Lion Hospitality Awards For Excellence To Go Online On 23 November

The 2021 Lion Hospitality Awards for Excellence event will now be held online on 23 November due to restrictions caused by Covid alert levels.

The awards are hosted by Hospitality New Zealand and recognise businesses and individuals in 17 categories across the accommodation and food and beverage sectors for their work and commitment to excellence in their field.

The awards will be live-streamed from a cocktail event in Wellington to a number of other venues around the country.

A record number of entries were received this year.

They were due to be held on the same date in Auckland as part of the Hospitality Summit, which has been postponed to a date to be decided next year. Last year’s event was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Category winners, in addition to receiving industry recognition and a trophy, will each be presented with $1000 Hospitality New Zealand KOHA Card. The card was launched nationwide by Hospitality New Zealand last week.

CEO Julie White says Hospitality New Zealand is very disappointed the awards could not be held in person after such a tough 18 months for the industry.

“We really wanted everyone to get together to celebrate and congratulate our winners in the best way possible for their work during the pandemic, and it’s a real shame we can’t do that because face-to-face is what hospitality is all about. Although the situation is not ideal having smaller local events will still bring people together under one roof to celebrate on a local level “"

“This is next best and the main thing is we will still be able to honour the winners on a national stage. They deserve that.

“We’ve been working hard to make this online event as good as it can be because we didn’t want to lose the opportunity to celebrate what the industry has to offer.

“Every hospitality business and every worker out there deserves a medal for the guts and perseverance they’ve shown through probably the toughest period the industry has ever been through.

“I want to make a special shout-out to our main sponsor, Lion New Zealand, and all the category sponsors, who have been amazing and are continuing to support this celebration of our industry.”

Lion New Zealand Country Director, Craig Baldie says Lion is committed to supporting the industry and the Awards. “We are passionate about hospitality and have proudly supported the Awards over the last two decades. Our operators have had an incredibly tough time over the past 18 months, but have shown resilience and courage. This is a chance to come together and celebrate that spirit and the best in our industry.”

With the Awards scaled down to an online event Lion also chose to show support for the industry by contributing $30,000 to the Help for Hospo fund set up to support hospitality workers struggling in the COVID environment.

Finalists are on the Hospitality New Zealand website: https://www.hospitality.org.nz/s/awards

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