ACV and Sandals; A Strong Friendship and Successful Partnership

“I grew up in a household with the leadership of Air Canada being at our dining table,” Adam Stewart, the Executive Chairman of Sandals Hotels and Resorts told TravelPulse Canada backstage before the the Air Canada Vacations product launch last Thursday night.

“The relationship between Sandals and Air Canada Vacations has been on incredibly solid footing for over 40 years. We've been through good days. We've been through bad days. We've been through COVID together.

Nino (Montagnese) and I have been friends for more than 20 years. Sandals’ relationship with ACV just gets stronger and stronger.”

Impactful statements from the head of a wildly successful resort chain and strong indicators for both companies’ successes; ACV just delivered the best two weeks of bookings in the history of Sandals.

“For me, it's this great honour to continue with the legacy with our teams and do things in our own way,” explains Stewart. “The two companies coming together share an amazing amount of commonality, similar customers. They're looking for high value experiences. Air Canada Vacations has been a gateway to Sandals Resorts having the privilege of sharing the four corners of the Caribbean with Canadians.”

Stewart was a surprise guest at the Air Canada Vacations Product Launch in Vaughan last week.  The event was the end of a multi-city road trip for ACV Dream Makers that kicked off in Vancouver and stopped in Edmonton, Montreal and Halifax. It aimed to not only unveil new product for 2025, but to facilitate connections between agents, suppliers and of course ACV. More than 3,000 agents in total attended the events across the country, and that’s something Nino Montagnese, VP Air Canada Vacations says is of utmost importance.

(Photo Credit: Marsha Mowers)

“Everything that we do at Air Canada Vacations is always going to have our customers, and our agents, on our minds first. If there's one message I want to shout and tell everyone is that agents, we're always thinking about you. You’re in every decision we make.”

Stewart echoes that feeling and says their business has been skyrocketing, largely due to the distribution channel of travel agents.

"My father from inception, knew the importance of the Travel Advisor, and it's a fairly simple concept; the ability to explain the sophistication of why it's a more premium product.  It's a direct correlation to the success of our company and that model remains exactly as it is today. As much as the other platforms are out there, the advisor community remains stronger now, in our view, than it's ever been."

Montagnese says in the past, ACV has focused on sun product, but this year they want to focus on areas that are outside of that realm. Sun product is still a very important one, but so are the others they have such as Europe, Asia, Australia, and India, as well as cruising.

“We're humble about it, it’s time to stop being humble. We’ve got to tell people, look, we've got all this product for you, don't just think of one product line, think of us for every single product line. We're trying to show the scope of product that we have.”

New product this year includes a new cruise partnership with Virgin Voyages.  There is also their Travel Advisor Panel and their InstaQuote tool, which launched in January and is improving efficiency.

Montagnese says their marketing campaigns like BOGO (ended in September) and Aeroplan are driving bookings as the company prepares for its 50^th Anniversary next year.

“I think what we're seeing now in the industry is that everything is normalized. Everyone will tell you that last year was a phenomenal year, and it was.  This year started off a bit of a struggle for everybody and for us, Aeroplan is key. There are 9 million active, members with Aeroplan. And some of our partners have really grabbed onto it and are promoting it because they see the value.

Travellers are attaching their Aeroplan card either with the agent or post booking. And they book early, they spend more. They're booking high categories. They're booking the premium economy or business class seats. We want all of our trade partners to tap into this, to realize and not be afraid of Aeroplan.”

“We’re going to have a big 50th product launch next year, we've got 50 years of knowledge behind us. We've had ups, we've had downs. I mean, the industry has gone through a lot, just in the last few years, but we've, we've always come through it.

Everything that we do at Air Canada Vacations is always going to have our customers, our clients, on our minds first.”

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