140 – Suite Spot: Spotlight – Salterra Resort & Spa

Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

The Suite Spot takes a virtual visit to Turks and Caicos in the latest installment of the Spotlight series, which showcases some of the world's most historic and iconic hotel properties. In this episode, viewers get a look at the highly anticipated property, Salterra Resort & Spa, which is set to open its doors in early 2025. The resort's managing director, Michael Tibbetts, joins the Suite Spot to discuss what travelers can expect from the resort and how Salterra Resort & Spa is elevating the guest experience. Tune in now to hear all the details! Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check-in, and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. We are here for another exciting episode in our Suite Spot Spotlight series. So, one of my favorite series that we've done so far on this podcast. It takes us literally all around the world, which I'm gonna, we're gonna talk about today. But for those that might be, this might be your first time hearing the Spotlight series. This is where we travel and showcase and highlight some of the industry's most unique and iconic hotels. This property that we're gonna talk about today, as it is the most anticipated openings in 2025. And here to talk about it with me is Michael Tibbetts, Chairman, CEO of JEM Worldwide. Michael, thank you so much for being on the Suite Spot with me today. Michael Tibbetts : Thank you, Ryan. I'm really grateful to be here. Ryan Embree: We're gonna talk a lot about Salterra in this amazing project that you and your team have going on right now. But before we jump into this, this is your first time on the Suite Spot. We always love to hear kind of hospitality journeys, right? You know, how we got into this incredible industry and ultimately led you to working on this Salterra project, but to JEM Worldwide. So tell us a little bit about your background. Michael Tibbetts : I would say I have an unusual background for hospitality and development. Really, my origin story starts way back in the 1700's, believe it or not, my family is from the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory. Going back many generations, my great-grandfather was a ship builder, and my grandfather eventually immigrated to the United States. And through that connection in the Cayman Islands, our family started developing resorts there on the small islands of little Cayman and Cayman Brack. Although our family was in hospitality, I chose a different course earlier in my career. I actually went to medical school, studied molecular biology in college, became an eye surgeon, and wove a very strange path back to hospitality. Through some family circumstances, I decided that hospitality development and the team that we were building was just too exciting to forego. So I stepped out of my private ophthalmology practice about eight years ago and devoted myself full-time to helping to lead our resorts in the Cayman Islands, and then also in the Turks and Caicos Islands now. So an unusual path, but I'm really grateful, learned a lot of lessons as a physician that I carry forward now in team building and working together, learning to work hard and follow through. But it's definitely an unusual path, but I'm really grateful for the journey. Ryan Embree: Well, unusual paths in our industry really aren't too out of the ordinary, to be honest with you. I will say this was the first time that I've heard a hospitality journey start in the 1700's though. So, really unique fact. But that's awesome. And, and like I said, we've had a lot of industry leaders on this podcast talk about how they've made their way to hospi...