Nassau, The Bahamas — The Rastafarian cabbie, one of many idling in the taxi stand at the upscale Grand Hyatt Baha Mar hotel here, said it best: “Things slow, man. But Sandals coming back. We can’t wait. When Sandals up and running, we have work.”

He was speaking to the Jamaica Observer news team last Wednesday, a day before the re-imagined Sandals Royal Bahamian Spa Resort and Off-shore Island (SRB) roared back to life, amidst spectacular celebrations witnessed by two prime ministers, a host of officials and Bahamian crème de la crème.

Hours before the January 26 reopening, the first two guests arrived to pomp and ceremony, marking the last of the Sandals resorts to resume operations after being shuttered by the novel coronavirus pandemic from one end of the Caribbean to the next.

For Sandals Resorts International (SRI) Executive Chairman Adam Stewart, the event took on memorable significance: it was the first such occasion that he was presiding over without the towering presence of his late dad and SRI founder, Gordon “Butch” Stewart; and it was his 41st birthday.

Neither did it escape Stewart’s attention that the 404-room hotel was fully booked or that workmen were still behind the scene feverishly putting the finishing touches to the US$55-million makeover that provided over 900 jobs in the 27th year since SRI arrived in The Bahamas.

“You have great shoes to fill, but I know your father would be looking down, proud of how you are carrying on his great legacy,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Stewart in his speech praising Sandals for its invaluable contribution to Caribbean tourism and economies.

Holness used the occasion to urge tourism stakeholders, that while they were seeing signs of recovery, to be patient, because the recovery was not complete. He noted that for the economies to grow, there was need for social stability.

Saying he was optimistic that the recovery would pick up steam, he cited a World Tourism Organization survey projecting that tourist arrivals this year would be in the region of 72 per cent, compared with 30 per cent for 2021.

“We will therefore have to be agile and ready to adapt to whatever the pandemic has to throw at us,” he suggested, reminding Caribbean populations that the balance of responsibility for protection against COVID-19 had now shifted from governments to individuals and families.

Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis described the reopening of Sandals Royal Bahamian as “a landmark moment and an important signal that The Bahamas is open for business”, noting that the value of tourism could never be overstated.

He said his Government wanted to see greater integration of tourism and rest of the economy, and that Sandals was best placed to partner with The Bahamas to achieve that end.

“I have been impressed with how the Sandals team has operated in The Bahamas and we appreciate the many benefits they have brought to our country,” Davis said.

After acquiring the old Balmoral Club – known as the playground of the rich and famous – in 1995, Sandals quickly became the second-largest private foreign exchange earner and employer of labour in The Bahamas.

Stewart said that Sandals’ investment in The Bahamas was one of its most iconic and the re-imagined SRB was the first since the passing of his dad a year ago. He recalled the SRI founder’s first encounter with The Bahamas archipelago and how he had fallen in love with “the natural clarity of the waters and the beauty of the islands”.

The resort chain was now flying nine Caribbean flags, he told the gathering, saying that The Bahamas was his second home and where he had met his wife, Jill Stewart, with whom he has three beautiful Jamaican-Bahamian children.

Stewart then presented the Stewart Family Philanthropic Award to the 63-year-old Bahamas National Trust —received by its Executive Director Eric Carey — for its “priceless work in preserving what we all love about this beautiful country”.

SRI CEO Gebhard Rainer said the re-imagined SRB was what happened when US$55 million met Sandals innovation, resulting in a new level of luxury and a true Bahamian experience. He said Sandals had invested well in excess of US$1/2 billion in The Bahamas where it also has resorts at Emerald Bay and Fowl Cay, Exhuma.

Rainer said Sandals was highly successful because it was committed to its own cause, to all the islands of the Caribbean and to all its team members. “They are a team of dream-makers and I know of no other organisation with as much as passion and commitment,” he declared.

Prime Minister Holness was accompanied by Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and Science, Energy and Technology Minister Daryl Vaz.