FROM SINGAPORE TO THE WORLD

It has been a whirlwind year of new launches and expansions for home-grown hospitality brands led by second-generation Singaporean female hoteliers. Here are the ones to watch in 2025.

- Chelsia Tan

BANYAN GROUP: INTEGRATING GROWTH WITH ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

To say that Singapore hospitality conglomerate Banyan Group had a watershed year in 2024 would be an understatement.

Last year, the company launched a total of 18 properties, including Banyan Tree Higashiyama Kyoto in Japan, Angsana Tengchong in China, as well as nine Banyan Tree branded townhomes located next to the Bang Tao Beach in Phuket.

Most recently, Banyan Group launched its 100th resort in Singapore, namely, the highly anticipated Mandai Rainforest Resort within Mandai Wildlife Reserve. The 126-hectare property offers 314 hotel rooms, and 24 treehouses shaped like seed pods.

In the pipeline later this year are expansions in Tanzania and the Dominican Republic. One noteworthy launch is Ubuyu, Banyan Group’s first safari resort in the vast wilderness of Ruaha National Park in Tanzania.

Leading these developments is Ho Renyung, deputy chief executive and senior vice-president of Brand HQ at Banyan Group. As a second-generation scion, she continues the legacy of the organisation founded by hotelier Ho Kwon Ping and his wife Claire Chiang in 1994.

While growth has undoubtedly been the key focus of the company, environmental stewardship is an ethos that Banyan aims to drive with initiatives such as the Rewilding Banyan Fund, which was announced by Renyung last November.