THE year 2010 proved one of celebration for hotel and gaming entrepreneur Sol Kerzner as he was honored with a UK knighthood, ILTM UltraTravel Lifetime Achievement Award, Variety Club Lifetime Achievement Award, Cornell Hospitality Innovator Award and the HSMAI Lifetime Achievement Award.
In mid-December the man behind the Atlantis and One&Only groups, as well as various other hospitality concerns, was recognised by HM Queen Elizabeth II with the insignia of Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for his outstanding and exemplary contribution in the area of business and community in the Bahamas. This highest honour was awarded in the annual Queen’s Birthday Honours list for 2010.
Kerzner also recently accepted the ILTM/UltraTravel Lifetime Achievement award in Cannes for his life-long service and dedication to international travel and earlier in the year he was awarded the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International Albert E Koehl Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to advertising and marketing in the hospitality industry.
Kerzner was also lauded for his humanitarian achievements outside the travel arena with two distinguished awards from both sides of the pond. His dedication to helping raise more than £200 million ($307 million) for sick, disabled and disadvantaged children was acknowledged by The Variety Club Children’s Charity in London and with Cornell’s 2010 Hospitality Innovator of the Year Award, given annually by the Leland C and Mary M Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.
“I am truly humbled and most honored by these recent accolades,” says Kerzner. “I would not be here today without the hard work and dedication of our people around the world. While I feel proud of all we have accomplished, there is still much more work to be done and we look forward to reinventing the hospitality experience yet again in the next decade.”