Ho Kwon Ping's decades in the hospitality industry have gifted the world with over 70 resorts and hotels. The first of these, the Banyan Tree Phuket, whose origin story-a luxury resort built on the former site of an abandoned tin mine deemed unfit for development by the United Nations and which has been gradually and painstakingly rehabilitated through a tree planting initiative spearheaded by Ho and his wife Claire Chiang-has become the stuff of legend, an exemplar of "sustainable development", a term which had yet to go mainstream during the resort's completion in the 1990s. If the resort were an award-winning first-book in Ho's hospitality saga, then his latest endeavour in Phuket would be both a continuation and the start of a spin-off series in the residential sector that expands on his universe of sustainable development.
"One thing I have learnt in this time is the importance of resilience. To me, legacy is about whether you have given what you have built a solid foundation to grow beyond your wildest dreams," Ho wrote in Rooted in Sustainability, a 2019 publication commemorating the Banyan Tree Group's 25th anniversary. "Over the years we have strived to create more than just a hotel group; we created a stage for talents to grow, a home to nurture families a thriving community."
This story is from the May 2024 edition of Tatler Singapore.
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This story is from the May 2024 edition of Tatler Singapore.
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