Adam Stewart on how Sandals picked Curacao for its next resort Adam Stewart, deputy chairman of Sandals Resorts International, was dining on tuna caught just an hour earlier when he called from a restaurant overlooking a marina on a certain Caribbean island. He was excited. "We're on a new island," he said. "A magnificent island. We will open a Sandals resort here. It's the first island outside the British Caribbean for us. Due to the pandemic and closed borders, the Santa Barbara's owner suspended all operations at the property in June. "We'd had our eyes on this destination for several years," Stewart said. "From the moment we saw the site and the hotel, we loved it. The property sits on 3,000 acres in the Santa Barbara Estate along Spanish Water, a natural lagoon and bay, a 20-minute drive from the capital of Willemstad on Curacao's southern coast."