Grenada tourism stakeholders endorse Sandals

Speaking to reporters following a French styled luncheon at Sandal’s Le Jardinier restaurant, tour operator, Randal Robinson, spoke animatedly of how his operations had gone from seasonal to full time, employing staff members on a yearround basis.

“We had set up our company that catered to the cruise ships, so sixseven months of the year you would be employed and after that, well there were local tour companies that would purchase your tours but it was very on and off,” Robinson, who provides river tubing, jeep tours and trailblazers bike tours, said.

“So Sandals has now stepped into the breach and provided year-round employment and tour opportunities for the company so there is no break in operation at all,” he said.

According to Robinson, Sandals did not regard them as simply service providers but as partners who were given encouragement and training opportunities.

“Now I have about 20 staff full-time, who used to be seasonal and now they are full time, all from Grenada,” he said.

Robinson pointed out that the economic development of the island could be traced using the “river tubing side” of his operations as most of the staff members came from one particular village.

“So you can track the development of the village. Guides have built homes and invest in different things so you can actually see a change in the economic situation of the guys over the last few years,’ he said.

Regarding Tobago, Robinson, who noted that he had spent several years living and working in Trinidad and Tobago, described Tobago as being similar to Grenada and predicted the same economic growth for Tobago.

“Tobago is very much like Grenada, so the similarities between Tobago and Grenada are many and the way Sandals has impacted the Grenadian economy says the same thing will, Tobago is going to be impacted that same way,’ he said.

“It really has impacted us, and I speak as a local person who is in the tourism sector, it has impacted us in a major way,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Supervisor of Customs, Sharon Rose, boasted that the Spice Island had witnessed an increase in arrivals by both commercial and private aircraft saying this had been a major boost to Grenada’s economic fortunes.

“Tourism activities has been boosted by the presence of Sandals and the economy is now able to attract potential investors who would generate business opportunities on the island,” Rose announced.

Also singing from the same song book was Grenada Tourism Authority, chief executive officer, Rudy Grant, who, in an impassioned address, described Grenada’s tourism growth as an “exceptional and exhilarating, experience.” “In 2014, we experienced growth in visitor arrivals in excess of 18 percent and a significant contribution in relation to that was due to the marketing support which we received from Sandals with Sandal’s marketing dollars,” Grant said.

“The reality is that an economy such as ours with very limited resources benefitted significantly from a strong internationally known hotel brand such as Sandals coming into Grenada and assisting us with our tourism development,” he stated, adding, “so we were very, very happy in welcoming Sandals to Grenada.” He said the island had also benefited from participating with Sandals through some mega farms as well as the visit of almost 2,500 travel agents coming to Grenada which had been facilitated by Sandals.

“And what that allowed was not only for exposure of the Sandals LaSource property, it also facilitate exposure of Grenada as well and the culture of Grenada, the history and the heritage of Grenada and that allowed us to be able to keep Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique top of mind,” he observed. And waxing philosophical, he noted that as “the rising tide raises all ships” said the “presence of Sandals here in Grenada has certainly done that for us within the tourism industry because Sandals simply put focuses on only providing the best.” “Tobago is a tourism destination similar to Grenada, we have a lot of things that are in common, let us also have in common a Sandals property where we can communicate and relate with each other and where we can share our experiences and together we can grow,’ he concluded.