Alta Thoughts (July 2025)
By Rakesh Patel
These photos give me hope and happiness. Teaching financial literacy to underprivileged children was not only deeply rewarding, but also a powerful reminder of how fortunate we are. While many of us grew up learning everyday financial skills from our families, this isn’t the case for the 100+ children living at the Sunshine Village foster home in Phuket.
Although I had never taught a children’s class before, the children engaged in financial education workshops using budgeting and investing materials from the Financial Times FLIC translated into Thai of course! The children’s enthusiasm, curiosity, and sharp thinking were truly inspiring. I hope, in some small way, I was able to help them begin thinking about how to plan for their financial futures.
Alta Capital takes it’s CSR and sustainability objectives seriously. We are partnering more closely with Sunshine Village to support the children and staff; our development in Phuket is targeting IFC EDGE Advanced; our Vikasa wellness retreat in Samui is in the process of Travelife certification; and I am supporting the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, as Asian advisor to the Board.
Below are a few of our recent thoughts posted on LinkedIn. Always good to hear your feedback. You can follow us directly on LinkedIn and go to our website.
Networking hots up in the yoga studio
I am not a big proponent of hot yoga – I come from a traditional Hatha yoga family and we own a yoga brand called Vikasa, that is mostly focused on foundational Hatha. Having said that, it is good to see the Financial Times extolling the value of yoga in people’s lives, providing a balance to work, and being preferred for networking/team bonding, rather than the typical evening social events.
As for hot yoga, worth remembering that yoga comes from the Hindu scriptures called the Vedas written 4,000 years ago, and most people in India practise their yoga at the coolest parts of the day – early morning or early evening. Still, any variation of yoga is beneficial to our well-being. Namaste!
We Failed! Lessons from Hospitality Sustainability Failures
Is “green hushing” the new “green washing”? The hospitality sector has ambitious sustainability goals, but implementation complexities mean failures are inevitable.
Unfortunately, stigma around these failures and fears of criticism, discourages transparency, stifling innovation and slowing progress – hiding failures misses valuable lessons.
Sustainability has no perfect solution – it’s an evolving challenge requiring openness to learning from mistakes.
