Royal Cliff Beach Resort Wins
Ultimate Service Award 2004 for Asia

Pattaya, Thailand - The Royal Cliff Beach Resort recently added another prestigious award to its already impressive portfolio of accolades. The resort was recently awarded the much-coveted Ultimate Service Award 2004 for Asia at the Global Travel and Tourism Summit held in Doha in May.

Becky Anderson from CNN – one of the sponsors of the Ultimate Service Awards – was on hand to announce the winners in each category. She noted that the Royal Cliff Beach Resort received the distinction for Asia and was chosen by voters for its service excellence and attention to detail.

The Ultimate Service Award is an independent initiative that began in 2000 in partnership with CNN Partner Hotels, American Express, TNS Hospitality and Leisure, Octopus Travel.com, Qatar Airways and Villeroy & Boch. It is the first global award that recognises this level of excellence in service and was initiated by a panel comprising CEOs from the world's top international hotel groups and chains and is supported by top associations, including the World Travel & Tourism Council.

The Award is also unique, because it is the only truly global award of its kind. It is also the only award to recognise hotel service. The voting in each category is done by travellers from all areas of the globe and every person who votes is free to select virtually any hotel of any size that they felt offered them exceptional service. The highest-ranking hotels in each of the nine regional categories subsequently win an Ultimate Service Award. In 2004, travellers from more than 120 countries of the world cast their votes for the hotel of their choice.

“We are especially proud of this award,” says Mrs. Panga Vathanakul, Managing Director of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort. “Not only is it held in high regard among travel industry professionals, but it is also tremendously significant, because it comes directly from travellers who stayed at our resort and were so impressed with our level of service that when they returned home, they took the time to vote for us and thus expressed their appreciation of our work.”

“It is also rewarding to see that our staff training programmes bear such fruit. This award was presented to the Royal Cliff Beach Resort primarily in recognition of the efforts of our staff who go out of their way to always make our guests feel welcome.”

The Ultimate Service Award follows closely on the heels of the ISO 9001:2000 certification achieved by the resort at the beginning of 2004.