13 October 2014 – Hong Leong Group Singapore is proud to announce that its Executive Chairman Mr. Kwek Leng Beng has clinched top honours as “Best Travel Entrepreneur of the Year” at the TTG Travel Awards 2014.

The “Best Travel Entrepreneur of the Year” award is a new accolade that honours an individual who sets new standards for his organisation’s brand and contributes to areas in the travel industry such as sustainability, training and education.

“I am very proud to be conferred the prestigious TTG Travel Entrepreneur of the Year. This honour would not have been possible without the support of many capable people who work with me as a team,” said Mr. Kwek who is also Executive Chairman of City Developments Limited (CDL) and Chairman of London-listed Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc (M&C).

“As an entrepreneur, I am determined to continue to acquire and build hotels that meet the latest needs and trend of our guests,” he said.

The annual awards ceremony organised by TTG Asia, a regional travel trade publication, recognises leaders in the Asia-Pacific travel sector. The event was held earlier this month in Bangkok, Thailand.

This achievement is the latest hospitality-related award for Mr Kwek. Among the accolades are “Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year” and “Outstanding Contributor to Tourism” by Singapore Tourism Board in 1997, and the “Asian Hotelier of the Decade” in 2000 by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels and Arthur Andersen.

He was conferred Honorary Doctorates from Johnson & Wales University (Rhode Island in US) in 1998, and Oxford Brookes University (UK) in 2000 for his work in international hospitality.

Mr. Kwek started with one hotel in the early 1970s. Under his leadership, M&C has expanded to become one of the largest hotel owner and operator in the world with nearly 35,000 rooms in more than 120 hotels across 24 countries, with many M&C hotels in gateway cities. M&C’s latest hotel acquisitions – the 87-room high-end boutique Boscolo Palace Roma in Rome, 480-room Novotel New York Times Square, and 158 all-suite Chelsea Harbour Hotel in London – were all acquired within three months from December 2013.

M&C is the 60% subsidiary of Singapore property giant City Developments Limited. Both M&C and CDL are members of Hong Leong Group Singapore.

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