Awards
We work hard to deliver excellence across the board and in all we do, whether to our visitors and clientele, the community or to our own staff. While we act to serve those we come into contact with as best we can, we are proud to have our efforts recognised at times by others outside the Group. IHG has seen individuals within its staff complement as well as our hotels & resorts and food outlets garner praise, win awards and be highly commended at various times over the years. Here, we give a short list of some of the most recent awards by category.
Travel Industry Awards
Saga Award to the Coastline
Saga Travel presented the Coastline team with the first Saga Award (2009) based on customer satisfaction results achieved in the first few months of cooperation between IHG and Saga. A second award was given for quality, quantity and variety of food and for consistently high standards of service.
Expedia Diamond Award
Radisson Blu Hotels & Resorts, Malta, were awarded Expedia's Diamond Award (2009) in recognition of the hotels' excellence management of their relations with Expedia, the world's largest travel website.
Hotel Worker of the Year
The MTA STAR awards in 2009 saw a Radisson Blu Resort Golden Sands' employee, concierge Patrick Galea, win the overall Hotel Employee of the Year award. The award, then in its first year, is determined by the nominations from an employee's colleagues. STAR awards are held each year and recognise people within the local industry who offer excellent service to visitors. In addition to this particular award, several IHG employees were nominated in various categories of STAR, which shows the high level of dedication of all employees as well as being testament to our culture of excellence and our commitment to staff development.
HR & Management Awards
Island Hotels Awarded top HR Award
The Foundation of Human Resources Development (FHRD) in Malta has recognised the Island Hotels' Human Resources Team under its Excellent Initiative in Human Resources Award (2009). This was given in recognition of the contribution to staff development and motivation generated by IHG's unique Pearl Award Scheme, which has proved it success in motivating employees and recognising excellence by identifying ambassadors within the organisation in ten categories.
In 2010, we were recognised by the Foundation of Human Resources for excellent initiatives in the Human Resources field during the annual Malta People Awards held in December. This year two initiatives were presented by the group; the first a learning and development initiative - "The Skills for Life Management Development Program" which received the Malta People Award for Learning and Development. The second initiative was for the participation by one of the Group's hotels, the Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands, for its Responsible Business Programme, which was awarded the Malta People Award for Corporate Social Responsibility.
Johnnie Walker Man of the Year Award
IHG CEO Winston J. Zahra received the 2009 award for Entrepreneur of the Year (Malta). The Johnnie Walker Man of the Year Award is an annual event organised simultaneously in numerous countries worldwide.
Eco Awards
During, 2009 the Radisson Blu Golden Sands Resort & Spa received several awards for its environmental practice. Eco Certification was awarded by the Malta Tourism Authority and we were also presented with the Golden Award by the Liveable Communities of UNEP. The HOTER project, an innovative waste water recycling project developed by Ing. Marco Cremona for hotels and run as a pilot at Radisson Blu Golden Sands, was awarded the Energy Globe Award. Both Radisson Blu hotels were awarded the US Embassy Environmental Excellence Awards to mark Earth Day 2009.
Catering & Chefs' Awards
The Definitively Good Guide to Restaurants in Malta & Gozo recognised several IHG food outlets in its 2009 surveys. Radisson Blu Resort St Julian's Le Bistro restaurant and Kon Tiki were praised with the latter winning the consistency award. The Edge, also at St Julian's, was named for the first time and highly recommended.
Our chefs and teams consistently attain merit and awards in both local and international culinary competition. Under the guidance of chef Matthew Schembri, our team was awarded gold at the first International Culinary Competition Experience (Oct 2009) held in Romania.
