Seasoned hospitality personality, Arthur Kiong, will bow out of his role as managing director of Far East Hospitality (FEH) at the end of 2025 – he recalls lessons from his four-decade-long career and is certain that retirement will continue to bring fruitful days
There is a familiar tale of a young Singaporean hospitality marketer who went to New York and fought his strait-laced corporate office to run a creative ad showing the Statue of Liberty with both hands raised. Your tale of courage to press ahead for what you believe in has been repeated several times whenever the media wanted to present Arthur Kiong. Is this a story you have told your juniors and mentees through the years, and what true lesson does it hold?
Ah yes, that story. To be honest, I think this is a tale of incredible providence. The outcome was very positive despite myself. It is a foolish thing to attempt to fight city hall. So, while I do repeat this story to my juniors, my first takeaway from it is: do not do this at home.
I wish I could give you a more sexy response, but this is it. The fact is, in life you can plan as much as you want and think you’ve got your angles covered as much as possible, but the outcome of whether or not you win an award or whether or not something goes well is, quite honestly, at the end of the day, not entirely up to you.
In the case of this story, I was very naive to think that I just had to fight for my ideas. While I fought for that idea because I did think it was in the best interest of the company, I cannot deny there was an egotistical streak as well.
I thought then that the company must have brought me all the way to New York because they knew I would look at things differently and do what must be done. So, I asserted my position to give them their money’s worth. I also needed to prove that I was right, so as to legitimise my value. If I had just cowed in and done what the establishment said was right, my value would have been diminished.
There was a complex tension of doing what is best for the company and wanting to assert your sense of self-worth.
Looking back, that move was a career risk. I was 40 years old then with two young kids and a wife who was not working. If that fight had blown up in my face, (the impact) would have been quite devastating.
So, should young people take this kind of risk in their career? The answer is no.
What other weird and wonderful situations have you been in throughout your four-decade-long career in hospitality? And how did these experiences shape you as a person and hospitality professional?
That’s a hard question because there are just so many. If I must choose one, the weirdest and most wonderful situation, then it has to be when I was offered a job to be the director of sales of a five-star hotel in Hong Kong. I was 29 or 30 years old then. I was very flattered with the opportunity, but I did not think I should take the job because of three reasons.
One, I had never ran a sales team at that point. Two, I don’t speak Cantonese. Three, I did not understand the business dynamics in a Hong Kong hotel of such stature.
Thus, I felt I should turn it down, but my wife disagreed. She said that if the hotel thought I could do it, then their opinion was more important than mine. She urged me to take the plunge. I thought, wow, she was so deluded. In the end, an argument ensued – and my wife won.
As the wife always does.
Yes, so I took the plunge. I did not know what a director of sales was supposed to do and how to manage a sales team that was made up of highly competent people. What substance did I bring to the table? That was very intimidating.
At the same time, the hotel was under an immense challenge. There were many hotels being built in Hong Kong, and my hotel had been slower to refurbish and reposition itself in that competitive landscape. I had to think about how I would defend my hotel’s market share under those very trying conditions.
My only go-to source for ideas was the Army, where I once served as a platoon commander. So, I ran the sales department the same way I ran a military platoon. As a commander, before entering battle, I would create a plan based on four criteria: terrain, my own forces, the enemy, and relative combat power.
After one year of doing that, our Hong Kong sales team was voted the best sales team in the company. The following year, we beat our competition in RevPAR by a dollar, recovering from a position in the red to a position in the black.
I am still curious – how did the job find you despite you not having experience in sales?
Cosmic forces in the universe conspired to deliver me that opportunity. On the day the headhunter called my home, my wife happened to be in, tending to our dog which had fallen ill. Because she received the call, she was able to connect the headhunter to me while I was travelling in the US. Evenings were usually spent entertaining customers, but that particular night I happened to be in my room to take the call. I was invited to an interview in Chicago, where I happened to be headed, and later attended a second interview in Hong Kong with the general manager. I was then offered the job.
Now that you are able to look back on your journey in hospitality, would you have done anything differently?
No – that is my short answer.
You will hand over the baton to Mark Rohner at the end of this year and then assume the role of consultant for FEH for four months. What hopes and wishes do you have for the company as you make your exit?
This is an easy one. From here on, the company’s mandate is to grow more aggressively in South-east Asia and Japan. The ambition is to become a regional player – to grow our brands and plant our flags. Deepening our foothold in Japan will be Mark’s mandate, and through my transition, I am giving him full support to help achieve that goal.
What comes after April 2026?
I have quite a number of people reaching out for help in developing, conceptualising, or improving their hotel operations, so I intend to move into consultancy. I had thought it would take time, as I would have to start over, but I’ve been very fortunate—people have approached me, and I’ve had to ask them to wait because I still have work to do here with FEH.
I’m excited about these new projects, as they let me focus on the parts of the job I really enjoy – adding value to the creative and development side of hotel projects.
You are a very outspoken individual, and I can see this extends from your time as the rebel young marketer. I see this in your LinkedIn commentaries about what Singapore tourism needs to do better, and your openness in interviews with me. Will we continue to benefit from your frank observations, discussions and critiques after your retirement?
When I have something that is interesting or helpful, I will make my comments. But other than that, I don’t think I’ll be saying stuff that I should not say.
Some of your LinkedIn posts convey your passion for raising the standards of Singapore’s tourism industry. Won’t you use your expertise and observations to influence how Singapore grooms the next generation of hospitality professionals?
Well, yes, if that opportunity comes about, I’ll be happy to provide advice and guidance to the next generation.
Singapore has a formidable challenge. Some disgruntled Chinese travellers recently went on Xiaohongshu to say that Singapore is too hot, boring and expensive. When I read the news article on this, I felt a tinge of ‘ouch’. It hurt because there is a semblance of truth. When Singapore speaks of quality tourism, price and value must rise at the same time. We have managed to raise the price, but not the value. Price is up, but not our profit margins because it is inflation at work.
Travellers’ perception of Singapore is also brought about by the tremendous strength of the Singapore dollar, which does not help us.
When people have to pay so much to visit, they will want to know what they can get here and nowhere else. Yes, Singapore is clean and green, very safe and highly organised, so much so that we can pull off major concerts and events. But are these attributes enough? There has to be a unique destination proposition.
Singapore’s response to tourism challenges is often to build something bigger and better. I think that may no longer be the best strategy, as we are now in the third wave of tourism.
The first wave of tourism is ‘Me Too’ – I have what you have. The second wave is ‘Me Better’ – I have a bigger convention centre or a more elaborate zoo. We have been competing on this for a long time, but it is hard to sustain because some places in the world are better endowed and can build far larger facilities.
The third wave is ‘Me Only’ – only in Singapore can you find something like this. To achieve this, we have to be far more imaginative, creative, and risk-taking.
Ah ha! But you said earlier young professionals should just play by the book. To break out of the mould and achieve ‘Me Only’, courage to be different is needed.
That’s the paradox! When you do something that is creative and never done before, there is a great deal of risk. Yet, if you do take that risk, you could go places.
I see that I am going against my own advice. My generation was brought up under different circumstances, while this generation is bolder and sees things differently.
As a leader who has fought some bold fights, should you be more patient and generous with your juniors who come to you with weird and wonderful ideas?
That is easy to say, but difficult to do. I have taken a great deal of risk in my career, but I don’t know if I could bring myself to say, “You know what, let’s do it” if somebody else came to me with a crazy idea with a 20 per cent success rate.
(Making the right decision) requires entrepreneurial sense, which isn’t easy to define.
The act of taking risk is a very individualised, deep-down gut feel, a conviction that you need to do something because there’s a degree of faith.
Finally, if you would publish a memoir, what would the title read?
Actually, I have written a memoir, and its titled Leap. The reason for writing a memoir is because this industry has been a tremendous blessing in my life, and I want to bless forward.
This industry has given me experiences that I have never even dared to dream of. It has given me a way to secure a very good living for 40 years and the opportunity to retire in comfort and peace.
I wrote Leap hoping that somehow it would find its way to the majority of young people who are unsure what to make of their life and how to handle the challenges ahead.
These are difficult times – difficult to get a job, and the threat of AI obscuring career paths. I hope to share my experiences and challenges, and how I overcame them with my solutions.
Hopefully, Leap will encourage people to join the wonderful and exciting world of tourism and hospitality in Singapore. While Leap is now complete, I have no idea how to disseminate it, so I am open to ideas.
