OCHO RIOS, St Ann – Sandals Resorts International, for the 10th consecutive year, was again voted the best Caribbean vacation destination by Canadian travel agents in the Baxter Travel Media Agents Choice Awards for 2009.

The resort chain topped several of its local and international competitors to take the prestigious title for the 10th year as the Favourite All-Inclusive Resort, Favourite Hotel Chain for the third consecutive year, and Favourite Environmentally Friendly Company for the second year in a row.

Jamaica, meanwhile, beat several other countries, including Mexico, Hawaii, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Canada to take leading honeymoon destination title, while the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) topped 50 other tourist boards in the ‘Best Tourist Board’ category.

The awards were presented last Saturday at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios during a gala dinner which was attended by close to 100 Canadian travel agents as well as representatives from the JTB.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, in delivering the keynote address, said Canada continues to be one of the leading markets for the island with growth of approximately 30 per cent at the end of August.

“Canada is the largest growth market for Jamaica with not just ordinary double-digit growth, but year to date, as of 31st of August 28.8 per cent over last year and in the month of August, the centre of our summer month, growth out of Canada was 30 per cent,” Bartlett said.

He said Jamaica will continue to invest in the Canadian market and attribute much of the country’s success to the partnership that exists with Baxter Travel Media.

“The Canadian trade partners and destination Jamaica is a great thing and we are going to continue to nurture and nourish that because we have some objectives, and our main objective is to become the number one destination for the Canadian market,” Bartlett said, adding that Jamaica is currently ranked third behind Cuba and Dominica Republic.

Bartlett also lauded Sandals Resorts for its continued success in the Canadian market and the recent achievements were indicative of the continued development of the Jamaican brand.

“I want to congratulate the honourable Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart and his powerful team for continually positioning this product as a distinctive brand globally, and Jamaica is proud of that achievement,” Bartlett said.

In the meantime, Sandals Resort senior vice-president for sales in charge of Canada and North America, Gary Sadler, said the awards represented the hard work and dedication of the Sandals team based in Canada and pledged that the hotel chain would continue to develop and expand on its product.

The Toronto-based Baxter Travel Media agents’ choice awards is the largest sampling of Canadian travel agents opinions. This year marked the 10th staging of the award and over 3,200 travel agents across Canada voted in 23 industry categories.