A Vision for Tomorrow

Banyan Group founder and executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping discusses cultivating social sustainability through responsible development, and the next chapter in his non-retirement plan

- Asih Jenie

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."