Sad farewell to Carib tourism big Stewart

F rom the travel, tourism, hospitality and airline industries he influenced, condolences and respectful words poured in from around the globe for Gordon “Butch” Stewart, who died last Monday in Miami. He was 79 years old. Called the “King of All-Inclusive Resorts,” the “Cupid of the Caribbean” and the “Master of Marketing,” Stewart opened his first Sandals tourist resort in 1981 in Montego Bay, Jamaica, according to the Sandals website. Stewart’s resort operations now include more than 12 properties across the Caribbean, with plans before his death to expand to St. Vincent and the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao, said The Associated Press, quoting officials. Sandals Resorts International is the parent company of a number of resort brands — including Sandals Resorts, Beaches Resorts, Fowl Cay Resort and Grand Pineapple Beach Resorts — and of Jamaica’s The Observer newspaper and the Appliance Traders Ltd. firm. Stewart also previously served as a longtime director of the Jamaica Tourist Board and oversaw the expansion of the now-defunct Air Jamaica, AP said. With resorts hosting thousands of vacationers, destination weddings and televised celebrity events, and his company also supporting Caribbean community endeavors, Stewart made a name for being a master showman, a successful innovator and a philanthropist. The nonprofit Sandals Foundation, founded in 2009, works to make “positive change within the areas of education, community and environment,” by supporting literacy and technological advancement for young people, targeting violence and poverty, increasing environmental awareness and other initiatives. “He was a marketing genius and talented showman, but those who knew him best recognized that he was a dreamer who could dream bigger and better than anyone,” his son Adam Stewart posted on the Sandals website. “It was often said: The best thing for people around him to do is be dream catchers.” Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who called Stewart “one of Jamaica’s most brilliant, innovative and transformative business minds,” said, “This loss is not just Jamaica’s, it is the Caribbean’s.” “Butch was a man way ahead of his time, he had an eye for details, and his ability to market and deliver world-class service in any endeavor was tremendously distinctive,” said the prime minister. “He was an extraordinary human being with an unwavering commitment to the social good. He has left his unmistakable mark across the region and the world and we shall miss him dearly.” “Butch” Stewart began his enterprising ways and his sales career as a preteen in Jamaica — helping his mother’s small appliance company and selling freshly caught fish to local tourist resorts. “My mother had a little business as a dealer for appliances, and I used to go and help her. I loved it. I used to catch fish and sell them as a 12-year-old, and between fishing I used to love being in the shop with her,” Stewart told Stephanie Clifford for her 2008 Inc. article, “How I Did It: Butch Stewart of Sandals Resorts.” After his education in England, Stewart returned to Jamaica and became sales manager of the Curacoa Trading Co., but he left the company in 1968 to start the Appliance Traders Ltd. service and distribution company, selling “refrigerators, freezers and other appliances,” according to the Sandals website. Stewart’s successful effort to sell air conditioners from the U.S.-based Fedders company to Jamaican businesses and households was a big boost for his new appliance firm. Today, the Jamaica-based ATL Group — with several locations in the nation — distributes automotive products and appliances for homes and businesses. Entering the tourist resort business in 1981, Stewart bought an “old hotel on one of Montego Bay’s largest beaches,” and the Sandals brand was born, said the company website, adding that the-then novice hotelier enthusiastically earned customer satisfaction by abiding to his “unofficial motto, ‘We can do better.’” Sandals and its resort brands flourished through Stewart’s penchant for innovation with his customers in mind — such as improving on the then-existing standards of “all-inclusive” by adding “gourmet dining options, premium spirits, gratuities, airport transfers, taxes and all land- and water-sport activities” under his all-inclusive umbrella. “Sandals Resorts also was the first Caribbean hotel to offer Jacuzzis and satellite television service, the first with swimup pool bars and the first to guarantee that every room is fitted with a king-size bed and a hair dryer,” said the website.

St. Vincent’s COVID tests

St. Vincent and the Grenadines — which has been standing strong in the coronavirus pandemic — got some assistance last Wednesday from the government of Brazil, which paid for 1,000 COVID-19 RT-PCR tests for the Caribbean nation, according the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. RT-PCR tests show if a person has an active coronavirus infection. “The OECS PPS [Pooled Procurement Service] distributed a donation of 1,000 RT-PCR test kits, the gold standard in COVID-19 detection, which were purchased with support from the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil,” reported the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. Since January of last year, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has had 149 confirmed cononavirus cases and no deaths. In addition to the diagnostic test for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, PCR test kits have been delivered to St. Lucia and Grenada, with additional kits to be used “to support other [OECS PPS] member states in their response to clusters of COVID-19 cases that the region is now experiencing.”