Jamaican-based Sandals Resorts International acquires Barbados resorts

Barbados has signed an agreement with Sandals Resorts International (SRI) paving the way for the Jamaica-based hotel chain to take control of the Almond Beach Village.

The Freundel Stuart administration also announced that Sandals Resorts International has already purchased the Casuarina Hotel in the south of the island for its “Couples” resort.

“We are quite excited to have both of these properties coming to Barbados at this time. It is a tremendous boost for our tourism industry at this time. It sends the right signal as far as confidence is concerned. It is going to be an investment north of BDS$500 million (US$250 million) over the next several years and 1500 new jobs will be created,” Tourism Minister Richard Sealy said.

The two resorts would bring an additional 800 rooms to the island-nation’s hotel stock and, according to Sealy, could result in 130, 000 more visitors coming to the country.

He said an additional benefit for Barbados as a result of the agreements would be the amount of income generated on the local market.

“In terms of the spend, these are high quality resorts and apart from the employment that I spoke of, the estimate is that BDS$22 million (US$11 million) would be sourced in terms of local goods from Barbadian businesses,” he added.

Sandals Resorts International founder, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, said he was pleased with the acquisition, noting “being in the Caribbean and not being prominent in Barbados is not good for my organisation”.-(CMC)