Wish You Were Here: Banyan Tree Resort

Travel

Wish You Were Here: Banyan Tree Resort

By Men's Folio
September 25, 2012

Wish You Were Here Banyan Tree Resort 1

For three years in the 1980s, Ho Kwon Ping, then a journalist, resided with his wife Claire Chiang in Banyan Tree Bay on Hong Kong’s Lamma island. Ho was so captivated by the idyllic nature of the island’s small fishing village that it became the inspiration when he opened the first Banyan Tree Resort on over 550 acres of land on the site of a derelict tin mine at Bang Tao Bay, Phuket in 1994. Damaged from chemicals used in the mining process, it was restored into the chain’s signature resort. Today, the hospitality brand has matured into a conglomerate managing more than 20 resorts and hotels, over 60 spas, in excess of 70 retail galleries, as well as two golf courses located across the world, from Macau to Mexico.