President Robert ‘Sandy’ Sands Passes The Torch
During a moving speech at The Bahamas Hotel & Tourism Associations (BHTA) 72nd Annual General Meeting, after having served two consecutive terms at the helm of the highly regarded association, widely considered “The Voice of The Tourism Industry” in The Bahamas, Tourism Titan Robert “Sandy” Sands passed the proverbial “torch” to newly elected President: previous Senior Vice President of the BHTA, Jackson Weech.
Sands rose to the occasion, dedicating time, energy and contributing his professional acumen and experience as President, for a total of 10 years of service, over the course of the past 32 years.
It was standing room only at the event, held at the British Colonial Hilton, as hoteliers, and a vast array of other tourism business owners, and operators, entrepreneurs, Promotion Board executives; industry partners from the private and public sector, such as the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation, gathered to network, discuss common aims and ails, and to plan for the potential future of their respective organizations; given certain indices and predictions shared, regarding the actualized and forecasted tourism environment.
Sands, as outgoing President, who will continue to serve as Immediate Past President, in his remarks, spoke to the fact that 2023 “aptly illustrated the Power of the Tourism Industry’s resilience” as the sector “soared to record heights of success”. His message, however, also delivered a sobering warning, on the “tempering of business” in 2024. He reminded attendees that “Success is not Given it is Earned”.
Sands spoke to the fact that, this past year, most sectors in tourism, except the Cruise Industry which continues to experience a phenomenal resurgence, experienced a “moderation of tourism indicators”, including a more pronounced shoulder season, an abatement of forward group bookings, lower occupancy levels and rates, and also a much shorter booking window. Sands recognized that while some factors that impacted the dampening of business were outside of our control, there were contributing factors that we could certainly influence.
Sands urged participants to work collectively and earnestly to address longstanding “in-house issues” that continued to challenge, increasingly so, the tourism industry, and thereby our economy, our communities, employees, entrepreneurs, business owners, operators, and investors.
Some of the “work that must be done” emphasized in Sands’ final speech as President included “elevating our guest experience to ensure, at every touchpoint “we” showcase the best version of ourselves, and to not allow the bad behavior of the few to negatively impact the good behavior of the many. Sands also implored the Powers That Be to cast their financial net far and wide, to ensure all sectors of industry aptly contributed to the product from which they benefit. Recognizing progress made, Sands spoke to the critical need to ensure we continued to attend to our infrastructure challenges, and the dire need to ensure clean, cost-effective energy, water and waste disposal was available throughout the archipelago.
Finally, he recognized the need for all of us, and our guests, to feel safe, comfortable and cared for, and that it was vital that we were able to access, aptly resourced health care facilities, police and fire stations throughout the archipelago to achieve our safety and security needs.
As he announced his departure from the post, Sands expressed his appreciation for fellow executives and stated that the time spent as President was time well spent, attendees and executives were visibly moved. With grace and gratitude, the outgoing president passed the traditional symbol of The BTHA Presidency to newly elected President Weech, who is also the VP and General Manager of Operations at Atlantis Paradise Island. Emanuel “Manny” Alexiou, was voted as Senior Vice President; he will serve alongside President Weech and fellow officers of the Executive Committee (EC).
Long Serving Officers, Vernice Walkine, Vice President of Allied Members for The BHTA and Jamal Glover, Treasurer, also stepped down from their respective posts, affording the opportunity for Pamela Burnside, Proprietor of Creative Nassau, and Chevaz Chambers, VP and General Manager of Atlantis to step up and serve as Allied VP and Treasurer respectively. Jermaine Wright, General Manager of Comfort Suites, will continue to serve as VP for Nassau & Paradise Island, Victor Karavias, SVP of Operations for Resorts World Bimini will serve as VP for Family Islands on BHTA’s EC, and Veronica Clarke, Hotel Manager at Grand Lucayan, will serve as VP for Grand Bahama.
The Bahamas Hotel & Tourism Association
From left to right: Kerry Fountain, BOIPB, Jillian Williams, GBIPB, Jermaine Wright, VP of NPI, BHTA, Russell Miller, Executive Vice President of Hotel Operations, Atlantis Paradise Island, Latia Duncombe, Director General, BMOTIA, Robert “Sandy” Sands, Outgoing President, BHTA, Jackson Weech, newly elected President, BHTA, Joy Jibrilu, NPIPB, John Conway, General Manager, The Four Seasons Ocean Club, Emmanuel “Manny” Alexiou, newly elected Sr. Vice President, BHTA, and Suzanne Pattusch, EVP and Corporate Secretary, BHTA.
