Who would have thought that you could develop what has turned into two luxury tropical island resorts in Indonesia, built entirely of locally sourced timber, including driftwood, bamboo, rubber wood, and recycled teak for furniture—all locally crafted, too?
This whole project has been masterminded by Australian Andrew Dixon, a former investment banker who has, in his words, become “an accidental hotelier”.
He doesn’t just talk about sustainable development and responsible tourism but shows by example what can be done to create two tropical island resorts – Nikoi and Cempadak – alongside the larger Bintan Island, Riau, Indonesia.
It was Andrew Dixon who insisted from the start that locally available materials – bamboo, driftwood, rubber wood and recycled teak – would be used in the construction and furnishing for the resorts.
See my video interview with Andrew after a walk in the park in Singapore:
It’s clear that Andrew has set out from the start to make this an exceptionally sustainability-managed resort in every way possible.
Locally sourced timber is by far the most impressive feature of these resorts, but he’s gone beyond the obvious to do so much more by:
- Conserving as much of this nature-abundant enclave of rainforest, beaches, and coral reefs as is physically possible, creating a community-friendly resort, and catering to a limited number of guests at any time.
- Insisting that, by far, the majority of the energy the resorts need comes from installed solar PV panels.
- Designing and constructing the buildings to allow sea breezes and ceiling fans to keep guests cool and comfortable without needing energy-hogging air conditioning.
- Collecting rainwater and groundwater to meet all the needs of guests and staff.
- Producing practically all the food required for the resort’s kitchens from its own farm on main Bintan Island or getting seafood from local fishermen and women.
For Andrew, the biggest bug bear is getting people to and from the island resorts by road and sea transport. This is the most difficult area to manage from an energy and cost standpoint. But he’s always on the lookout for ways to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
He is seriously looking at a small tailor-made electric battery powered flying boat or even using bio-diesel made from Used Cooking Oil as an alternative to the fossil fuelled diesel used by most vessels.
He also sees it as a key part of his mission is to contribute to the community in other positive ways. So he was instrumental in establishing The Island Foundation in 2010 to focus exclusively on improving educational opportunities for children living in the Bintan Regency, Riau Islands, through learning centres, local teacher training and community engagement.
Ever ready to share his experience, he met recently with Kevin Phun, who runs the Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore (CRTS), so others can learn from what Nikoi and Cempedak have achieved through sustainable resort development and management.
More than that, Andrew has also been a very active member of The Long Run organisation, which has now grown to become one of the world’s largest nature-based tourism business groups, with over 60 members worldwide.
Not only is he showing what can be done, he’s going out of his way to encourage other resorts in Asia Pacific to come up to The Long Run standard.
