Jose Dominic, Kerala’s Sustainable Tourism Visionary

It’s a hot, tropical afternoon in Kumarakom, in the backwaters of Kerala. I am sitting on the verandah of a cottage in Coconut Lagoon, which is a nature resort and the brainchild of Jose Dominic, CEO of the CGH Earth Group of hotels. I am watching turtles trying to climb out of a backwater canal,

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1Mby1M Deal Radar 2011: PhoCusWright, New York And Connecticut

As long as the world has people who can afford to support it, the travel and tourism industry will continue to exist. The industry experienced a decline, understandably, after September 11, 2001. Travel declined again when the recession started in 2007, and an increasing number of people found themselves either unemployed or underemployed, practices like

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Vision India 2020: Renaissance

For years, I had been disturbed by the demolition of architectural heritage in India in the name of development. [If you haven’t already, please read my very personal account, As India Builds.]

Vertical Travel Ad Network CEO Cree Lawson (Part 6)

SM: What stage are you at now? Revenue? Profitability? Traffic? Customers? Users? Advertisers? Any other metrics you track? CL: We ran the company at break-even for the first three years. We didn’t have a choice. All the profits went right back into the company (and a few to American Express and Mastercard). Now that we have

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Heritage Hotels in India

Besides Real Estate, the Hotel industry is also booming in India. I have always felt, Heritage Hotels are a very good way to preserve and restore old architecture, as well as leverage them. India already has a heritage of doing this in Rajasthan and many other places. I would like to see this tradition continued

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Heritage Hotels: Roll-up opportunity for a Private Equity firm?

Spain developed the Paradors concept very effectively, by converting old forts, palaces, and monasteries into beautiful “experience hotels”. India has done only the beginnings of this, but has a very long way to go yet. Here is a business concept for KKR or Carlyle for India: The real estate market is booming. Old, beautiful architecture

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Tourism in India: Huge Opportunity

We were traveling in North India during the holidays last December. We focused mainly on Rajasthan and Varanasi, and our flight to Khajuraho was cancelled. Rajasthan is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India, perhaps second only to Agra and the Taj Mahal. It has enormous and spectacular forts like Amber in Jaipur,

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