THE good news is that the Caribbean’s most decorated businessman continues to pull in the accolades, the latest being the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) Global Legend of the Caribbean Award, which may just be the icing on the cake.

The bad news is that the imagined trophy room is completely out of space, as the UNWTO award is the 46th major award that Gordon “Butch” Stewart, the chairman and founder of Sandals Resorts International, has earned, all celebrating a marketing genius never before seen in the Caribbean, ranking with the best in the world.

On Tuesday night, the packed Montego Bay Convention Centre ballroom in St James reserved the loudest applause for Stewart, after he received the estimable UNWTO award and then proceeded to encapsulate the Sandals story — as if 36 years of a magical dream could be told in mere minutes.

Stewart was one of three tourism giants receiving the UN agency’s Global Legends of the Caribbean awardee title, in the company of Carnival Cruise’s Chairman and CEO Micky Arison, and President and CEO Frank Rainieri of the Puntacana Group, a dominant force in the Dominican Republic’s tourism industry.

On hand to present the awards was Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina Sanchez, who also gave the keynote address at the gala dinner and tourism icon awards. He was supported by St Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet and Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Icon awards also went to David Scowsill, president and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), and Taleb D Rifai, departing secretary general of UNWTO.

The black-tie event, emceed by media personality Emily Shields, was part of activities for the three-day global conference on ‘Jobs and Inclusive Growth: Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism’, which represented a virtual coup by Edmund Bartlett, the Jamaican tourism minister, who managed, against the odds, to snag it for Jamaica.

For those three days, Montego Bay became the centre of world tourism, with the active participation of the UNWTO; the World Bank Group; the Inter-American Development Bank; George Washington University; the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association; the WTTC; and the Caribbean Tourism Organization, among other leading entities.

But there was no doubt who was the clear man of the hour as Butch Stewart walked to the stage, accompanied by prolonged applause, to receive yet another major accolade, for which he again credited the nearly 15,000 Sandals employees and his family who, at times, saw him more in the press than at home while he built the hotel empire across the Caribbean.

In the 30 years since his public relations department started keeping score, beginning with the first major award in 1987 — The Gleaner’s Annual Honour Awards for his contribution to the tourism sector — Stewart has notched 46 awards under his tourism and business belt.

Interestingly, just three weeks ago, he received the RJRGleaner Hospitality Jamaica’s inaugural Pioneer Award.

He got seven awards in the year 1995; six in 1992 when he was remembered for the celebrated “Butch Stewart Initiative” to save the ailing Jamaican dollar; and five in 2011. These included Jamaica’s fourth-highest honour — the Order of Jamaica — in 1995 from the Jamaican Government, for his contribution to the country’s development in the areas of business and tourism.

Other notable awards included American Airlines Award for the Development of Tourism to the Caribbean in 1993; The British Guild of Travel Writers ‘Johnnie Walker Merit Award’ in recognition of his outstanding services to tourism and the community in 1995; the World Travel Man of the Millenium for promoting Caribbean Tourism in 2000; and the Barbados Distinguished Entrepreneur Award in 2015.

Stewart was conferred with the Honorary Doctor of Laws, by The University of the West Indies in 2001; the Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Technology, Jamaica in 2009; and the Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from hospitality authority, Johnson & Wales in 2011.