By Peter Hopgood

There were smiles all round on Friday night, February 26, at the annual AON Fiji Excellence in Tourism Awards with Outrigger on the Lagoon- Fiji winning two prestigious awards.

AON is one of the world’s largest insurance groups, and we were honoured to receive awards for Best Deluxe Accommodation, together with the highly coveted Frontliner of the Year award that went to our Executive Chef, Shailesh Naidu.

Shailesh’s win is significant in that he is our second staff member in as many years to win the award, with our Public Relations Manager, Una Murray, winning the award in 2009.

While we know how skilled, creative, and personable Shailesh is, we were all thrilled that his exceptional talent as a chef, together with his professional conduct with team members and dedication to food excellence, was formally recognised by the AON judging panel.

The gala awards evening was attended by over 350 guests from Fiji’s tourism and business industries and has become one of the country’s most anticipated annual tourism events honouring the individuals and businesses who make significant contributions to Fiji’s tourism industry.

Our two latest awards are also testament to our continual improvements to guest services through resort upgrades, introduction of new and innovative services, and consistent approach to staff training.

While we are very proud of these latest awards, our beautiful resort is only as good as the people behind it. On behalf of the Outrigger ‘ohana, I congratulate each and every one of our staff members who have made these awards possible.