Stakeholders say marketing the island as a major tourist attraction and sustaining outreach programmes within the communities are important facets of the seventh annual Sandals Latin America Travel Agents Golf Tournament.

“It’s always wonderful; this Sandals golf tournament is always a pleasure for me,” said Agostinho Netto, member of the team from Brazil, when the Jamaica Observer caught up with him on Sunday’s second and final day of action at the Sandals Golf and Country Club in Upton, St Ann.

Netto and his teammates Artesima Nunes, Patricia Cordeiro and Vanessa Pintro finished outside of the top places, but he saw the bigger picture.

“It offers the best opportunity for travel agents [based in Latin America] to know the hotels and what is offered. We sell the Caribbean and we try to sell Sandals more and more every year. And for me, the work with the Sandals Foundation is the best part,” he added.

The travel agents, in support of Sandals Foundation, have a history of reaching out in the communities with various acts of humanity and generosity, including equipping children with school items.

Bill Williams, Sandals Golf and Country Club’s golf pro, who runs a junior programme in conjunction with the foundation, has also done his part in opening doors for children, many of whom have excelled in academics or have become respectable golfers.

“I go into the inner city and find the younger kids and I give them complimentary lessons. We’ve been doing it for many years and the programme has helped a lot of kids, and we have produced some good players and others have gone on to colleges,” he noted.

Arlenes Garcia, director of sales and marketing for Latin America, told the Observer the tournament is a lot more than action on the golf course.

“I think this is a fantastic experience for the agents — some of them not that experienced in golf — to come over here and get interested in the sport and also get to hear about everything that we do to help kids in the Caribbean through the foundation, and to be able to touch the lives of those kids. The agents look forward to this experience every year because it’s also about the Sandals Foundation and how we help with education and help within the community,” she explained.

Garcia said donations — some of which came from the travel agents — made to Sandals Foundation are a critical part of relief efforts in The Bahamas, severely affected by the passage of Hurricane Dorian weeks ago.

“Part of the money we collect is going to be dedicated to the foundation to assist those affected by the hurricane in The Bahamas. We [Sandals] were lucky that our operations continued the same at all the resorts we have in The Bahamas, but we want to help our brothers and sisters who were not as lucky,” she said.

The four-man scramble main event on the weekend was won by the team from Panama. Julio Cesar Tapiero, Taryn Stanton, Maurizzio Cannizaro and Carlos Stuar led with a score of 31 on Saturday to finish with 62 at the end of the second day.

—Sanjay Myers