Minor Hotels’ representatives were in Australia last week to meet with trade and share the latest news of its ever-expanding portfolio, including rapid growth across Europe.
Karryon joined other members of the media last week at Taronga Zoo to meet with Mark Thomson, Group Director of Public Relations and Communications for Minor Hotels and Elisa Grimaldi, Director of PR & Communications, Avani Hotels & Resorts who were both out from Bangkok visiting Australia.
On the heels of World Elephant Day last week on 12 August, the plan was for zoo staff to guide us to the elephant barn for an exclusive meet and greet with Asian elephants Tang Mo and Pak Boon. These two female elephants will depart from Taronga Zoo bound for South Australia in 2025. They made a brief appearance after waking from their sleep.
Minor Hotels is all too familiar with the behaviour and awe of elephants, through its award-winning and ethical Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort in Thailand.
The hotel group is no doubt set for a moment in the spotlight when, as covered by BBC earlier this year, some of its Thailand properties may have been chosen as set locations for the filming of season three of the popular Netflix series, White Lotus.
New hotels
During dinner at Me-Gal restaurant at Wildlife Retreat at Taronga, Thomson and Grimaldi shared details of the rapidly expanding portfolio for Minor Hotels, now totalling 550 worldwide properties in 57 countries and offering 80,000 rooms.
In recent years, Minor Hotels has forged a concentrated and rapid expansion in Europe. Mark Thomson explained the back story.
“When the world collapsed during Covid…we were a little worried about what we were going to do, but Europe bounced back and the Maldives bounced back. The only places that didn’t bounce back were here and Southeast Asia,” said Thomson.
“So, what our founder did was instead of thinking ‘oh god, I should save my money’, he went and bought some of the most iconic hotels throughout Europe. So our expansion plan started quite massively throughout Europe during Covid. Weird – but it worked,” he said.
Thomson confirmed that its highly-anticipated Anantara Ubud Bali Resort will open on 1 October.
Anantara will open its first property in India opening in “Q4-ish” – Anantara Jewel Bagh Jaipur Hotel.
Meanwhile, as Karryon has earlier reported in this story on luxury hotel openings until the end of 2024, Avani+ Barbarons Seychelles is reopening in December after a multi-million dollar renovation.
Anantara will launch its first tented camp in Zambia along the Zambezi River, the Anantara Kafue River Tented Camp, which Thomson says they are calling a “floating camp as the animals will walk and feed beneath you” in the raised structures. It is set for a mid-2025 opening.
In Europe, Anantara Royal Vila Viçosa Resort will open in Portugal’s Alentejo region in 2026, located in a 16th century convent.
For more information, visit minorhotels.com
