Island Hotels Group is this month celebrating its 20th Anniversary since starting up operations in April of 1987.

The past twenty years has seen the Group develop from a small hotel employing 25 people with 250 beds in Bugibba to what it is today – a group with four properties totaling just over two thousand seven hundred beds and employing over 1,500 people. The group also includes the Island’s leading event catering company, Island Caterers, and owns 18% of the Dragonara Casino in St. Julian’s.

Island Hotels Group was incorporated in April of 1987, when Mr. Winston V Zahra came out of retirement and formed a Company, Bugibba Holiday Complex Ltd, with Mr. Nazzareno Vassallo of Vassallo Builders Group.

At that time, the Bugibba Holiday Complex incorporated 250 beds and employed 25 people. This operation was very successful and after just two years the first of a number of expansions that the Group undertook in the following years was started. This was the extension of the Complex, an extension which took the Complex from 250 beds to 1,000 beds. The development took nine months to complete.

In October 1992, Island Caterers was set up, under the direction of Winston J. Zahra, who had just returned to Malta after completing a four year degree in Hotel & Catering management at Portsmouth University.  The objective of the company on start up was to become one of Malta’s leading event catering companies. The growth of this company since 1992 has been  excellent and it is today one of the leading event catering companies in Malta catering at an average of 30 events a week.

In 1992, the Group was looking for further expansion in the Hotel Industry. The opportunity arose to acquire the Salina Bay Hotel in Salina. The purchase of this hotel was secured and works started immediately, under the direction of Winston V Zahra, to completely gut the old hotel, double the number of rooms, increase the facilities and make it into one of the leading four star properties on the Island. Works started in November of 1992 and the hotel, renamed the Coastline Hotel, welcomed its first visitors in March of 1994.  Since opening its doors the Coastline has been awarded no less than 22 international awards for customer satisfaction by leading tour operators including one where it was voted the best four star property in the whole of the Thomson international program in 1994.

It was immediately after the completion of the Coastline that a French Company, who were given a parcel of land in St George's to develop a Hotel, approached the Group to see if there was an interest to purchase the land and build the Hotel. After protracted negotiations, the land became the property of the Group and works started immediately to develop the Baypoint Resort. This major development commenced in November 1995 and eighteen months later, in May 1997, it opened its doors as the Radisson SAS Baypoint Resort, a five start property which was to be the Flagship the Group. The property is wholly owned and managed by Island Hotels Group under franchise agreement with the Rezidor Hotel Group. As with the Coastline hotel the Radisson SAS Bay Point Resort has won a large number of international awards for service as well as three awards for operating in an environmentally sustainable way. The Resort is also the only hotel locally to have been awarded the Environment award for Industry, recognition given to the Resort after the extensive work undertaken to ensure that the resort was developed and operated in the most environmentally sustainable way possible.

The following year saw the Company leading a Consortium to take over the Dragonara Casino in which the Group holds an 18% stake. Thereafter the group consolidated its operation and focused on growing both turnover and profitability. Following that, the year 2002 was earmarked for further expansion of the Group and led to the purchase of the Golden Sands Hotel from the Fenech Family. Once again, after long and difficult negotiations, the deal was secured. Initially, the plan was to gut out the old property and completely refurbish to open as a four star property. Ultimately it was decided to bring in the bulldozers and start from scratch to develop a unique five start property in one of the most beautiful parts of the Island.

Works on the Golden Sands started in august of 2003 and the Hotel reopened, as the Radisson SAS Golden Sands Resort and Spa in September of 2005. Two months after opening the Resort was the venue for one of the most important conferences ever to be held in Malta, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, better known as CHOGM. The Radisson SAS Golden Sands Resort and Spa is today the Flagship of the Group.

Commenting on this important milestone in the Group's history, Winston V Zahra, Group Managing Director, said he was very proud of the achievements of the Group in a relatively short period of time. The growth of the Group over this period is all due to the hard work, determination and dedication of all the Management and staff. 'Our policy has always been to offer our guests very good accommodation, excellent food, service with a smile and value for money. This basis of our strategy, together with carefully planned and sustained growth, have led us to where we are today. We are now looking forward to an exciting future in the years to come,’ concluded Mr. Zahra.

Photo: The Group’s flagship property, the Radisson SAS Golden sands resort & Spa

For more details please contact Winston J Zahra on wjzahra@islandhotels.com