Even when he returned to the family fold in the early 1980s, Mr Ho was not content to toe the line. Taking over from his father as managing director of the family-owned conglomerate the Wah Chang Group, he used the resources at his disposal to lead the group in a new direction, building from scratch that rarity in Asian business, a home-grown luxury brand - namely the Banyan Tree.

'We were a typical Asian mini-conglomerate, involved in a number of different businesses,' he says. 'And like many overseas Chinese companies, we had no competitive advantage. With China starting to emerge on the scene, I could see we could no longer survive by competing on cost. So from the beginning, Banyan Tree was about building a powerful brand that gave us proprietary advantages, so we could stay above price competition and compete globally.'

Creating a global luxury brand is difficult, creating one in Asia is harder still, but doing it in less than 10 years takes a minor miracle.

When he launched Banyan Tree Phuket in 1994, Mr Ho visualised creating a sophisticated boutique brand that traded as much on the romance of travel and ecotourism as it did on luxury, with the promise of rejuvenation for city dwellers by way of 'a sanctuary for the senses'.

'I have heard there are resorts that furnish their suites with luxury brands, like Christofle crystal glasses,' he says. 'You will not find that kind of luxury in Banyan Tree Phuket, or any of our other resorts. What we do is try to create a magical, intimate setting for guests to play out their romances. We aim for an emotional response. That's how we built brand loyalty. One couple has been coming here every year since it opened.'

Mr Ho said the inspiration for moulding Banyan Tree Phuket into an emotive experience came from his cache of memories of travelling around the world in his youth. 'I loved to travel. I loved to backpack. Even after I got married, my wife Claire and I backpacked around Asia and Europe. And the memories that stand out are of places where we found romance and intimacy, no matter how modest our accommodation.'

Recreating that sense of adventure and romance for others meant building more than just another luxury resort. Banyan Tree Phuket had to reflect its physical and cultural setting.

An architectural design team, led by his brother Ho Kwon Cjan, delivered designs that reflected traditional Thai architecture. And as in a rural Asian village, the guest rooms were laid out as individual one-storey structures, ingeniously blended into the tropical greenery of the surroundings to create a strong sense of privacy for guests.

'Our pool villas in Banyan Tree Phuket feel so private that even my mother, who is over 80 years old, has skinny-dipped in one,' says Mr Ho.

Another key to the success of Banyan Tree Phuket and subsequent Banyan Tree resorts is the tropical garden spa pavilion concept pioneered by Mr Ho and his creative team.

Going against the advice of consultants, Mr Ho turned the western concept of spa on its head, taking it out of a clinical white environment and putting it in an open-air pavilion surrounded by lush tropical greenery. Therapists swapped hospital white for colourful ethnic costumes, and rooms were designed to accommodate couples.

'It was a case of necessity driving innovation,' Mr Ho says. 'With no beachfront, we had to find other ways to occupy guests. The tropical garden spa pavilion for couples was one of those ideas. It was an industry first.'

Catching Asia's spa craze on the upswing in the mid-1990s, the themed open-air spa concept proved such a success that it spawned countless imitations - and the spas were established as businesses independent of the resorts.

A year after opening Banyan Tree Phuket, Mr Ho opened two other hotels - one in the Maldives, the other in Bintan, Indonesia. In 1999, he opened a second line of hotel properties, targeted at families, under the banner of Angsana Resorts and Spa.

Like many success stories, Banyan Tree started with a mistake.

'We came across the land on which Banyan Tree Phuket is built while we were on holiday, and we thought it would make an ideal location for a resort,' Mr Ho recalls. 'We discovered it was an abandoned tin mine that could be bought very cheaply. So we did. It was only later we found out that the land was certified by the United Nations as being too toxic to support vegetation or [to] develop on.'

Having bought the old tin mine, in Bang Tao Bay, on the western coast of Phuket, Mr Ho embarked on an ambitious regeneration programme that included filling in the old mines, adding topsoil to support vegetation and reintroducing indigenous plants.

The first four hotels he developed on the 600 acres of land were leased out to hotel operators. Unable to find a hotel operator to take up the fifth and final plot of land, he decided to serve up his own vision of Asian hospitality. 'We named it Banyan Tree, after a restaurant in Yung Shue Wan village on Lamma Island, where my wife Claire and I lived modestly but happily for three years when I was working as a journalist.'

The company that tends to take its cues and inspiration from the past is heading into the future at breakneck speed.

Banyan Tree, which was spared the devastation wreaked by the December 2004 tsunami in both Phuket and the Maldives, is expanding westward through its sister brand Angsana into Dubai.

The group also has two resort projects under way in mainland China, including a Banyan Tree resort in Tibet. Moreover, it has signed agreements to develop resorts in Greece, Mexico, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, it is planning an initial public offering on the Singapore stock exchange this year.

As its founder is fond of saying: 'We are stringing a necklace around the world.'

Notches in the Banyan Tree

1916 Wah Chang Group founded by Li Kuo Ching (Ho Kwon Ping's maternal grandfather)

1981 Ho Kwon Ping joins the Wah Chang Group

1994 Banyan Tree Phuket opened

1995 Banyan Tree Maldives Vabbinfaru and Banyan Tree Bintan opened

1999 Sister resort chain Angsana Resort and Spa launched with opening of Angsana Bintan

2000 Angsana Great Barrier Reef opened

2001 Angsana Bangalore and Angsana Maldives Ihuru opened; Banyan Tree Spa Academy launched

2002 Banyan Tree Bangkok and Banyan Tree Seychelles opened; 11 Oberoi Spas by Banyan Tree opened

2002 Banyan Tree Shanghai opened

2003 Colours of Angsana launched with opening of Gyalthang Dzong Hotel, Yunnan, China

2004 Deer Park Hotel launched under Colours of Angsana in Sri Lanka

2005 Maison Souvannaphoum launched Colours of Angsana in Laos