[dropcap]N[/dropcap]ot long after Sandals Resorts International (SRI) announced its latest Saint Lucian project, it came to an abrupt halt, thanks to legal action pursued by The Landings Resort and Spa. The last mentioned issued its own press release explaining the reasons for such action, among them that the proposed Sandals La Source would interfere with its own tourism product and the experience it sells to its customers by blocking the vista of Pigeon Island with a building expected to be ten storeys high.
But at a recent press trip in Barbados, Sandals’ regional public relations manager, Sunil Ramdeen, claimed that SRI only aims to stay at the top of its game and offer the latest and best. That, he said, includes the flashy features in SRI’s newest resort, Sandals Royal in Barbados, with a sky pool at seven storeys high, Rolls Royces, and the first ever bowling alley in any of Sandals’ resorts. The plan was to make Saint Lucia’s La Source, scheduled to open in December 2020, “even grander”.
Ramdeen explained that while some people may say Saint Lucia already has three Sandals resorts and a fourth facility—Sandals Golf & Country Club—the idea is to keep Saint Lucia and the Caribbean desirable for visitors.
He said: “It’s a very exciting time for us at Sandals. It’s a time when we’re going through rapid expansions. Over the past few years we’ve really revolutionalised a lot of the offering that we’ve had in terms of the product that we have made available for visitors to the Caribbean. And it’s all part of a bigger picture in terms of making the Caribbean much more attractive to the international visitor.”
Ramdeen said Sandals is competing with hotels all over the world. “We’re very proud that this year in particular our work has been recognized; we’ve been officially declared the world’s leading all-inclusive company at the world travel awards for the 23rd consecutive year. Sandals number four in Saint Lucia remains a very important project.”
Mark Harding, Sandals’ regional senior project manager, gave a breakdown of just how much the new Sandals is expected to boost employment, traffic and income into the country. He estimated roughly US$2million into the economy every month by calculating on the lower end of wages and hundreds more permanent employees to the local Sandals family.
Both Ramdeen and Harding acknowleged others were free to pursue legal actions. On the other hand, said Ramdeen, “Does that mean Sandals should not invest US$210 million in Saint Lucia? Does that mean Sandals should not provide 1,000 construction jobs in Saint Lucia, that these jobs should be taken somewhere else? Does that mean Sandals should not provide 700 additional jobs in Saint Lucia?”
The two managers were strong in their belief that the Sandals La Source project will happen, regardless of setbacks. “Since our release,” said Ramdeen, “we’ve gotten tremendous feedback from members of the community throughout the world who have been asking about the project. We’ve had tremendous support from various stakeholders, including the government, to try and make this a reality in the shortest possible time. We still await the determination of the legal proceedings which we are confident will be in our favour.”
