“ WE ’ VE REALIZED THAT AT THE SONEVA LEVEL TO MAKE MONEY AND TO MAKE THE OPERATION SUSTAINABLE , WE NEED TO HAVE VERY RICH PEOPLE GOING THERE …
“ WE ’ VE REALIZED THAT AT THE SONEVA LEVEL TO MAKE MONEY AND TO MAKE THE OPERATION SUSTAINABLE , WE NEED TO HAVE VERY RICH PEOPLE GOING THERE …
HALF OUR REVENUES IN OUR RESORTS COME FROM ABOUT A HUNDRED CLIENTS WHO ARE SPENDING US $ 100,000 OR MORE .” SONU SHIVDASANI one of the pioneers of travel and tourism in the country and we understand how it works — we have the infrastructure , the base . We will share the overhead and infrastructure of our resorts .
Soneva Shima in Okinawa will be a resort with residences . And eventually we want to go into cities that now have a high level of leisure , but that is more of a 10-year horizon . And then we might also look at these smaller , low-impact properties in more remote locations .
H : What has made Okinawa such a hot destination ?
SS : Firstly , it ’ s the context of Japan . Tourism has exploded there over the last 10 years , and the government sees tourism as a fantastic opportunity to grow the economy . It ’ s the third biggest economy in the world , and the second biggest is right next door , China , and the Chinese just love Japan .
Okinawa is really the Japanese beach , and I think it has a similar attitude to Miami and the South of France . It has the potential to become the South of France or Miami of the far East with the second- and third-biggest economies surrounding it . It is also a place where people within a short-haul distance can go and buy second homes .
H : How does the slow-life approach work in an urban environment ?
SS : At Six Senses we were looking at urban environments , and our development team and operations team came up with about 100 touchpoints where we could introduce the slow life into an urban context . I think we ’ ll be able to keep a very unique fabric , especially being the owner of the properties .
You can have open courtyards with vertical gardens , and you can recycle waste in small environments , as well … The lovely thing about cities is they are so rich in culture , so it ’ s a fantastic opportunity to very much immerse ourselves in the culture . Once we get involved with the team and our values and philosophies , we ’ d be able to really drive great differentiation . H : What ’ s your growth philosophy ? SS : We ’ ve realized that at the Soneva level to make money and to make the operation sustainable , we need to have very rich people going there . We need to be in destinations where the super-rich go to regularly . In the Maldives , for example , 2,000 private jets land there every year . Half our revenues in our resorts come from about a hundred clients who are spending US $ 100,000 or more . At the same time , we like the idea of remoteness and one of our new resorts in the Maldives will be the only resort on that atoll . That ’ s something we ’ d like to roll out
Soneva Kiri ( Thailand ) treepod dining in other locations . It ’ s not so much an evolution of Soneva because it ’ s a type of subbrand that we can roll out in other places if in the one in Maldives is successful .
H : Will you consider additional investment partners ?
SS : Given that we have lots of capital with KSL , the priority is to give up as little equity as possible in any new deals . But there may be locations that strategically we need to go for partners because we will need that local support . For example , for Soneva Shima we are talking to some of the big institutions about coming in with a very small stake of support because we want their local knowhow .
H : You struggled with Six Senses before selling . Any takeaways ?
SS : Focus . We were just chasing too many deals that potentially compromised the brand . It ’ s this whole idea of return on energy .
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