Hong Kong’s Hotel Icon the Sole Hotel Finalist in UN Tourism Awards

Hotel Icon is the only finalist from Greater China – and the lone hotel – in the coveted United Nation’s World Tourism Organisation Awards for Excellence and Innovation in Tourism 2013.

Hong Kong’s Hotel Icon is one of four finalists for the Award for Innovation in Enterprises, also known as the Ulysses Award for Innovation.

The award acknowledges the world’s best tourism initiatives that are both sustainable and profitable. According to the United Nations, they are the “flagship awards for the global tourism sector”.

Hotel Icon is the only hotel among the 13 finalists and one of the few projects that is commercially sustainable. The list of finalists in this year’s UNWTO Awards is dominated by non-governmental organisations involved in conservation, and government-sponsored tourism promotion initiatives.

Representing Asia in the awards line-up are Hotel Icon, Borneo Ecotourism Solutions and Technologies Society from Malaysia, and the Korean Tourism Organisation from South Korea.

Hotel Icon earned a place among the finalists for its commitment to integrating teaching, learning and research into a 262-room luxury hotel, with five-star finishes.

The property in the Tsim Sha Tsui tourism district is managed to the highest standards of good governance with a mandate to maximise revenues, with the profits invested in education of students from across Asia.

“It is a huge honour to be nominated for this award and a wonderful acknowledgement of the effort our team puts into innovation and training,” said Richard Hatter, General Manager of Hotel Icon. “I am extremely proud that our efforts have been recognised. We are a hotel with a purpose. We develop industry leaders through hands-on training in an open-minded environment. Our purpose-built hotel is their laboratory ... Being recognised by the wider industry shows that Hotel Icon is a premier property, on par with any hotel in the world.”

Hotel Icon was founded in 2011 as part of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. It is the world’s first teaching and research hotel to offer co-located, co-lead hospitality programmes.

Hotel Icon has 262 guest rooms and suites, three food and beverage outlets, an Angsana Spa featuring professional therapists from the Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, a state-of-the-art gym, and an outdoor swimming pool overlooking  Victoria Harbour.

The presentation ceremony for the United Nations World Tourism Organisation Awards takes place at Fitur, an international tourism trade fair, in Madrid on 22 January 2014.