By Cheryl Tan

Separated by a sliding door from Banyan Tree head honcho Ho Kwon Ping's office is a sitting room which, save for a handful of art pieces, is built for business.

The decor of his office in Upper Bukit Timah Road is a far cry from the luxurious, elegant designs of the 26 hotels and resorts that the brand now owns and manages around the world, from Bintan to Mexico.

Later this year, 16 years after establishing its name overseas with upscale resorts, Banyan Tree is coming home: It announced last week that it will open its first Banyan Tree Spa in Singapore at Marina Bay Sands integrated resort in September.

The 20,000 sq ft Spa and Health Club managed and run by Banyan Tree will be on the 55th floor of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, overlooking the city.

It is a long overdue homecoming. Mr Ho says it is a local presence that they have been hoping for that will 'no doubt reinforce our positioning as a premier spa operator'.

Mr Ho, 58, dressed smartly in a grey suit and blue shirt, looks clearly all-business. He settles into a couch for a photograph.

Banyan Tree, too, is sitting pretty, having chalked up a $2.97-million net profit in the fourth quarter last year despite the global economic recession and political instability in Thailand that has impacted businesses there.

On the remarkable story of how Banyan Tree grew from a single resort in Phuket in 1994 to today's global success, he says disarmingly that the 'foolishness of youth and ignorance' were the key to getting it off the ground.

In 1985, the three would-be co-founders - Ho, his wife, former Nominated Member of Parliament Claire Chiang, and architect brother Kwon Cjan - stumbled upon and bought a plot of land in Bang Tao Bay on Phuket's western coast which looked like an 'eerie moonscape'.

'It was a huge piece of land without a single tree or plant and it had these lagoons in it where the water was cobalt blue, really bright blue. It was very strange,' he recalls of the site on which they intended to build a holiday home, though they never did.

Next >>