I don't know if the person is a front desk employee, a maid, a houseman, the pool attendant or what. I also don't know if English is their first language or not, and what their living standard might be. All of this would factor in for me.
If they live in a lower standard for their country, for example a maid or houseman, then something practical is the best gift you could give them...a gift card for a supermarket, Walmart (if it exists...they can get clothes there or shoes as well as food), that sort of thing.
If English is *not* their first language, but they speak English fairly well and are a front desk-type employee, I might bring them some books to help them with their language skills. Maybe one "study book" and some sort of a coffee table book about the United States or the area I am from.
I have a girlfriend who went to Mazatlán at Thanksgiving for many years. Believe it or not, she brought her maid a frozen turkey one year. They weren't readily available there, and she figured that it would feed the maid's family for quite a few days!
I always save all my "lifestyle" magazines for the front desk people. You know, People, Us Magazine, OK, Family Circle, magazines like that with a lot of pictures. They get passed from hand to hand to everybody who has good English comprehension skills (and even some who don't, cause there are many pictures). For friends who are Ex-pats, I bring travel magazines. They like those, and Reader's Digest best because they never get old (and there are a lot of "dream" pictures).
Hope this helps you. Its about all I can come up with unless I have a better idea of what sort of person you are purchasing for.
Fern
