Jiji Rajesh - The Newly Promoted Group Director of Revenue & Distributions at Sun Siyam Resorts
Tuesday 11th of April 2023
Homegrown brand, Sun Siyam Resorts have announced the promotion of Jiji Rajesh to the position of Group Director of Revenue and Distributions. Under her new role, Jiji will be helming all six properties of the Sun Siyam brand in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Prior to her promotion, she held the position of Cluster Director of Revenue & Distributions at Sun Siyam Resorts.
Hailing from India, Jiji has served as a Revenue Specialist for over nine years and brings more than 22 years of combined experience in revenue and reservations in various sectors of the hospitality industry. A graduate of Commerce, she initially launched her career as a Customer Care Executive in 1998 at BPL Mobile Communications in India before joining Rainbow Cruises as a Guest Relations Manager in 2000.
In 2002, Jiji made a bold career move by switching perspectives and work sectors when she became employed at the Travancore Heritage Resort as their Executive Administrator. Since then, she has maintained an excellent performance in the industry, serving different roles such as Head of Reservations and Senior Revenue Officer at Le Meridien Kovalam Beach Resort and Le Meridien Dubai. In UAE, Jiji successfully manoeuvred roles such as Assistant Central Reservations Manager at Al Habtoor Hotels and further honed her revenue skills at Dhow Palace Dubai.
She later returned to India in 2010 where she led the positions of Revenue Manager at Intercontinental The Lalit Goa Resort India and Cluster Revenue Manager at the Lalit Suri Hospitality Resorts India in 2012. Jiji’s first brush with the Maldivian tourism scene and particularly the Sun Siyam Resorts brand happened in 2014 when she took charge of Olhuveli, Vilu Reef, Iru Fushi and Pasikudah as Cluster Revenue Manager.
Shortly after, she was promoted to the position of Cluster Revenue Director, overseeing all six resorts based at the corporate office of the company. Jiji’s exceptional skills were instantly reflected in the brand as she managed to increase the direct business segment from a 3% revenue share in 2014 to approximately 42% revenue share in 2022-2023.
Her notable accomplishments also include the introduction of the Opera PMS system in all properties in 2014-2017, achieving revenue targets from MICE business on several occasions and helping to build a strong market base in India, China and the UK through regional and local sales teams. As she steps up to her new challenge, Jiji will continue to optimize and maximize revenue across the company’s portfolio, whilst leading the revenue management team to implement revenue management strategies and processes effectively.
Speaking on her promotion, the CEO of Sun Siyam Resorts, Deepak Booneady commented “We are delighted to have Jiji on the business development team at Sun Siyam Resorts and value her outstanding efforts and incredible achievements over the past nine years. Her proficiency in revenue management is an asset to our company and instrumental in helping the team achieve new benchmarks to hit our goals.”