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CONTRIBUTORS In The Know with Gostelow
Mary Gostelow is owner-editor of the unique and influential monthly Gostelow Report and is also the Editor-at-Large of
www.WOW.travel, the online magazine of Kiwi Collection INC.
Mary also shares her unique insights via ‘Gostelow LIVE’ distributed daily from both ILTM events – including all the latest news and views from the show floor.
Personalities from A to Z will be in Shanghai for ILTM Asia. How much will Adrian Zecha, to be honoured at Ultraforum reveal about staying ahead of the game, 25 years after he opened Amanpuri? Tomorrow he may well be opening nature and wild-life resorts in Gabon, on Africa’s west coast. At Amansara, an adaptation of the late King Sihanouk’s private guesthouse in the centre of Siem Reap, Cambodia, he spent hours, with only a cigar for company, studying a courtyard. Finally he announced ‘we need more lighting over there’, pointing to an exact spot. What detail! Cambodia is one of the growth areas among the 400-plus exhibitors in Shanghai. Song Saa, a two-island development designed by Bill Bensley in the Koh Rong archipelago will be presented by Australians Rory and Melita Hunter.
Bill Bensley also designs lifesize silver cherubs (see them, set among foliage, around the 75-foot infinity pool on the new St Regis, Bangkok’s 15th floor terrace). Starwood’s ILTM team is headed by charismatic New York- based Paul James, boss of Luxury Collection and St Regis. His table includes St Regis on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, sandwiched between a white-white turtle-nesting beach and Gary Player golf. Also there is the iconic Eden, Rome, where seventh floor breakfast comes with whole fresh ricotta and coffee that only Italians can make and rooftop views, highlighting the Vatican.
Top people know ILTM Asia is a must. Michel Rey, GM Baur au Lac, on the shores of Zurichsee, Switzerland, will be making his third visit to introduce newly-renovated rooms, an additional 12 studio rooms overlooking Schanzengraben Canal, and Art In The Park, with sculptures and paintings by Miró and more. Silversea’s Steve Odell is another perennial. He says exploration cruises, especially to the Baltic mid-year, and to visit the penguins of Antarctica November-February, are gaining big, and younger, followings. Prolific Ultratravel Forum moderator Michelle Han is another personality, who pops up on CNN, NBC and elsewhere. Her panel - ‘Is the Asian Luxury Traveller dictated by culture, wealth or both?’ - includes such Virgin Atlantic’s Paul Dickinson and Dublin- born Singaporean lawyer-cum-hotelier, Loh Lik Peng.
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