Christopher Stafford – the Anantara and Elephant Polo Man
His hotel career, though, actually started in Sweden and Norway before moving on to Sydney, Australia. He moved up the ladder to get his first GM position in Tahiti in 1985. Later on in 1990 he took his first job outside hospitality by setting up and running the first ever sound engineering school in Singapore – The School of Audio Engineering and the first such school in Kuala Lumpur. “I then decided to go back to the hotel industry. After a stint with Mandarin Oriental group in Singapore I was asked to help expanding the Harry’s Bar franchise there, so we started Harrys F&B International which was turned into a huge success between 1995 and 1998.” Then Christopher moved on to start Raffles Town Club in Singapore. And in year 2000 it was time to come back to the hotel industry for real; time for Anantara. “It worked very well; Hua Hin opened in 2001 followed by the Golden Triangle in 2003 which I opened with another Swedish colleague, Björn Richardsson. Then down to Koh Samui in 2004, and Maldives came up with a joint venture. This was the first time taking the brand outside Thailand which was an interesting task, where we built three hotels on three islands, one fivestar, Naladhu and then Dhigu and Veli.” “Anantara was very special in the beginning; the idea was that it would be a Pan-Asian brand and we tried to incorporate the Maldivian touches. What I have always felt is that they don’t incorporate the local culture enough, actually, and all things become very Thai style everywhere. Naladhu was an
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attempt to do something completely different, sort of Tommy Bahama style, more colonial.” Doing things for local society permeates his vision of what a hotel is about. Christopher wanted to accomplish more than just running the hotels at Anantara where his stint in the Maldives is a perfect example. “I wanted to build a Dhoni museum. So I started and asked afterwards.” Dhoni is the traditional means of transportation of the Maldives. “If there’s anything they can do better than anyone else, it is building hand-made boats. So we started building many Dhonis, and we thought we should have a museum for such boats out on Anantara. The whole idea was to show how they do it, since it’s all done
by hand. At that time, at least it was my vision – and how elephants also came into the picture – a hotel with a social conscience should be able to do such things.” The whole initiative was stopped but the resort owns some lovely Dhonis as a result. And the elephant polo is still very much part of the brand. “It gets a lot of local support. And when it did not take place in Hua Hin for four years they complained. So now when we are coming back [in 2011] they are very happy, since something will happen again. And that’s the thing, it is important for a society to have such things.” In Chiang Rai Anantara incorporated an elephant school with the resort. There guests learn how to ride an elephant while at the same time contributing to a charity which helps buying stray elephants. “Today they have 38 elephants. And they bring the whole family, so the mahout owner and his wife etc. come to live in the village and occupy themselves with a small industry. And the elephants have a much better life in the camp. It was pure luck that we got the government to join.” Thanks to this initiative and that the authorities knew that Anantara had the right approach, the elephant polo sport also got the thumbs up. Christopher, who has been riding horses all his life and played polo in Singapore, got the idea of elephant polo from the owner of Qbar in Bangkok, Mr David Jacobson, inspired from Nepal. And like a bolt from the blue Christopher immediately could see an inner image of the form.