Sandals Resorts hosts 9th Annual Independent Travel Consultants’ Conference
OVER 130 international travel agents were welcomed to Jamaica’s eastern parishes as Sandals Ochi Beach Resort (SOBR) and Beaches Ocho Rios played host to the Ninth Annual Independent Travel Consultants’ Conference on September 28 – October 3.
The five-day conference, designed to showcase Destination Jamaica and the Sandals brand, included travel agent portal training, a Sandals WeddingMoon Workshop, a marketing forum to help agents grow their business, and familiarisation tours of Sandals Resorts and Beaches resorts in Montego Bay and the Ocho Rios region.
Gebhard Rainer, CEO for Sandals Resorts International, and Ramel Sobrino, general manager for SOBR, greeted the agents during the welcome cocktail party. Rainer, in addressing the gathering updated the agents on the company’s product and its expansion plans. He also encouraged the partners to take full advantage of the opportunities to see and experience the other resorts and wider Jamaica and thanked them for their continued support.
Delegates were also given plenty of free time to explore and discover for themselves why Sandals has maintained, for 25 consecutive years, the title of the Caribbean’s Leading Hotel Brand by the World Travel Awards.
A special guest appearance from Gary Sadler, vice-president of sales for Sandals, North America, was, for many, a highlight. Sadler, who implemented the conference 10 years ago and had traveled from Miami just to speak to the attendees, shared his immense passion for Sandals Resorts and reiterated the brand’s dedication to the travel agent community.
Each of the travel agents was encouraged to ‘pack for a purpose’, a reference to a Sandals Foundation event in which visitors bring a child’s backpack filled with supplies to donate to schools in the area. As a result of this initiative, more than 130 children will be heading off to school with some of the basics so many others take for granted. Children from Exchange All-Age and Ocho Rios Preparatory schools were on hand to accept some of the donations and to show their appreciation with entertaining cultural performances.