When John Spence visited Goa, in India, in 1993, he knew he’d found the place he wanted to develop his first resort property. Goa was just beginning as an international tourist destination, with international tourists from Europe and the Middle East. With a cash injection from his life savings, John founded Royal Resorts to pioneer vacation ownership in India and South East Asia. Within two years, Royal Resorts had become one of the fastest growing vacation ownership companies in the industry’s history.

After the initial growth of Royal Resorts, John realised that the perception of timeshare limited his options in terms of what he could do with the company. He believed that by diversifying laterally he could add another operation that would greatly enhance the company’s value.

In 2002, he founded Karma Resorts, bringing the concept of boutique villa resorts to Asia. John aimed these high-end, boutique villa resorts at investors who purchase a whole villa and then rent it back to an operating company on a condotel-type model. The concept took off in spectacular fashion.

Today, The Karma Royal Group has a turnover in excess of $ 85 million , with 16% EBIT. Between the Royal and Karma brands, John has a total of 18 currently operating resorts. In the next five years, John intends to dramatically grow the business and to float the group on a major stock exchange.

John was the 2010 Australian Entrepreneur Of The Year.