A Minor Hotels feature profiles hospitality figures in Zambia, Ireland, the Maldives, Thailand and China whose work connects travellers with living local traditions.
Anantara’s People Who Inspire feature highlights hospitality figures in Ireland, Thailand, Zambia, China and the Maldives who share local culture and traditions with travellers. — Credit: Anantara Hotels & Resorts
- A World Tourism Day feature published by Minor Hotels profiles five examples of Anantara staff connecting travellers with local stories and traditions.
- The featured experiences span Zambia, Ireland, the Maldives, Thailand and China.
- Profiles include Victoria Falls storyteller Edward Minyoyi, Dublin guide Derek Anthony Brennan and Maldivian father-and-son cultural practitioners Sambe and Rilwan.
- The article forms part of Anantara’s People Who Inspire series, launched during the brand’s 25th-anniversary year.
(NEWS) BANGKOK, Thailand, 2026-Sep-25 — /Travel PR News/ — Behind some of hospitality’s most memorable destination experiences are people who interpret a place rather than simply point visitors towards its landmarks. A new World Tourism Day feature published by Minor Hotels turns that idea into a journey through five Anantara settings, profiling individuals whose work connects guests with local history, customs and living traditions.
The article forms part of Anantara Hotels & Resorts’ People Who Inspire series during the brand’s 25th-anniversary year. While the feature frames its subject against World Tourism Day 2026 and discussion of artificial intelligence in tourism, its focus is firmly human: storytellers, cultural practitioners and local insiders in Zambia, Ireland, the Maldives, Thailand and China.
Victoria Falls becomes a story, not only a viewpoint
At The Royal Livingstone Victoria Falls Zambia Hotel by Anantara, Edward Minyoyi introduces visitors to Mosi-oa-Tunya, or Victoria Falls, through stories that connect the landscape with history and cultural memory.
Minor Hotels’ profile identifies Minyoyi as a member of the Lozi tribe and describes him appearing in ceremonial Siziba attire while sharing both his own story and legends associated with Nyami Nyami, the river god. The approach turns a visit to one of southern Africa’s best-known natural attractions into an interpretation of how the falls are understood locally.
Dublin’s Docklands through an Irish storyteller
In Ireland, Derek Anthony Brennan, guest experience and guardianship manager at Anantara The Marker Dublin Hotel, uses the country’s oral storytelling tradition to interpret Dublin’s Docklands.
Brennan has been at the hotel since 2013 and leads a Docklands Storytelling Tour that explores layers of history behind an area now strongly associated with finance and technology. According to the Minor Hotels feature, he adapts his selection of stories to individual guests and concludes the tour with a pint of Guinness.
A father and son share Maldivian traditions
At Anantara Dhigu Maldives Resort and Anantara Veli Maldives Resort, father-and-son duo Sambe and Rilwan share traditions including Boduberu drumming and palm weaving.
The article says Sambe began his hospitality career as a gardener 18 years ago and has since mentored his son in these cultural practices. Minor Hotels describes the pair as sagaafee — people who carry their culture with pride — and presents their work as a way for guests to engage directly with Maldivian heritage rather than experience it only as a performance.
Village life on Koh Yao Yai
In Thailand, a local insider known as Smithy introduces guests at Anantara Koh Yao Yai Resort & Villas to everyday island life. The Minor Hotels story says his years volunteering in local communities inform experiences involving village coffee shops, rubber plantations and fishing communities, with an emphasis on environmental respect and local relationships.
Dai culture and a sunset ritual in Xishuangbanna
The fifth profile moves to southern China, where Yan Penghan combines guest safety responsibilities with a cultural role at Anantara Xishuangbanna Resort.
A former Theravada Buddhist abbot, Yan draws on his monastic background when interpreting Dai culture for international visitors, according to the feature. He also leads the resort’s sunset ceremony, during which lanterns carrying guests’ wishes drift across the river.
Taken together, the five profiles illustrate one approach to experience-led hospitality in which employees and local experts act as interpreters between travellers and destinations. The examples are presented by Minor Hotels as part of Anantara’s wider effort to foreground personal stories and cultural knowledge within the guest experience.
The People Who Inspire series has also profiled figures associated with astronomy in the Maldives, Sri Lankan tea, elephant conservation in Thailand, wellness in Bali and Phuket, indigenous-inspired hospitality in China and cultural heritage at Anantara properties in Cambodia, Hungary and Italy.
