A Caribbean-born hospitality brand is entering a new partnership with one of the world’s largest cruise companies, with Royal Caribbean Group agreeing to invest approximately US$3 billion for a 50 per cent stake in Sandals and Beaches Resorts.
The agreement, announced in a statement on Wednesday, will create a 50-50 joint venture between Royal Caribbean Group and Sandals.
Sandals, which was founded by the late Jamaican businessman Gordon “Butch” Stewart in 1981, is now run by his son Adam Stewart, who serves as executive chairman of Sandals and Beaches Resorts.
In a social media post, Stewart wrote: “Sandals will remain Sandals. Beaches will remain Beaches. Our home is the Caribbean.”
He said the partnership would keep employees, travel advisers and the company’s longstanding approach to hospitality at the centre of the business while supporting its international expansion and preserving the brands’ Caribbean identity.
In the statement announcing the partnership, Stewart said his father had founded Sandals Resorts with the belief that a company built in the Caribbean could stand on the world stage alongside the most respected names in hospitality, and “today is proof of how far that vision can go”.
“This partnership is the natural next step in building on that conviction. It gives us the ability to grow faster with a partner that shares our values of exceptional hospitality, long-term investment, and the power of enduring brands,” he added.
Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, Jason Liberty, added that the Sandals partnership marks “an important next step” in Royal Caribbean’s efforts to build a wider vacation platform.
The companies said the joint venture will be jointly governed, with Liberty and Stewart serving as co-chairmen of the board.
The transaction is expected to close in early 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Sandals and Beaches Resorts currently have a combined portfolio of 20 all-inclusive resorts across 10 Caribbean islands. The properties are located in Jamaica, Antigua, The Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Curaçao, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Turks and Caicos.
Looks like Butch’s son has read the Student’s Companion of old – “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush!” That US$3 billion will immediately be used to buy gold as a hedge against the coming economic disasters! Good for him personally; he has read the writing on the wall!
Fuel prices in western countries have sky-rocketed; the criminal wars of aggression by the US/NATO/Israeli cabal to control oil production in Russia & Western Asia have been soundly defeated by the Axis of Resistance to US imperialism (and, although Trump is bragging about owning the oil reserves of Venezuela, US oil executives have already squashed the idea of pumping out oil from underneath Venezuelan soil – too cost-prohibitive & unacceptable for their piratical business model). With continuing economic hardship in the US & other western countries, tourist dollars (from the Caribbean plantation’s single crop) will quickly dry up, because cruise, airline & hotel prices will fast become prohibitively expensive. Western consumers are being forced to decide whether any income received will go towards rent & mortgages or towards food & medicine.
Unlike Butch’s son, Caribbean governments did not read the part in the Student’s Companion where it quipped, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket!” Let’s see whether all those tourism industry accolades will buy us even a starvation diet of bread & water!