Grupo Vidanta Ranks as Top Hotel and Resort Company in 2012 Best Companies to Work® in Mexico

GUADALAJARA, Mexico, March 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Grupo Vidanta, Mexico's leading developer of resorts, today announced that it is recognized as the top hotel and resort company in the American award known as "2012 Best Companies to Work®" in Mexico. Grupo Vidanta's showing placed ahead of such well-known resort brands in Mexico including JW Marriott Hotel Mexico City, Four Seasons Hotel and RCI Mexico.

For the second straight year Grupo Vidanta was awarded eighth place overall for all companies over 5,000 employees in Mexico. With no other resort company winning better rankings, the following Grupo Vidanta property locations were ranked among the best companies to work for in the 501 to 5,000 employee category:

-Grupo Vidanta properties in Riviera Maya placed 11th 
-Grupo Vidanta properties in Vallarta placed 48th
-Grupo Vidanta properties in Acapulco placed 92nd, the first time Acapulco properties were ranked in the top 100

In the 50 to 500 employee category, with 79 companies competing, Grupo Vidanta properties in the following locations won these rankings:

-Grupo Vidanta properties in Mazatlan placed 5th (this resort was the first of the Vidanta properties)
-Grupo Vidanta properties in Los Cabos placed 8th
-Grupo Vidanta properties in Puerto Penasco placed 13th
-Vidanta headquarters in Nuevo Vallarta placed 30th

In addition, Grupo Vidanta resorts in two locations were honored with a special recognition as the best of its ranking in the Pride GPTW model:

-Grupo Vidanta properties in Riviera Maya
-Grupo Vidanta properties in Mazatlan

The Grupo Vidanta website sums up their philosophy perfectly: "Our people are happy and that is our greatest asset. The passion they display every day to deliver the essence of happiness to every guest is an amazing thing for a guest to experience and a hallmark of a Vidanta vacation."

Grupo Vidanta operates full-service luxury beach resorts in Mexico's finest beaches, under Grand Luxxe, The Grand Bliss, The Bliss, The Grand Mayan, Mayan Palace, Ocean Breeze and Sea Garden brands.  

"Grupo Vidanta is extremely proud to have received this honor for two years in a row. We strongly believe in providing the best possible vacation experience to our guests, and we know we cannot do that without the hard work and dedication of our employees," says Eric DuBaele, Director of Hotel Operations for Grupo Vidanta. "Our employees are happy, and that feeling is obvious to our guests. We rely on top-notch customer interaction, and that means top-notch, satisfied employees. Not only do we take customer satisfaction seriously—we place just as high a value on employee satisfaction as well."

"Great Place to Work®" had roots beginning in 1981. Over 25 years of research culminated in the world's first 100 Best Companies to Work For workplace ranking in 1997. Great Place to Work gradually opened doors in 45 countries with more to come, with the first rankings for Mexican companies listed in 2002.

Grupo Vidanta offers a variety of programs to encourage employee development and job satisfaction:

Educational Programs: These programs are designed to promote a safer work environment.  Each year the company sponsors a health week, a safe-workplace week, and a week where health professionals conduct free physicals for staff members. 

Mayan With You: This program allows Grupo Vidanta workers to help their families by giving them access to scholarships for their children beginning in middle school all the way up to university studies. 

Well Done!: This program encourages excellent performance by employees in the workplace, and it also encourages individual effort.  

Elite Club: This is a program created for workers who exhibit excellent work ethics over a one-year period.  These employees have priority in the "Mayan With You" scholarships, different product sales available to workers, access to the sports facility at the Delia Moran Foundation and job security during low seasons.

Innovating Together: This is an open forum where workers can express their ideas and submit suggestions for improvement in any department. 

Grupo Vidanta employees also enjoy amenities such as free cafeteria services, free bus routes to and from the hotel, and one week to vacation at a Grupo Vidanta brand resort depending on their level of employment.

"We know that we cannot be successful without our employees, and we do everything we can to make sure they are happy and satisfied. Many of our employees have been with our company for a long time. We're proud of that, and we want that to continue," DuBaele added.

The ranking for Best Companies to Work® is the result of a rigorous process of analysis and assessment of the views of employees and the corporate culture. The main objectives of the rankings from the Great Place to Work® Institute Mexico are to facilitate knowledge management and share experiences among organizations that know how to get the best results from business by improving the quality of their workplaces.

In Mexico the model and methodology are certified by the Instituto Mexicano de Normalizacion y Certificacion, CA (Mexican Institute of Standardization and Certification, CA).

Rankings for Mexican companies with less than 5,000 employees can be found here: http://www.greatplacetowork.com/what_we_do/lists-mx-mexico500plus.htm

About Grupo Vidanta

Grupo Vidanta was founded in 1974 and has evolved for more than 35 years into one of Mexico's leading developers of hotels and resorts, golf courses, vacation ownership, and tourism infrastructure, including Mexico's first privately built and owned international airport at Puerto Penasco. For American travelers, Grupo Vidanta offers a choice of full-service luxury beach resorts in Mexico's finest beaches, under the Grand Luxxe, The Grand Bliss, Ocean Breeze, Sea Garden, Mayan Palace and The Grand Mayan brands. In the near future, new hospitality brands will include The Bliss and Mansions of the World. Grupo Vidanta's Mayan Island has built and sold over 2,000 second homes. For further information see www.grupovidanta.com.    

Media Contact: Edward Yang, [email protected], http://www.FirecrackerPR.com

SOURCE Grupo Vidanta