Cinnamon Island Alidhoo wins grand PATA award

Cinnamon Island Alidhoo in the Maldives a resort managed by the John Keells Group was conferred the Grand PATA award for the ‘Education and Training’ category at a sparkling presentation luncheon held in Hyderabad, India recently.

The project was titled ‘We Shared and We Cared’; the Cinnamon Island Alidhoo award-winning project is a new School of Hospitality at its premises. The initiative began as an energetic local recruitment drive and gradually snowballed into an unprecedented opportunity for the women and young people of the Barah and Utheem islands in the Maldives, to transform themselves into well-trained hoteliers. Starting this year, the resort’s parent company, Keells Hotel Management Services Limited, invested to operate a hotel school in which the curriculum is focused on providing the youth of the islands neighbouring Cinnamon Island Alidhoo with skills that would equip them to enter the industry.

Commenting on the award, Jayantissa Kehelpannala, Sector Head – Resort Hotels and Executive Vice President- John Keells Group, said, “We are delighted to receive this PATA award, for it is a reflection of the strength and spirit of the brand. The School of Hospitality is the off-spring of our foray into truly sustainable development, which lives by a win-win ethic. This is an initiative that benefits the people as much as the industry and I am glad we have been instrumental in making a difference.”

He also expressed his thanks to Masters DDB, who did an excellent job in preparing and presenting the application, helping it to stand out amongst the many received – a total of 258 entries from 108 travel and tourism organisations.”

Cinnamon Island Alidhoo is the flagship resort of Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts – the John Keells Group’s premier hospitality brand – and was the first Cinnamon branded resort in the Maldives. Unveiled on the July 1st, 2007, it is the first of its kind established in the widely undiscovered atoll of Haa Alifu which is in the northern most part of the Maldives.

Source: www.dailymirror.lk