Phuket businesses scoop top awards
PHUKET: Phuket’s hospitality industry received a major boost last week with the announcement that three prestigious awards had been won by local companies.
Mom Tri’s Boathouse & Villa Royale in Kata was awarded Wine Spectator magazine’s Best of Award of Excellence for the second consecutive year, maintaining its status as the only establishment in Thailand to receive the coveted award.
Wine Spectator‘s Restaurant Awards, announced in the August 2007 issue, recognize restaurants providing outstanding wine lists that effectively complement the cuisine on offer and appeal to a broad spectrum of tastes.
Only 748 establishments in the world received the award of excellence this year, which is a second-tier award below only the world-class Grand Award, given to just 76 establishment this year.
The Best of Award of Excellence is given to establishments that have shown commitment to offering depth in their wine selections, typically with more than 500 wines on their list.
A number of Phuket establishments this year received Wine Spectator‘s first-tier award, the Award of Excellence. Among them were Baan Rim Pa at Kalim, Marriott Cafe at the JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa and Oriental Spoon in Cherng Talay.
The Award of Excellence is given to establishments that offer a well-chosen selection of quality products, with 3,131 awarded this year.
Meanwhile, Phuket hospitality firm C9 Hotelworks was rewarded for its commitment to hospitality and destination marketing when it secured the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award for Hospitality Marketing, announced July 25, in recognition of the Phuket Perfect campaign.
Launched in March, Phuket Perfect was a joint venture with Bangkok-based media company Delivering Asia Communications that sought to highlight Phuket’s idyllic nature and market 30 resort apartments at the Movenpick Residence at Karon Beach.
This year’s PATA Gold Awards received an unprecedented 339 entries from 28 categories, making it one of the strongest selections of candidates in the history of the awards, said Peter de Jong, PATA president and chief executive officer.
C9 Hotelworks and Delivering Asia Communications worked together on a 10-second vignette that aired on prime time CNN television programming asking people to visit www.phuketperfect.com, a website showing the best of Phuket living and how such a lifestyle is attainable by buying one of the 30 resort apartments.
A worldwide YouTube video competition, sponsored by the Phuket Gazette and Thailand Property Report, was then held in which the public were asked to upload their videos of the perfect lifestyle in Phuket to a dedicated YouTube page.
“The campaign really put Phuket back on the map in terms of people’s perception of the destination,” said C9 Hotelworks Managing Director Bill Barnett.
Mark Armsden, Delivering Asia communications director, said, “I think the strongest message we delivered during the campaign was we were not just about highlighting the product but also marketing the destination and the lifestyle the product afforded those who invested.”
Another company taking top honors at this year’s PATA Awards was Six Senses Resorts and Spas, Thailand, which won a PATA Grand Award for its Social and Environment Conscience program.
Six Senses Resorts and Spas, which manages Evason Phuket, used the program to enhance the environmental performance of all Six Senses-managed properties.
The program included raising the environmental awareness of hosts and guests, the involvement of guests in activities, such as mangrove planting, local school visits and visits to charities, and the founding of the Social and Environmental Responsibility Fund, which will see 400,000 baht spent on social and environmental projects.
Winners of the PATA Gold and Grand awards will be honored at this year’s PATA Travel Mart 2007 in Bali September 28.
