Grupo Vidanta Leads Several International Brands as Best Place to Work in Mexico

GUADALAJARA, Mexico, April 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Grupo Vidanta, Mexico's leading developer of resorts, today announced that it had been awarded eighth place in the 2011 Best Companies to Work® in Mexico for companies over 5,000 employees. Many Grupo Vidanta resorts placed ahead of such well-known brands including JW Marriott, Four Seasons, Starbucks, American Express and others.

Multiple Grupo Vidanta properties also made the top ten in various categories including:

• Mayan Palace Puerto Penasco debuted at fifth place in the first year of participating in the survey for companies with 50 to 500 employees, along with a "Distinguished Award for Pride in Service"
• The Grand Mayan Los Cabos placed seventh for companies with 50 to 500 employees
• Mayan Palace, Grand Luxxe and the Grand Mayan in Riviera Maya placed eighth for companies with 500 to 5,000 employees
• Mayan Palace Mazatlan placed eleventh for companies with 50 to 500 employees

"Ensuring the well-being and professional satisfaction of our employees is essential in providing our guests with unforgettable vacations and memories," says Eric DuBaele, Director of Hotel Operations for Grupo Vidanta. "You cannot have unhappy employees and expect great business, especially in an industry centered on face-to face consumer service and interaction.

"In fact, we refer to our employees as "anfitriones" which means "host" in Spanish. Every single employee is hosting guests and a representative of the resort. It's an important distinction that makes a big difference."

One example of how Grupo Vidanta grooms its employees to develop both personally and professionally is the case of Ms. Norma Suarez, General Manager for the Grand Mayan Riviera Maya. Originally joining the Mayan Palace Nuevo Vallarta resort as a receptionist, she recently has been recognized as the woman in charge of the most keys worldwide and was influential in the Grand Mayan Riviera Maya resort being awarded the WQC International Star Award in 2010. Ms. Suarez has also been invited to a dinner hosted by Mrs. Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States of America and Ms. Margarita Zavala, First Lady of Mexico for influential women of Mexico.

Grupo Vidanta employees like Ms. Suarez benefit from numerous programs the company has in place including:

Educational Programs: a series of programs that seeks to promote a safer work environment.  Annually there is a health week, a safe-workplace week, and a week where health professionals come to conduct free physicals.

Mayan With You: This program consists of providing workers with an opportunity to help their family by giving them access to scholarships for their children from middle school all the way up to university studies.

Well Done!: This program was created to help encourage great performance in the work place, teamwork, and encourage individual effort.

Elite Club: A program for workers who demonstrate excellent work ethic over the span of one entire year.  They have priority to 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: An open forum for workers to express their ideas and 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.

"Investing in your employees allows you to grow from within and create a corporation of true brand champions who know the essence of the brands and what we're about. Many of our employees have been in this company for a long time, which we feel is the best measure of our success." 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 who 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

Rankings for Mexican companies with more than 5,000 employees can be found here: http://www.greatplacetowork.com/what_we_do/lists-mx-mexico5000plus.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