Making Waves

Genting Group scion Loui Lim is determined to put his own stamp on the empire built by his forebears. He speaks to Madeleine Ross about a new generation of Asian travellers and how he is modernising the luxury cruise experience

- Madeleine Ross

As far as the ultimate New Year’s Eve goes, what could be more spectacular than counting down to midnight on a yacht under a fireworks-festooned Sydney Harbour Bridge? Only this: alighting from that yacht, boarding a private jet, flying back in time and doing it all again on the sandy shores of Honolulu. Celebrating New Year’s Eve twice in 24 hours is one of many once-in-a-lifetime experiences that Loui Lim has amassed in his 31 years. The grandson of the late Malaysian gaming magnate Lim Goh Tong, Loui has partied with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (at one of her New Year’s Eve shindigs, no less), taken a sunrise safari via hot air balloon over Kenya’s Maasai Mara wilderness, and savoured Austrian master Gustav Klimt’s artworks in private at Vienna’s Belvedere Palace (“It’s a magical feeling to have a palace entirely to yourself,” he says).

Before attending the UK’s prestigious Harrow School, Loui spent his childhood running around the hotels and casinos that his father, Genting Group chairman Lim Kok Thay, operated in Malaysia. When big acts came to the resorts, Loui would sneak backstage to meet showgirls, pet white tigers and learn the secrets to magic tricks. “Often I felt like I was living in my own movie,” he says.