Andrew Barnard and Judy Duncan, proudly promoting Sunswept Resorts
Alison Theodore of the St. Lucia Tourist Board in Canada
The Rendezvous pool in the water garden
Toronto is awash with conventioneers: some 28,000 members of the mining industry have come to town, filling hotels, restos and convention halls.
And deep inside the chi-chi Brassaii Supper Club, some 40 select travel agents were learning how to mine gold as they got a personal update on St. Lucia’s Sunswept Resorts.
In attendance? Sunswept’s own Andrew Barnard (a 3rd generation St. Lucian hotelier, and one who could give Prince Harry a run for his money in the yummy looks department); Judy Duncan, Canadian Sales Manager for the properties and Alison Theodore, Regional Marketing Manager of the St. Lucia Tourist Board. Plus a familiar face: Clive Farmer, well-known personality in the Canadian travel industry and the Barnard family firm’s newest board member.
So how can 2 (fairly expensive) hotels compete against the swelling number of all-inclusive resorts throughout the region? Easy, says Andrew. “We’re all about the inclusions we offer, the total escape – and that is actually excellent value.” It’s clear the Barnard family view of hospitality hasn’t changed since his grandfather started serving rum concoctions to passing tourists who were astonished, when they asked for the bill, to learn that they’d stopped at a private beachfront home.
With just 100 rooms, Rendezvous is all about couples reconnecting: the power pair who rush off to their executive jobs early in the morning and battle their way home to a microwaved dinner before falling into bed – with their Blackberries. “Not just a hotel but a place for couples to reconnect,” says Andrew. (And the 2 mile long beach doesn’t hurt either.)
The BodyHoliday remains a legend in a landscape cluttered with all-inclusives that boast of fitness regimes. Fresh off a $20 million reno – making it a “pure 5*” - the resort has wellness in its DNA, with a huge array of included and pre-bookable spa treatments and fitness programs. Recent innovations include a hammam and a skin clinic offering CACI rejuvenation using electrodes. The resort’s 29 single rooms remain very popular, as do its theme months such as the March and November bootcamp weeks (with Olympic athletes on hand), July and August family weeks, June and October yoga retreats and September Solo weeks with no single supplement for the double rooms.
Obviously Rendezvous and the BodyHoliday are doing something right – arrivals at UVF were up 10% from Canada last year, for a total of 35,000.
The best line of the evening, though – and one that got a big laugh from the appreciative audience – was Andrew declaring that “We offer no thumping music around the pool or people on the PA telling you in 4 languages to come to bingo.” Now that sounds like a dream all-inclusive holiday!
