Bookings are now open for travel as of March 27, 2024
ANN RUPPENSTEIN
Bookings for Sandals Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, a new 301-key property set to debut on March 27, 2024 on the main island of St.Vincent, are now open.
“The property went on sale just over two weeks ago and we’re getting great advance sales for St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Maureen Barnes-Smith, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Unique Vacations (Canada) Inc. shared at a Toronto event on Oct. 17. “In keeping with St. Vincent as a known luxury destination, we’re going in with three different types of accommodations: club, luxury and our butler suites.”
The 50-acre resort will mark the ninth Caribbean destination and the 18th Sandals resort for Sandals Resorts International. Of the 301 rooms, 80 are luxury, 101 are butler suites and 120 are club accommodations.
“We’re going to be announcing from a trade perspective exclusive trips early next year that will bring hundreds of travel partners into the destination,” she says. “We know once they experience it, they’re going to be as excited as we are to seal the destination.”
Although Air Canada currently offers seasonal service to the destination, Barnes-Smith hopes to see year-round connectivity.
“Everyone wants to go in the winter, yes, but we know that people from Canada travel year-round,” she added. “We want to ensure that even if we don’t have the frequency, at least we still have some service going in. We’re going to be selling as many people as we can into St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We’re going to sell, sell, sell.”
Keeping sustainable tourism in mind, Carlos James, Minister of Tourism for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said the development will include a community tourism project as a cultural even hub where local vendors will also be able to sell products.
“What’s exciting about that is that they have some overwater villas as well, but it’s not just building hotels and room stock,” he said. “They are building next to the resort, a community tourism product, focusing on local persons, barbecues and fish fries and Creole festivals and marrying that excitement of the resort with the community and that’s all part of sustainable tourism, creating the linkages with our communities, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from what has taken place in our tourism build out. And that’s what’s happening.”
