Born in 1958 in Turkey
Attended the Austrian St. George’s College in Istanbul
After having successfully completed his study of medicine and his cycle of duty in the different medical wards at AKH in Vienna, in 1987 Kinay, with a friend of his founded the travel company GULET.
With the invention of Magic-Life-Clubs (1990), which were from price aimed at the middle class and offered them an all-inclusive-holiday, “Kinay has made a name for himself in the travel branch as a visionary and prophet.”
In 2004, Magic Life Group and the group’s Gulet Touropa Touristik were sold to TUI, one of the world’s largest tour operators.
In 2005 Kınay founded The O Property Collection (OPC), the new model in ultra-luxury property development, based in Vienna
He purchased the Island of Dellis Cay, which is part of the Turks and Caicos Islands, for $50 million from an Italian aristocrat

Businessman who bought an island in the Caribbean
Turkish Daily News, Saturday, July 22, 2006

Gila Benmayor

Cem Kinay is a well known businessman in tourism circles.

He is the originator of the concept ‘everything included,’ which has been very popular in Europe and has been discussed a lot in Turkey as of late. He is also the founder of Magic Life, which implements this concept.

Kinay sold Magic Life to TUI, one of the largest tour operators in the world, in 2004.

Afterwards, no one heard anything of him.

There were some rumors about him buying an island in the Caribbean.

At a press conference held in Istanbul the other day, it was proven that these were no mere rumors.

We learned from Kinay himself that after selling Magic Life, which he had founded in 1990, he established a company, ‘The O Property Collection’ (OPC), in Vienna.

The OPCs specialty is to establish ultra-luxurious homes and hotels in exotic locations.

In order to realize the first project of his company, he went to the Caribbean.

He purchased the Island of Dellis Cay, which is part of the Turks and Caicos Islands, for $50 million from an Italian aristocrat.

He now plans to build 303 villas, 154 of which will be ultra-luxurious, and two hotels on the island. He plans to invest $500 million, hiring the most famous architects in the world for his projects.

At the press conference in Istanbul, Kinay was next to Italian architect Piero Lissoni, Japanese architect Kengo Juma, Turkish architect Zaha Kuma — the latter two having entered the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Urban Transformation Competition, Carl Ettensperger from Singapore, and Brits David Chipperfield and Shigeru Ban.

I wondered about the prices of these houses that will be designed by some of the best architects in the world. The cheapest house will be $2 million.

The prices for villas will range from $4 million to $10 million.

Kinay believes most of the customers for the villas and houses will come from North America. The island is just one hour from Miami.

We asked him, ‘Do you think Turks will be interested in this project??’

Kinay said they had allocated some houses for every country and 10 villas were set aside for Turkish customers.

Don’t worry. When the time comes, we’ll learn about who will pay $10 million for a home from the media.

Jokes aside, I was very happy about a Turkish businessman with 20 years experience in the tourism sector going across the world to launch a project that will only interest the ultra-rich.

Kinay’s projects don’t seem to be limited to the Caribbean.

Because, just like he said at the press conference, he intends to take his OPC concept to Asia.

Article fromTurkish Daily News

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 22nd, 2006 at 8:53 am and is filed under Index, Medical, Business, Doctor, Travel, Travel & Hospitality, Hotelier, Executive.