PROTEA HOTELS AWARDS OUTSTANDING GENERAL MANAGER

Cape Town, 9 October 2008: David Thompson, from Protea Hotel Marine in Port Elizabeth, has been announced as Protea Hotels' General Manager of the Year 2008 by the Protea Hotel Group at the recent General Managers’ Conference held in Cape Town. David has been acknowledged for taking this hotel to new heights after exceeding budgets by a staggering 40%.

It is fair to say that David is generally game for anything; from opening a new Hotel in Egypt, or converting a liquidated hotel in Durban into a highly profitable one, to assisting as a regional manager for Kwazulu-Natal.  As a highly organized team player, everything happens with the greatest of ease for him and the general consensus is, whatever the budget is, David will exceed it.

"David is an outstanding General Manager, who understands every aspect of his business, from the balance sheet to the maintenance plan," said Arthur Gillis, Group Managing Director, Protea Hotel Group "and this award is well deserved. We congratulate him on his excellence and his contribution to Protea Hotels over the past 23 years."

In a heartfelt speech at the Awards ceremony, David acknowledged every single member of his team with whom he worked since joining the group in 1985 as a Food and Beverage Manager at Protea Hotel Hillbrow.

In his reign as Protea Hotels General Manager of the Year 2008, David will chair the prestigious Golden Circle, which comprises all previous winners of the General Manager of the Year Award.

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