10:11, April 27, 2009

By Ho Kwon Ping, Executive Chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd,
As the world confronts its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and China itself struggles to stimulate its economy, you would think that we should all put aside inconsequential things like developing resorts, and focus instead on "serious" business.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The development of inland resorts is an integral part of China's plans to stimulate growth in its vast, still relatively backward hinterland. And by encouraging consumption expenditure through domestic tourism, it is part of the national effort to reduce China's dependence on export manufacturing. Once considered as a bourgeois past-time, domestic tourism and resorts are now a strategic imperative for growth.