Luigi Wix, Associate Director of Sales, and Harmen Gieske, Director of Food & Beverage hosted a small gathering of press personalities on Friday to announce the resort’s upcoming 50th anniversary.
The exact date is October 22nd and you should mentally prepare for a party, in fact a series of festivities involving the community, the guests and the resort’s industry-partner.
Luigi promised a get-together of all resort managers past and present, for an added element of nostalgia, including the resort’s most veteran employee, still at work at the accounting, Irma Romney, with IHG from the very start.
I believe he said, 45 years!
That’s a woman with gumption.
Our Holiday Inn maintained a steady presence on the island for five decades, same name, same logo, while other hotels rebranded over time, and the chain standing for “America, Motherhood & Apple Pie,” remained a constant on our tourism landscape.
According to Luigi, with 590 room, the resort now has the most diverse array of offers, that means a mix of all inclusive, and EP, in a great number of categories, in many markets, with something for everyone, maintaining a sold 3 star PLUS rating, and an enviable average daily rate, in comparison to the chain’s other regional properties, many of them in countries in South America where turmoil hit hard.
The Holiday Inn in Aruba maintain a 30% return visitor rate and keeps upgrading and improving says Harmen, who overseas a great number of restaurants, some of them he says, are Best Kept Secrets, including a daily pop-up, and a spectacular weekly Carnival show with a real brass band!
I am looking forward to the party!
Over the years, I enjoyed some memorable moments at the Holiday Inn, including Mathilde’s Sunday BBO, we used to get it almost every Sunday, tying up with a boat and popping in for a Styrofoam plastic box bursting with goodies.
The water ballet with the Barracudas.
Art Lamour, complete with monkey and Queeny the dog.
Jan de Ruyter.
Those were the days.
