"Jamaica is going to be okay": Sandals' Adam Stewart reassures trade on hurricane recovery

More than two weeks after Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica, Sandals Resorts International executive chairman Adam Stewart hosted a virtual town hall on Thursday (Nov. 13) to update travel advisors on the recovery efforts and the path forward for the company's Jamaican properties.

Broadcasting from his office in Jamaica, where he's been on the ground since the storm hit, Stewart delivered a message of resilience while providing detailed information about the varying levels of impact across the island.

"Jamaica is going to be okay," Stewart told travel advisors.

Stewart explained that the hurricane's path, which made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28, created dramatically different outcomes across the island. 

The storm had hurricane-force winds just 10 miles wide and struck the south coast directly, with Sandals South Coast taking a near-direct hit about three miles from the eye. 

The system moved through the western side of the island and up to Montego Bay and Falmouth.

In contrast, Kingston and Port Antonio remained "literally perfectly fine," according to Stewart, while Ocho Rios sustained minimal damage. 

"We're dealing with almost two sides of Jamaica," he said. "When I got to Sandals Dunn River and Sandals Ocho Rios, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The resorts were literally completely and totally intact." 

Sandals' property in Negril also fared well, with only minor tree damage, he said. 

Stewart confirmed that Sandals’ resorts in Ocho Rios and Negril are on track to welcome guests beginning December 6, with full services in operation. 

This includes Sandals Dunn's River, Sandals Royal Plantation, Sandals Ocho Rios, Sandals Negril and Beaches Negril. 

Team recovery prioritized 

Stewart emphasized that safety was the company's top priority throughout the crisis. 

"I'm proud to say that 100 per cent of our customers were fine and safe through the storm, and 100 per cent of our team members were fine and safe through the storm," he said.

The decision to keep Jamaican properties closed until December was made primarily to allow team members time to recover, particularly those with family in harder-hit areas.

"We wanted to make sure that they had the time to recover, to catch themselves, to recuperate and for the company to support them through whatever their variants of the trauma had been," Stewart explained.

Sandals has mobilized significant resources to support both team members and affected communities. 

The company is working closely with the Sandals Foundation, the company's non-profit arm, on relief efforts. 

Stewart said several million U.S. dollars have already been directed to team members for personal recovery needs, with targeted assistance for those who lost homes or suffered severe damage. 

Relief teams have distributed over 1,000 care packages and 6,000 cases of water to families in remote and hard-to-reach areas. 

The Foundation has donated critical care equipment to strengthen the Bustamante Hospital for Children and supported the U.S. Army Reserve in rescue and assessment operations at Sandals South Coast. 

Working alongside Medic Corps and the Jamaica Defence Force, Sandals has repurposed its corporate hangar for medical evacuations and supply missions, while collaborations with World Central Kitchen and Team Rubicon have established kitchen hubs serving freshly prepared meals to communities in western Jamaica. 

Additional efforts include delivering bulk food supplies to community relief centers and helping to restore critical healthcare services at St. Ann's Bay Regional Hospital after severe storm damage. 

“I just want to remind everybody here that 100 per cent of every dollar gifted to the Sandals Foundation goes to the cause,” said Stewart.

Sandals is also working with government officials and international partners on broader community recovery efforts.

"Never waste a good crisis"

Looking ahead, Stewart revealed plans to use the closure period for significant upgrades. 

Sandals Montego Bay, Sandals Royal Caribbean and Sandals South Coast, which experienced more significant impact, will undergo major renovations during the extended closure.  

"We're going to take those to a 2.0 level during this period of closure and fix some of the things that we've always wanted to do," Stewart said, echoing his father's advice to "never waste a good crisis" (a phrase also famously associated with Winston Churchill).

Stewart apologized for any disruption caused and assured advisors that the company would accommodate displaced guests at other Caribbean properties, all of which remain unaffected by the storm. 

The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Grenada, Barbados and Antigua all continue operating normally.

Stewart also highlighted Jamaica's broader tourism infrastructure, noting that all three airports—Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport, Montego Bay's Sangster International Airport and Ocho Rios' Ian Fleming International Airport—are operational, with primary roads to Ocho Rios and Negril cleared and fully accessible. 

Cruise operations have resumed with over 6,000 passengers arriving recently, and popular attractions including Dunn's River Falls, the Blue Hole, Misty Mountain and the Tryall Golf Club are all open.

"If you're not sending customers to us, it's okay—send them to other resorts in Jamaica so we can get the Jamaican people back to work and the Jamaican economy going," Stewart urged. 

"We're going to build it back together."

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