Bahamas News
Sandals Chief Calls Tourism ‘the greatest industry in the world,’ promises evolution and innovation to the all-inclusive model
Adam Stewart Unveils Sandals 2.0 at ASTA Conference
#TheBahamas, September 14, 2022 – Calling tourism “the greatest industry in the world,” the executive chairman of Sandals today outlined a future highlighted by evolution and innovation to keep the Caribbean’s best-known hotel chain cutting edge and remain the regional hospitality leader.
Adam Stewart, Sandals Executive Chairman, unveiled a new vision called Sandals 2.0 as he addressed nearly 500 travel agents and advisors from the US, Canada and the Caribbean during a meeting of ASTA, their professional association, at Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau, Bahamas.
Recalling the exact moment in March 2020 when he got the call that COVID was shutting down worldwide travel, Stewart said “it felt like the sky was falling.”
“I was sitting in my home on the beach in Jamaica and I looked outside to my left,” he said, describing the magic that makes the Caribbean so desirable. “The sky had never been so blue, the water had never been so clear, the sand had never been so white, the view had never been so beautiful and the word resilience popped into my mind.” Never for a moment, he continued, did he buy into “the false narrative” that travel would not rebound. “We had a team of 15,000 people looking at us and saying, ‘What now?’ We went into high gear to keep the eco-system of Caribbean tourism at large and that of Sandals Resorts International, going. Not only would we be ready, we’d be first.”
Stewart told a rapt audience that the Sandals team spent the down time further enhancing plans.
What they could not have planned for was the sudden, untimely death of Sandals’ founder, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart in January 2021. The younger Stewart, who had spent his youth and career working for the company and learning from his father assumed the lead, and he used today’s occasion to express what others in the room felt – immeasurable respect and admiration for the man who envisioned Sandals and grew it from a single hotel to the best-known brand in the region.
“For the 29th consecutive year, Sandals won the World Travel Awards,” he announced, crediting his late father with creating “the only superbrand to come out of the Caribbean.”
“There is a re-set taking place in Caribbean travel,” he said. “There is more natural beauty in this region than anywhere else in the world and we want to share it all with our guests.
“We don’t want what travel once was,” he said. “We want to take it where it can go. We want it to blow your mind.”
Under the umbrella of Sandals 2.0, plans include going through every hotel and seeing how it can be enhanced, upgraded, what new elements can be included.
“Over the coming couple of years with the opening of new properties in St Vincent and Dunn’s River in Jamaica not only will we be enhancing our offerings but also adding about 3,000 staff members across the board,” he said.
In Nassau, Sandals Royal Bahamian Phase 1 is complete with further enhancements to the property on target. Sandals Royal Curacao will be the first in the brand to take the all-inclusive concept to the next frontier with guests at certain levels being offered a Mini convertible and certificates for on-island dining at outside restaurants, an experience that will be offered at Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau next.
This next frontier for the all-inclusive tradition is part of Stewart’s cultural immersion plan, understanding that guests want sun, sea, sand but they also want to know the people and the islands they visit.
In Jamaica Sandals Dunn’s River and Beaches (family brand) Runaway Bay will be enhanced with 3- and 4-bedroom suites, along with a property in St Vincent. Also, to be added is a Greg Norman golf course for Beaches Runaway Bay. Additionally, some properties will feature overwater bungalows.
Stewart expressed deep gratitude and respect for the travel advisors’ love affair with the Caribbean and told them Sandals would not be where it is today had it not been for their support and that he, like his late father who knew and depended on their trust for over four decades, pledged his commitment to share the four corners of the Caribbean with the world.
Photo Caption: Sandals Executive Chairman Adam Stewart announced Caribbean and Bahamas expansion plans during the ASTA 2022 Showcase at Sandals Royal Bahamian this week. Nearly 500 industry partners gave Stewart a spontaneous, rousing standing ovation following his remarks.
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
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