October 2003 - October 2003 - Hilton Canada

On Tuesday, October 28th, Hilton Canada hosted the TMAC Ontario “Munch & Mingle” at the Hilton Toronto featuring food from Tundra Restaurant.

Stuart Broster, president of Hilton Canada and vice president – North America for Hilton International was on hand to provide an update on Hilton in Canada and around the world, discuss the difficult year the travel industry has faced, and provide some optimism in what’s new for the year ahead.

News of the just launched on-line media accommodation form at www.hiltongroup.com was met with great enthusiasm from the writers in the audience. Journalists visiting the media centre on Hilton Group.com may easily request accommodation 24 hours a day at any one of the Hilton hotels worldwide.

Cuisine was a large focus of the evening and two outstanding culinary team members from the Hilton Toronto were recognized for their achievements. Executive Chef John Cirillo is team captain for the Ontario Culinary Team and Lesia Burlak represents Hilton as one of the only ten team members on Culinary Team Canada. Lesia’s presence on Team Canada is even more impressive when you consider that she is just one year out of culinary school and is already winning such awards as gold in the individual competition at the Culinary World Cup in Germany.

January 2004 marks the expansion of Hilton’s luxury brand, Conrad Hotels into the North American market with the opening of the Conrad Miami. It joins other luxury Conrad properties in such world-class destinations as London, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Brussels and New York with other management agreements in negotiation for Conrad hotels in San Diego, Indianapolis, Seattle and Las Vegas.

And worldwide, Hilton recently announced plans for the Hilton Amazon Eco-Lodge, a unique five star resort development situated in the heart of the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil. Opening in 2005 it will offer guests an unrivalled ecological experience highlighted by breathtaking scenery, some of the world’s finest bird watching, and unusual activities such as alligator spotting, jungle hiking and piranha fishing. The lodge will be environmentally sensitive and will work with environmental protection agencies to ensure the project is a positive enhancement of Ecotourism in the Amazon with two percent of gross operating profit from the lodge being donated to the Amazon Preservation Fund.

A discussion followed the speech on how Canada’s travel industry can better support the media in doing stories on Canada.

Lucky door prize winners were; Georgia Kourakos of Merit who won dinner for two in Tundra restaurant and Bill McVean who won the two-night get-away including breakfast to any Hilton hotel in Canada.

For more information on Hilton Canada, or any of the Hilton hotels worldwide, please contact Barbara McCully, Director of Public Relations, Hilton Canada at barbara_mccully@hilton.com.