Gordon “Butch” Stewart has praised Jamaica's tourism employees for their “extraordinary resilience” in facing the COVID-19 pandemic, and wished them an even better future, as the industry slowly begins to reopen.
He reserved the highest praise for his Sandals staff and management, describing them as “the best in this hemisphere” and noting they are the reason the hotel chain had won the prestigious World Travel Industry award for “World's Best” for 24 consecutive years.
Stewart, who is also chairman of the Jamaica Observer, said he hoped never to see anything like the COVID-19 pandemic again, or the unprecedented havoc and displacement it visited upon every human being, organisation and government.
Sandals was the only resort chain in the Caribbean which paid its staff 40 per cent of their salaries, and their health insurance, opting not to do massive layoffs, despite the total loss of income and the cost to maintain hotels in readiness for reopening.
He credited the operations and marketing team led by his son, Deputy Chairman Adam Stewart, for getting the hotels ready for resumption, saying “everybody is back in full force”.
