City man nabs national award
Published Thursday November 5th, 2009
A Fredericton hospitality worker and the City of Fredericton came home from Saint John with national accolades from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada this week.
Karl Doestch of the Delta Fredericton Hotel beat out competitors from across Canada to earn the Intercontinental Hotels Group Employee of the Year at the association's gala dinner.
The 30-year-old is the senior banquet houseman and has worked at the Delta since 2000.
The award recognizes exemplary dedication.
"Karl has shown a strong commitment to his role in the tourism industry, producing work above and beyond the normal requirements, promoting harmony with co-workers, maintaining exemplary work standards and demonstrating a helpful, co-operative attitude," said Delta Fredericton Hotel general manager Sara Holyoke.
"He's got a lot of humility."
In accepting the award, Doestch deferred the recognition to the team he works with, saying no one person is more valuable than another.
"We have tons of pride in him. This is probably the most prestigious award that you can win in our industry. In our business, it's the front-line employees who make it happen every day for our guests. It was incredibly exciting."
"We just thought it was fantastic that Karl won," said city tourism manager David Seabrook.
"To see someone from our industry, especially on the front line, win, we were just thrilled for Karl."
The capital city's tourism department won the Deloitte Innovator of the Year Award from the association.
The award recognizes the city's edVentures summer program, launched in the summer of 2008, which invites tourists to participate in hands-on learning programs in craft and culture.
About 120 workshops are offered as introductions to everything from rug hooking to digital photography.
"We had set a goal of creating a national-class program," Seabrook said. "This is validation that we've created something that truly is innovative and unique on the national scale. It was a great moment for Fredericton and for New Brunswick."
Fredericton's former tourism manager, Nancy Lockerbie, helped create the city's edVentures program. The city partners with the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Kings Landing, the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design and other supporters to market the offerings.
"The creative resources in our community, when put together with the marketing and packaging ability of the tourism industry, can really tell a cultural story about Fredericton to the world," Seabrook said.
The award will build national recognition for the program and Seabrook said it will allow the city bragging rights as it tries to entice tour operators and travel media across North America to promote the capital city as a destination for tourists.
Other New Brunswick winners included T4G Ltd.'s My Trip Planner, which won the Pacrim Hospitality Services Inc. Online Innovation Award, an honour it shared with New Brunswick Tourism and Parks.
Other New Brunswick winners included the provincial Tourism and Parks Department. The province won the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts Marketing Campaign of the Year Award called L'eau chaude-c'est juste le debut. It was a promotion created for Quebec tourists and the province partnered with IG2 of Quebec to create the campaign.
Parks Canada's Sustainable Tourism Award went to the Cape Jourimain Nature Centre at Bayfield.
With files from Canadaeast News Service
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