Sandals Resorts is celebrating its 40th anniversary by spearheading 40 projects of sustainable community transformation with the help of its philanthropic arm, the Sandals Foundation.
Dubbed “40 For 40,” the Caribbean hospitality organization and parent company of the luxury all-inclusive resort brands Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts, aims to showcase the ability of tourism—the region’s largest employer and most influential sector—to bring lasting development and change.
Tourism stands as the most productive industry in the Caribbean, directly and indirectly impacting more than 2 million people. Now, as the company enters a yearlong celebration of its 40th anniversary, its philanthropic arm will mobilize team members and collaborate with local organizations to execute projects that ensure food security, provide exposure to employment opportunities in the sector, invest in the region’s biodiversity, enhance the capacity of local artisans to showcase their unique heritage, and develop communities to empower families who by extent, are part of the visitor experience.
The company is also getting its team members involved by inviting them to nominate projects or programs in their communities that create linkages to the tourism industry.
Kicking off the “40 For 40” initiative is the planting of 7,000 trees and the management of 7,000 more at the UNESCO World Heritage site in Jamaica—the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park. The conservation efforts are being done in partnership with the Jamaica Conservation Development Trust and will enhance the biodiversity hotspot, which houses 50 percent of the island’s endemic plants, of which 30 to 40 percent of these species are found only within the property’s boundaries.
Other projects across the region include doubling efforts to increase the capacity of local producers and farmers in Grenada to develop and streamline the sale of value-added products in the agro-processing industry, and the support of hospitality and service certification programs in Antigua and the Bahamas that offer skills training and work experience to at-risk women and adolescents.
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