IRONSHORE, St James – Sandals Resorts International (SRI) has copped top honours as favourites in the all-inclusive resort and hotel chain categories of this year’s Agents’ Choice Awards.

The results of the poll, established by the Toronto-based Baxter Travel Media, were released by Robert Mowatt, executive editor of Baxter Travel Media’s flagship publications Canadian Travel Press and Travel Courier, and his boss, Edith Baxter who is editor-in-chief of Baxter Travel Media.

Baxter, who presented the awards to SRI’s chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, said the results of the seven-year-old poll, in which some 4,000 travel agents participated, were unsurprising.

This year marks the seventh straight win for Sandals in the all-inclusive category and the first in the “hotel chain” category.

“Sandals Resorts has been unwavering in its support of the travel agency community, so it’s no surprise that when agents are given a chance to pick their favourites, Sandals Resorts comes out on top,” Baxter told the large audience that ferried over from the Sandals Royal Resort in Ironshore to the neighbouring Sandals Island for the celebration party.

The audience included Canadian High Commissioner Denis Kingsley and his wife, a host of SRI executives and regional media representatives.

Kingsley, who also congratulated the Sandals Group, encouraged industry players to unite in a comprehensive effort to show Jamaica’s ‘peaceful face’.

“The challenge for Sandals Resorts is to draw visitors into the countrysides and towns. visits outside of the all-inclusives have in the past proved a little unnerving,” he said in reference to the need to fix Jamaica’s crime-ridden environment.

Kingsley also pointed to the importance of establishing direct airlift from Canada to Jamaica to boost tourist arrivals which, he said, had risen from an apparent slump in the 1990s.

“Without direct airlift, travel becomes hard .Canadians don’t want to spend three days travelling,” he said. “More flights from Canada can only mean more business for Jamaica.”

In his acceptance speech, Stewart attributed the hotel chain’s success to excellent service and a policy of striving to stay ahead of its competitors through training and development.

“We’re double thrilled …to be recognised as the favourite hotel chain – a first for Sandals and for a Caribbean company – is proof that our longstanding partnership with Canadian Travel Agents is paying off,” he said.

“We are the only Caribbean resort chain with a team of sales managers coast to coast across Canada, working day in and day out, helping travel agents grow their business. These awards are a testament to the confidence that travel agents have in our product,” Stewart added.

Later at an impromptu press briefing to elaborate on the significance of the poll – which will be circulated to a niche market of some 15,000 readers and is widely acknowledged as the largest and most extensive sampling of travel agent opinions in Canada – Stewart told a group of local and regional journalists that there would be no slackening of the pace which he credited for the overwhelming majority of votes the organisation had scored over its second and third place competitors combined.

Rather, said Stewart, the organisation would pursue aggressive strategies to stay ahead. One such was the ‘Soon Come Back’ programme which was set up some six months ago. Under this programme, the commissions for repeat guest will be sent to the travel agents who engineered the initial visit.