Canadian-based Sunwing Travel Group recently announced that from December 1^st 2018 the Group’s hotel division will begin operating six of Rex Resorts’ Caribbean hotels as part of a new strategic alliance. This includes the Grenadian by Rex Resort. Speaking on the matter at the 16^th October Post Cabinet Briefing, Minister for Tourism & Civil Aviation, Hon. Clarice Modeste-Curwen, suggested that the acquisition of Grenadian by Rex Resorts by Sunwing brought an end to the Grenada Government’s legal issues with the hotel.

Sunwing Travel Group is the largest tour operator in North America and its hotel division plans to make “significant improvements” to all of the Rex Resorts over the coming years. In an October 2^nd press release Stephen Hunter, President & CEO of Sunwing Travel Group said “We look forward to increasing tourism in Grenada, Tobago and Barbados as we have recently done in St. Lucia and Antigua.”

In the press release Alison Palin of Rex Resorts also welcomed the news, “This strategic alliance will enable us to rejuvenate and further enhance these popular resorts which are all situated in prime beach locations. Leveraging Sunwing’s distribution and scale will allow us to boost our occupancy and tighten our operational costs and ultimately position these properties to provide even more value to our guests. We look forward to the continued support of our valued employees, local suppliers and tour operators as we finalize this exciting and transformational agreement.”

Speaking at the Post Cabinet Briefing, Minister Modeste-Curwen said that with the acquisition, the legal matter “no longer exists” and that she was happy that “such a beautiful facility will be enhanced, will be upgraded, we expect more rooms and more job opportunities for our people”.

When pressed about the legal matter being closed, Minister Modeste-Curwen noted that she had not asked legal advisers about the situation but that it her was her logical interpretation. “Our matter in the court was that Government wasn’t satisfied that that location was being used to its maximum.” She concluded “The issue was whether Government would acquire that property and Rex did not want that. So now that the property is no longer in question, it’s been sold, I would want to think that the legal issue has been put to rest but I must say the legal people did not tell me that. I used my judgement. I could be wrong.”