Sandals Resorts International’s naming this week of Gebhard F. Rainer as the all-inclusive resort operator’s new CEO may hint at further changes at the highly successful Jamaica-based firm.Company officials positioned the change as “designed to accelerate the strategic growth of the award-winning luxury all-inclusive brands under the Sandals Resorts International (SRI) banner.”MORE Hotel & Resort“We are committed to bolstering our leadership position in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean [and] to broaden our horizons with further growth of the luxury all-inclusive concept beyond the region we call home,” said Gordon “Butch” Stewart, SRI’s founder and chairman.Rainer’s extensive global operations and international finance experience includes a term as executive vice president and CFO of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and allows the family owned company’s deputy chairman, Adam Stewart, to focus on his extensive slate of other duties across his family’s sprawling businesses.In addition to his now-former Sandals role, Adam Stewart directs much of his family’s extensive hospitality, media, automotive and appliance business holdings. He is deputy chairman and CEO of The ATL Group, which owns the Jamaica Observer daily newspaper and domestic and commercial appliance retailer ATL Appliance Traders.Adam Stewart is also a stalwart philanthropist and supporter of his home country, servings as president of the Sandals Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works extensively on educational and social development programs “aimed at fulfilling the promise” of Jamaica’s citizens and the wider Caribbean community. He also serves as first vice president of the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association and as chair of the Tourism Ministry’s Tourism Linkages Council.Rainer’s appointment “consolidates Adam Stewart’s role as deputy chairman, allowing him to dedicate more time to forward initiatives as the company prepares for a bold strategy forward,” said Butch Stewart. “My son Adam has played a huge role as CEO of SRI, exceeding expectations over the past 12 years.”Stewart has not relinquished daily responsibility for the Sandals resorts operation under the changes, said a company spokesperson Friday. Instead SRI is “simply adding to the team as Adam moves to dedicate his time towards the accelerated growth plan.”Still the change comes at a noteworthy time for the company, Jamaica tourism and the country’s surging all-inclusive resort sector. Jamaica is in the midst of an unprecedented arrivals surge, a circumstance not lost on competing all-inclusive operators.While SRI has expanded and revamped its resorts across Jamaica and expanded its operations to other areas of the Caribbean, this week Playa Hotels & Resorts purchased five upscale, all-inclusive resorts in the booming tourist zone between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.Playa CEO Bruce Wardinski said the company is aiming to be “the number one all-inclusive company,” a status that marketplace observers (and some company officials) have often applied to Sandals.The move also comes nearly one year after the Stewarts said they were "exploring options to accelerate the company's long-term growth and development plans." The statement followed a Reuters report that said officials at the privately held company were “exploring strategic alternatives including a potential sale of the company.”