Tourism | Local hotel winners take home five out of 18 awards

Andrew C. Rogers from the Ritz-Carlton Beijing was crowned the General Manager of the Year

Five professionals from Macau’s hotelier industry have been celebrated for their dedication to their profession at the Hotelier Awards China 2015 ceremony, where they won a total of five out of the 18 awards available.
The Hotelier Awards China, a ceremony which honors professionals within the hotel industry, saw over 300 hoteliers attend the 2015 edition on Thursday, December 10, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beijing.
Winners were determined by a judging panel through a two-round process. The process took into account facts presented in the application, interviews with the nominees, and third-party testimonials.
Donna Campbell, director of public relations at Sands Macao and its local affiliates, took home the award for “Marketing & Communications Hotelier of the Year,” while Lily Chi, executive housekeeper at the Venetian Macao, won the “House-Keeping Hotelier of the Year” category.
Meanwhile, Galaxy Macau professionals also secured awards in two categories: Shek Ka Fai won the “Engineering Hotelier of the Year” award; and Ines Leung, the teleservices senior manager at Galaxy Hotel, was presented with an the “The Unsung Hero” award.
The final winner from Macau was Alex Aranchikov, executive director for information technology at the Sheraton Macau Hotel, who won the category for “Information Technology Hotelier of the Year.”
As for the Guangzhou Province, the Four Seasons Guangzhou had its director of food and beverage, Heiko Roeder, take home the award for “Food & Beverage Hotelier of the Year.” Meanwhile, Richard Ekkebus of Hong Kong’s Landmark Mandarin Oriental secured the award for “Chef Hotelier of the Year.”
The award ceremony organizers say that they received up to 300 applications from over 100 properties from 44 different hotelier brands.
“We are here to shine a light on the hospitality industry and the numerous job opportunities it will create in the years to come,” said the event’s co-founder, Benoit Thabaut, on the night.
From 2016, the Hotelier Awards ceremony will expand its scope into the ASEAN region to cover Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. A consolidated event for the entire region is to be held in Macau, according to organizers, and will be double the size of this year’s ceremony.