10.31.2011
Three properties owned and/or operated by Delaware North Companies named among the best in the world by readers
BUFFALO, N.Y. (Oct. 31, 2011)- Three hotels and resorts owned and/or operated by Delaware North Companies have been selected for Conde Nast Traveler’s 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards. The luxury travel magazine ranked the hotels based on more than 8 million votes cast in the annual survey. The awards reflect the combined opinions of 28,876 Conde Nast Traveler readers who rated the world’s best cities, islands and hotels visited in the past year.
The Delaware North properties cited by Conde Nast Traveler are:
- The Ahwahnee , Yosemite National Park, Calif., with 86.1 points is number 87 in the United States Resorts category;
- The Plaza, New York, N.Y., with 89.4 points, is number 60 in the United States Hotels category;
- Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, with 86.5 points is eighth in the Oceania Resorts category.
The Ahwahnee®, operated by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts for the U.S. National Park Service, is widely considered the crown jewel of national park lodges. It is listed as a National Historic Landmark and each year earns four diamonds from AAA. The Ahwahnee was recognized by Conde Nast Traveler magazine’s “Reader’s Choice Awards” in 2010 as one of the top 100 resorts in the United States. The Ahwahnee’s executive pastry chef, Paul Padua, was honored as Western Regional Pastry Chef of the Year by The American Culinary Federation (ACF) after winning a competition at the regional conference in May 2011. The Ahwahnee was named on Travel + Leisure’s list of the World’s Top 500 Hotels in 2008. In 2007, Yosemite's Ahwahnee Dining Room, managed by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, was inducted into Nation's Restaurant News' Fine Dining Hall of Fame.
Delaware North is also an operator at New York City’s landmark The Plaza Hotel. Delaware North Companies co-manages event catering with Manhattan-based Great Performances in the Grand Ballroom, the Ballroom Foyer, the Terrace Room and meeting spaces. The Plaza’s Grand Ballroom has hosted dream weddings for celebrities and discerning people alike for more than a century, including members of the Kennedy family, Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, and Donald Trump and Marla Maples. The Plaza has also hosted many of the city’s most memorable parties – Truman Capote’s Black & White Ball and Sarah Jessica Parker’s 40th birthday bash – and scenes from countless classics were filmed in the ballroom including Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and the recent blockbuster Bride Wars.
Delaware North-owned and operated Lizard Island was recently chosen by the readers of luxury travel publication Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report as one of the world’s Top 20 Beach Resorts. Lizard Island was recently ranked in Australian Traveler’s Top 10 Luxury Lodges in Australia in 2011. In the 2010 U.S. Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards, Lizard Island ranked eighth among resorts in Oceania. Lizard Island was voted second in the category Best Australian Resort in the 2009 Gold List Awards. In 2008, Lizard Island was voted as the top hotel in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific and one of the top 100 hotels and resorts in the world at the Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards.
About Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts
Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts is an industry leader providing Stewardship and Hospitality in Special Places SM, with hotel, retail, food service, recreation and transportation operations at historic and scenic properties in North America and Australia. The company operates Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and in Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Sequoia and Yosemite national parks, including The Ahwahnee and other Yosemite lodges; Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite & the Cottages at Tenaya Lodge; Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa in British Columbia; Niagara Falls State Park; The Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake in Ohio; Gideon Putnam Resort in Saratoga; Holiday Inn West Yellowstone, Gray Wolf Inn & Suites and Yellowstone Park Hotel; and LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Wash. The company also owns and operates five luxury resorts in Australia: Lizard Island Resort, Heron Island Resort, Wilson Island Resort, Kings Canyon Resort and El Questro Homestead and Wilderness Park. To learn more about Delaware North Companies’ hospitality management expertise, visit www.experiencednc.com.
About Central Park South Events at The Plaza
CPS Events (www.theplaza/events.com) is a stand-alone joint venture between Delaware North Companies, one of the world’s leading hospitality and food service providers, and Great Performances, one of New York’s most prestigious event management and catering companies, founded by Liz Neumark. Together as CPS Events they have leased the Grand Ballroom, Foyer, Centennial Room and seven meeting rooms at The Plaza for the next 25 years.
About Delaware North Companies
Delaware North Companies is one of the largest and most admired privately held hospitality companies in the world. Founded and owned by the Jacobs family for nearly 100 years, it is a global leader in hospitality and food service. Its family of companies includes Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, Delaware North Companies Gaming & Entertainment, Delaware North Companies Travel Hospitality Services, Delaware North Companies Sportservice, Delaware North Companies International and Delaware North Companies Boston, owner of TD Garden. Delaware North Companies has revenue exceeding $2 billion annually and 55,000 associates serving half a billion customers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. For more information, visit www.DelawareNorth.com.
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