EDITOR’S NOTE: Mid-March, #IslandsCaribbean featured Jamaica, in our edition 2021-03-23. We do the same in this newsletter. Four hotel brands are covered, namely: Sandals Resorts, Secrets Resorts, Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel, and Jamaica Inn. Two of our five articles are on Sandals, and one apiece for the others. Please see our new Twitter feed for more.
Our headline, taken from the Jamaica Observer, reads: “An Extraordinary Day for Jamaica — US$230-m Sandals Dunn’s River”. Across the road from the renowned Dunn’s River attraction, Sandals Resorts International broke ground for its three new Jamaican resorts: a US$480-m investment, the first phase starting with the Sandals Dunn’s River development.
The late Gordon “Butch” Stewart — founder and former chairman of Sandals — grew up on the nearby beach, and bought the Dunn’s River property last year, in the midst of the pandemic. In his formative years, “Butch” would have known of the Jamaica Inn which has been in existence over 60 years now, when the tourism scene was significantly different.
Owners of the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in Kingston also broke ground for the construction of a development to include 30 fully furnished hotel suites, and 61 luxury residences. Finally, owners of the Secrets Resorts will construct two hotels in Jamaica: one over 700 rooms in Richmond, St Ann, and the other 280 rooms in Freeport, Montego Bay.