SANTA BARBARA, Curaçao — Riding a wave of adulation for the impression Sandals Resorts is already making after barely a month in Dutch-speaking Curaçao, Adam Stewart on Saturday declared that the next five years for Sandals in the Caribbean “is going to be insane”.

“Our purpose is to share the four corners of the Caribbean…We are going to take this brand to the moon,” Stewart, the Sandals Resorts executive chairman, pledged to the international travel media assembled at Sandals Royal Curaçao, the latest of the chain’s 16 hotels spread across the region.

Stewart was on an obvious high after hosting a high-energy party fusing brilliant colours, light shows, artistic performances and pulsating music topped off by spectacular fireworks — trademark of Sandals celebrations — on Friday night.The official ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on June 3, 2022.

The grand opening party was attended by the island’s Governor Lucille George Wout; Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas; president of the Parliament Charetti America and several Cabinet members who have rolled out the red carpet for Sandals’ first sortie into the non-English-speaking Caribbean.

A highpoint of the entertainment was the return of Curaçao Carnival after a three-year absence, starring Dushi Aventura, one of the most awarded carnival groups for the last nine carnival seasons in Curaçao; and Tumba King Raey.

At the media breakfast, Stewart rehashed plans that are already beginning to lift off the drawing board for development of a brand new family-branded Beaches in St Vincent; and renovation of Sandals Negril; Beaches Negril; Sandals Dunn’s River; Sandals Royal Plantation in Jamaica; as well as Sandals Halcyon and La Toc in St Lucia.

The executive chairman said Sandals had been building on the visionary decision of his late father, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, recalling that he would travel with him across the Caribbean, acquiring properties with which they had fallen in love, even before deciding what to do with them.

“We own the largest land bank of any hotel company in the Caribbean,” he disclosed.

Stewart also used the occasion to launch the Sandals Anniversary Collection and introduce renowned international fashion designer Stan Herman, who has been contracted to redesign the entire portfolio of resort uniforms for staff reflecting the culture and environment, beginning with Sandals Royal Curaçao.

The media was treated to a fashion show featuring staff from the various departments of the hotel, as Herman and business partner Michael Schwartz explained the conceptual bases of the various pieces, against the alluring backdrop of the Caribbean Sea.