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Aruba and The Cayman Islands.”

To commemorate the 10th anniversary, Island Routes is running a 10/10/10 promotion, offering 10% commission, plus an extra $10 booking bonus per person on the top tours in Jamaica (certain restrictions apply).

“We’ve really been focusing on the travel trade and saying thanks to our partners,” he said. “We have a travel agent portal and we are committed to travel agents and paying commission. We love travel agents and we love the travel trade.”

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