NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW 4


Sandals boss sets course for cruise expansion


Lucy Huxley lucy.huxley@travelweekly.co.uk


The boss of Sandals is looking to extend the brand from land- based resorts in the Caribbean into ocean cruising.


Chairman Gordon ‘Butch’


Stewart said the operator had done “a huge amount of research” into the sector. “Nobody has got a better land- based product in terms of quality and service and we can translate


that [to the ocean],” he said. “Just before 9/11, we were


virtually on the water with our own ships, but we had to put the plans away. We have since spent time refining the opportunities and services that we can offer.” Stewart said “we never go for huge hotels”, implying any vessels would be small to medium-sized. The sailings would be combined


with pre and post-cruise stays in a Sandals property. Sandals has just over 20 resorts and Stewart said he would like to


increase the number of new or refurbished hotel openings a year. “I don’t want 50 [hotels] but


maybe close,” he said. “I don’t need to open five or six a year because I want to run them properly. We spend $100 million a year modernising and upgrading and the whole chain reflects that. We open or reopen one or two a year; we might bring that up to three to four.” Sandals is preparing to reopen Sandals Royal Barbados on


December 20 and will break ground on a Beaches family resort on the island in September 2018. The Beaches property will


have 700 rooms, 17 restaurants, a cinema, a conference centre, an Xbox room with 250 stations and “an extreme nanny service”. Stewart said: “The opportunity


that Beaches in Barbados brings is huge. There’s a massive gap in the market for families, with so much airlift into the island.”


Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart


5 STORIES HOT


5 Midcounties eyes business travel


Amie Keeley amie.keeley@travelweekly.co.uk


Midcounties Co-operative Travel is to relaunch a standalone corporate travel division by the autumn.


The division will be headed by


Mike Crotty, who was director of operations and business support at Co-operative Travel Management before it was sold. Alistair Rowland, group general manager – specialist retail, said the business travel operation would be the “fifth leg” of the group, which has shops, personal


travel advisors, a consortium and a consumer website. The group experimented


selling business travel last year, partnering existing leisure homeworkers with a third party. Co-op Travel Management is due


to launch in September and will be serviced out of Midcounties’ head office in Walsall, West Midlands. Midcounties’ personal travel


advisors specialising in business travel will have access to the new division’s online platform. Rowland said there were “significant plans” for the division, but would not be drawn on targets. Contracts with an unnamed


6 travelweekly.co.uk 20 July 2017 “The Co-op brand is hugely


“Most travel agencies sell business travel, so it shouldn’t come as a big surprise”


GDS and back-office technology suppliers are due to be signed imminently, Rowland said. Co-operative Travel Management


was formed in 2006, and was run as a joint venture with Thomas Cook from 2011. It was sold in 2014 to Middle East-based Mawasem Travel and Tourism, and later rebranded as Clarity Travel Management.


powerful in the UK,” said Rowland. “The brand recognition coupled with the ethical stance the society takes, plus investment in market- leading technologies, will make Co-op Travel Management a truly unique player in the market. “Most travel agencies sell business travel, so it shouldn’t come as a big surprise,” he added. “It’s just taken us a while to get round to it.”


Midcounties will also unveil


a revamped consumer website in August and plans to open a “number of shops in new locations” over the next three years.


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