1990s

The Northwest Arkansas Council is formed to get a new airport built, with Alice Walton as its first chair

André Balazs buys the Chateau Marmont

Esprit de France forms around historic French buildings

Ahmed Siyam Mohamed opens his first Maldivian resort

Theo Gerlach's Seaside Collection opens its first Canary Islands house

Villa Gallici opens at Aix-en-Provence

Raymonde Fenestraz opens Les Airelles at Courchevel, Austro-Hungarian in style, by the architect Richard Ferbach

Raymonde Fenestraz opens Les Airelles at Courchevel

Golden Eagle Luxury Trains begins operating the Trans-Siberian route

Rocky Mountaineer runs its first season through the Canadian Rockies

Mombo Camp opens on Chief's Island in the Okavango

Christina Ong's hospitality platform takes shape in London and becomes COMO

Universal Studios Florida opens; the resort's first hotel follows in 1999

Silks opens its first hotel in Taipei

Katikies opens at Oia on Santorini

Andronis begins at Oia, built into the caldera cliff

The Kwee family opens the first Pontiac Land hotel in Singapore

Jean-Noël Marcellesi begins the Corsican hospitality developments

Elisabeth Gürtler takes the Sacher and restores it

andBeyond is founded as Conservation Corporation Africa

José Padilla takes the residency at Café del Mar and begins curating the sunset as a sequence

José Padilla begins his sunset sets at Café del Mar; the bar starts selling recordings of its own atmosphere

Neemrana opens twelve rooms in a fort of 1464, bought as a ruin — and the Indian heritage-hotel industry follows

The Lanesborough opens in the former St George's Hospital on Hyde Park Corner

Maniku founds the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry and chairs it

Susan Harmsworth founds ESPA

A regional vote returns an overwhelming majority for a new airport; the FAA grant for the land follows in 1994

Adrian Zecha and Hans Jenni form GHM; the first Chedi opens at Bandung

The Muntoni family opens the first Delphina house in Gallura

Vila Vita Parc opens in the Algarve

Vomo opens in Fiji

Gianni Versace, in Miami on his way to Cuba, asks a taxi driver for something fancy and fun, is taken to South Beach, and buys the Amsterdam Palace for USD 2.95 million

Moscow-City is approved on a former quarry; three years later the money runs out and the project is frozen for a decade

God Nisanov and Zarakh Iliev, from the same home town, found Kievskaya Ploshchad in Moscow

Africa Foundation is founded, later Wild Impact

Les Airelles goes international on the Albertville Olympics and joins The Leading Hotels of the World

Terry Farrell’s practice draws the master plan for the air rights over Kowloon Station

Radisson Diamond sails; the line becomes Regent Seven Seas

Post Ranch Inn opens on the Big Sur cliffs, built by Mickey Muennig with no tree felled

The present MGM Grand opens with about 5,000 rooms — the third Kerkorian development to open as the largest hotel in the world

Auberge de La Ferme aux Grives opens in a restored farmhouse on the estate

Daniel Boulud opens DANIEL, having left Le Cirque in 1992

The Datai opens at Langkawi in the rainforest, by Kerry Hill with interiors by Jaya Ibrahim

Claus Sendlinger founds Design Hotels in Germany

Pedro Ibáñez opens the first explora lodge in Torres del Paine

The MORE Family Collection forms in South Africa

Bahía del Duque opens in Tenerife as a Canarian village

Ferruccio Ferragamo buys the Il Borro estate in the Valdarno

Boonchu Rojanastien demolishes his Hua Hin beach house to build a retreat

The Datai opens at Langkawi, by Kerry Hill — the rainforest resort as a category

The Eastern & Oriental Express makes its inaugural Bangkok–Singapore journey

Luke Bailes opens Singita Ebony on family land in the Sabi Sand

Luke Bailes founds Singita

Twin Farms opens in Vermont, on the farm Sinclair Lewis bought for Dorothy Thompson in 1928

Kirk Kerkorian opens the MGM Grand — the largest hotel in the world at the time

Claus Sendlinger founds Design Hotels

Nobu opens in New York — Matsuhisa, De Niro and Teper

Jean-Michel Gathy founds Denniston in Kuala Lumpur

Colin Peter Field becomes head bartender at the Ritz Paris

The Legian opens at Seminyak, an early Jaya Ibrahim interior

The Aga Khan's Italian company loses control of CIGA; Sheraton takes over Cala di Volpe

Forty-eight Walmart supplier companies keep offices in northwest Arkansas, several of them one person working from home

The VIP Room opens at Saint-Tropez

Padilla compiles Café del Mar Volumen Uno — chillout becomes a commercial genre

ITT takes 70% of CIGA and builds The Luxury Collection out of a group of European palaces part-owned by the Aga Khan

Park Hyatt Tokyo opens in the Shinjuku Park Tower by Kenzō Tange

Antonio Lefebvre d’Ovidio founds Silversea

The Prix de Flore is founded by Frédéric Beigbeder

Guido Lembo opens Taverna Anema e Core on Capri with no dress code

Antonio Lefebvre d'Ovidio launches Silversea with Silver Cloud and Silver Wind

Ho Kwon Ping and Claire Chiang open Banyan Tree Phuket on rehabilitated tin-mine land

Sternlicht's Starwood Capital acquires the Westin and Sheraton platforms

Nobu opens in Tribeca — the restaurant that became a hotel brand

Crown opens in Melbourne on the Yarra

Robin Hutson opens the first Hotel du Vin at Winchester

David Shamoon buys Puente Romano and Marbella Club

Jacques Garcia designs the interiors of Hôtel Costes

Jean-Louis Costes opens Hôtel Costes on the rue Saint-Honoré, interiors by Jacques Garcia

Miraval opens in the Arizona desert as a destination wellness resort

Ian Schrager and Philippe Starck open the Delano in Miami Beach

Boonchu Rojanastien opens Chiva-Som at Hua Hin — the first Asian destination spa

Chiva-Som opens — Asia's first comprehensive wellness resort

The Barclay brothers buy the Ritz London

Deer Jet is founded in China

Sonu and Eva Shivdasani open Soneva Fushi

Yoshiharu Hoshino's family business adopts the Hoshino Resorts identity

Ian Schrager and André Balazs shape the boutique hotel through Morgans and Chateau Marmont

Nick Jones opens Soho House above a Greek Street restaurant, for people in the creative industries

The Ferragamo family opens the Lungarno in Florence

Jean-Louis Costes opens Hôtel Costes on the rue Saint-Honoré

Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo opens

The Ritz-Carlton Bali opens at Jimbaran, Asia's first Ritz-Carlton, with Horst Schulze on the opening team

The Legian opens at Seminyak, Bali

Ocean Club opens at Marbella on the Golden Mile

Schrager and Starck open the Mondrian on Sunset Boulevard

Rocco Forte founds RF Hotels after Granada takes the Forte Group

The Doyle Collection takes shape from the Irish hotels of P.V. Doyle

The Merrion opens in Dublin in four Georgian townhouses

Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine opens in a twelfth-century abbey in Ribera del Duero

Peter Zumthor's thermal baths open at Vals; the hotel takes the 7132 name in 2013

Le Palace closes as a nightclub

Granada takes Forte Group with a hostile £3.9 bn offer; the family founds Rocco Forte Hotels the same year

Sir Rocco Forte and Olga Polizzi found Rocco Forte Hotels in the year Granada takes their father’s Forte Group

Buddha-Bar opens on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré — Raymond Vișan with Claude Challe

Mövenpick opens at the Petra gate; Jordan is the brand’s first Middle East destination

Prince Alwaleed buys the George V from the Granada Group for a reported $178m

Olga Polizzi becomes director of design for Rocco Forte Hotels

Aldo Melpignano's family opens Borgo Egnazia's forerunner Masseria San Domenico

Rocco Forte founds RF Hotels after the Granada takeover of Forte Group

Benjamin Patou founds Moma Group

François Delahaye becomes general manager of the Plaza Athénée

Jaya Ibrahim designs the Chedi Chiang Mai

Peter Remedios founds Remedios Studio in Long Beach

Dietmar Müller-Elmau takes Schloss Elmau after the fire

Hotel Mulia Senayan opens in Jakarta in September

The Dharmawangsa opens in Jakarta on 1 December, inaugurated by President Suharto for the OPEC summit — a Rosewood hotel of 99 rooms, designed in part by Jaya Ibrahim

Jean-Georges Vongerichten opens Jean-Georges at Central Park West

Christina Ong founds COMO Shambhala in Singapore

Jumeirah opens the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai

Domes opens its first Cretan resort

The Vela family opens the first Velas resort at Puerto Vallarta

Praveen Moman founds Volcanoes Safaris for gorilla tourism in Uganda and Rwanda

The Palazzo Sasso reopens at Ravello; it takes the Avino name in 2013

Gianni Versace is murdered on the front steps of his house at 1116 Ocean Drive, aged fifty

The Noah’s Ark Project begins the rehabilitation of North Island

Jumeirah Beach Hotel opens — the wave two years before the sail

The Oberoi Rajvilas opens at Jaipur, the first of the Vilas houses

Torstein Hagen founds Viking with four river boats bought in Russia

WelcomHeritage is founded as a venture between ITC and Jodhana Heritage

The painting of Slavia leaves the café for the city gallery, over public protest

Le Meurice joins what becomes the Dorchester Collection

The Ritz-Carlton Residences launch, taking branded living to scale

Royal Malewane opens in the Thornybush

Pepe Fanjul's family develops Casa de Campo's Teeth of the Dog

Mohamed Alabbar founds Emaar, which builds the Address and Vida brands

Antonio Sersale takes Le Sirenuse from his father

Jack Penrod takes Nikki Beach onto the sand at Miami Beach

XNA opens on 1 November and is dedicated by President Clinton before a crowd of eight thousand — an airport built because the traffic already existed, and known until then as the airport to nowhere

Bernard Arnault and Baron Albert Frère buy Château Cheval Blanc after 166 years in one family

Bâoli opens at the Port Canto in Cannes

Meliá launches Gran Meliá as its luxury line

The Canaves family opens its first cave house at Oia

Viceroy takes shape in California from the Kor Group

Jack Penrod opens Nikki Beach in Miami

Crown & Champa forms in the Maldives

Pearl Resorts opens in French Polynesia

Cayo Espanto opens off Belize

David Fattal, who began as a bellboy, founds Fattal Hotels

Historic Hotels of Europe is founded

Starwood buys ITT Corporation — seven times its size — beating Hilton in one of the decade’s most dramatic takeover battles

Cowshed is born in the old cow shed at Babington House — the only space available for a spa, and the name sticks

Flavio Briatore opens the Billionaire Club at Porto Cervo

Pierre Hermé and Charles Znaty found Maison Pierre Hermé Paris; the first shop opens in Tokyo

The Gstaad Yacht Club is founded in a landlocked alpine village

Fregate Island Private opens in the Seychelles

Mark Harmon forms Auberge Resorts as a management platform

Starwood buys ITT Sheraton, taking St. Regis, The Luxury Collection and Westin

Barry Sternlicht launches W Hotels — lifestyle inside a hotel corporation

Amanresorts opens Amanjena at Marrakech, taking Aman beyond Asia

Amangani opens above Jackson Hole — the first Aman in the Americas

Sol Kerzner opens Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas

Jay Pritzker dies in Chicago on 23 January

Didier Le Calvez reopens the George V for Four Seasons

Brando partners with Richard Bailey to plan an eco-resort on Tetiaroa; he insists on no fossil fuels, no asphalt and no overwater bungalows

Alex Calderwood opens the first Ace Hotel in Seattle

Cousine Island opens in the Seychelles as a conservation island

The Louise opens in the Barossa Valley

A 27 km² reserve is created with the resort — the seed of the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve

Café Pushkin opens on Tverskoy Boulevard on 4 June, and Bécaud sings at the opening of the place his own song invented

Andrey Dellos opens Café Pushkin on 4 June, building a place that had existed only in a French song since 1964

Andrey Makhov becomes chef of Café Pushkin at its opening

Café Pushkin opens on Tverskoy Boulevard on 4 June; Bécaud sings Nathalie at the opening

Buddha-Bar I released in October, compiled by Claude Challe

The George V reopens on 18 December under Four Seasons after a reported $125m rebuild

André Balazs opens The Standard on Sunset Boulevard

The Burj Al Arab opens on its own island off Jumeirah Beach

Al Maha opens in the Dubai desert conservation reserve, the emirate's first desert resort

Les Sources de Caudalie opens at Château Smith Haut Lafitte — vinotherapy becomes a spa category

Sheldon Adelson opens the Venetian in Las Vegas; the Macau Venetian follows in 2007

Liz and Phil Biden open the first Royal Portfolio house at Birkenhead