The Aruba Convention Bureau (ACB), The Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino and Aruba Sonesta Resorts at Seaport Village earned the prestigious 2001 Pinnacle Award based on outstanding service, a quality that is a custom, tradition and honor in Aruba.

The 2001 Pinnacle Award, presented by Successful Meetings Magazine, is given for providing an outstanding level of service to various meetings, incentive travel programs and conventions during the year 2000.

``We at ACB are proud and honored to once again receive this prestigious award,'' said Mr. Adriaan Arends, director of the ACB. ``Our team strives to provide the highest level of service available to meeting planners and visitors.

We are committed to continuing our tradition of service and to providing visitors with a memorable stay on the island.'' ACB, established in 1995, and Aruba Sonesta Resorts at Seaport Village earned this award for the fourth time. This is the first year The Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino earned this award.

In its seventeenth year, the Pinnacle Awards have earned a reputation as the most credible and prestigious symbol of excellence among meeting planners and hoteliers alike.

Successful Meetings Magazine, a publication devoted to meeting and conventions planners, gives these awards based on the responses of more than 75,000 meeting, incentive travel and convention planners who were asked to select sites and destinations based on the quality of the facilities and services they offer.

Aruba is a vacationer's paradise in the heart of the Caribbean, only two and a half hours by air from Miami. Aruba, just 15 miles north of Venezuela, is outside the hurricane belt. The island has great weather year-round, cooling trade winds and friendly people.