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4th October, 2008
KOTA KINABALU: Gayana Eco Resort has become the first resort in Malaysia to sign a partnership with the Preferred Hotel Group (PHG).
This was announced by spokesperson and consultant for Gloharta (M) Sdn Bhd, Nilakrisna James during a press conference held at the resort yesterday.
The resort is also the second within the Asean region to form an alliance with PHG, which represents 750 hotels and resorts in 85 countries.
“PHG has five different branding labels for the hotels and resorts it represents – the Preferred Hotels and Resorts, Preferred Boutique, Summit Hotels and Resorts, Sterling Hotels and Historic Hotels of America,” said Nilakrisna.
Gayana Eco Resort falls under PHG’s Preferred Boutique Collection which enables it to enjoy all the privileges and benefits of being a member boutique hotel such as sales support, integrated marketing solutions, global connectivity and reservations service.
She added that the resort was noted by PHG for providing a unique tourism product. “After our rebranding exercise and refurbishment with new identity layouts and expansion programmes with an additional traditional spa, we have caught the eye of international luxury property branding labels such as the Preferred Hotel Group,” she said.
The resort has been placed under the PHG’s resort and adventure categories because it offers an impressive tropical island feel to its architecture and room layouts with overwater villas and open sea balcony breakfast service set against lush green forest on sandy beaches overlooking the South China Sea, she elaborated.
She added that as an adventure destination the resort offers jungle trekking, diving, kayaking around the mangroves, snorkeling, bird watching, the Marine Ecology Research Centre (MERC) with state of the art research into clam propagation and bio-rock coral reef rehabilitation and wildlife at their doorstep.
“You have to experience all this to understand why we are excited to be part of the Preferred Hotel Group. Their guests are constantly looking for new and profoundly unique experiences which you can’t get in any part of the world. A resort shouldn’t just be about bed and breakfast; it should form part of the entire travel experience so that the resort itself becomes one of the destination’s key tourism product. In that we are lucky because we have MERC and Malohom Bay on Pulau Gaya which will form part of Sabah Tourism’s future niche products,” she said.
Meanwhile, PHG’s Global Sales-Asia’s director, Josephine Lim said that PHG represents independent hotels in many countries and that their branding provides quality assurances for all their guests.
She also dubbed Gayana Eco Resort as a national treasure due to its proximity to nature and the efforts undertaken by the resort at MERC to help nature by educating the local island communities, students and guests at the resort and the importance of caring for the environment.
The resort is also known for its effort in propagating giant clams.
Also present at the event was the resort’s general manager, Scot Toon.
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