Karma Group is a members' leisure and hotel company founded by John Spence (LHL-P-816), a British-born former music agent who, on Wikipedia's account, entered the hotel trade in Tenerife in 1984. The company's own summary calls it an "award-winning international luxury travel and lifestyle company with 45+ properties" in India, Bali, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Maldives, Egypt and Cambodia. Spence's name for the proposition, quoted by Country & Town House, is the "Five Star Hippy" model. [1,2,3]
Royal Resorts, Goa
The company began as Royal Resorts. Its own anniversary piece of December 2022 says "On the 3rd of December 1993 a small company with a big vision incorporated itself in India", calling it "the very first holiday ownership company in Asia – Royal Resorts." Country & Town House dates the founding to 1993, "after he bought his first piece of land in Goa." Wikipedia names the first resort as Karma Royal Beach Club, South Goa, opened on 3 December 1993; the company's corporate profile names the first Royal resort as Karma Royal Benaulim, opened in 1996. [3,4,5,6]
Holiday Ownership Before Hotels
The business was sold before it was stayed in. Wikipedia records seventy sales offices worldwide by the end of the 1990s and expansion into Indonesia. Hospitality Net lists Royal Resorts at Perth, Australia, as "the leading and most innovative holiday ownership company in Asia", with 14 resorts and 600 apartments reserved for club members. Membership remains the frame: the 2021 anniversary piece counts "over 60,000 Members and clients". [5,7,8]
From Royal To Karma
Wikipedia's company article dates the Karma Resorts brand to 2003, with Karma Jimbaran in Bali in 2005 and Karma Kandara in 2008; Spence's Wikipedia article says the company became Karma Group in 2005. Later additions on Wikipedia's timeline include Le Preverger on the Côte d'Azur (2013), Salford Hall in the Cotswolds (2020), Lake of Menteith in Scotland (2022), the Nile boat Karma Karnak (2022) and Karma Bayon in Siem Reap (2024). Karma Rottnest in Western Australia was handed back to the state government in 2022. The corporate profile lists the brands as Karma Estates, Resorts, Retreats, Royal, Beach and Spa, with Karma Club and Karma Boutique. [1,4,5,6]
Editorial note — ⚑ The founding is given two ways: 1993, Royal Resorts, Goa (company, Country & Town House, Wikipedia) and 1991 in Bangalore, on Spence's own Wikipedia page, which carries both. The company's 2022 piece places incorporation, 3 December 1993, in India; its metadata says Bangalore. Neither year is chosen here. ⚑ The resort count does not reconcile: 33 in 9 countries (company, November 2020) ; 40 in 12 countries (Spence's Wikipedia); 42 (Karma Group Wikipedia, 2025); 43 (Country & Town House); "45 resorts in 12 countries" on a corporate profile hosted on a development subdomain, whose own timeline says 44; "45+" (company summary). Wikipedia also gives "27 locations" for 2024. All are recorded. ⚑ The first resort is Karma Royal Beach Club, 1993, or Karma Royal Benaulim, 1996, depending on source. ⚑ The rename is 2005 on one Wikipedia page; the other gives only the 2003 brand launch.
Sources & Further Reading
What the entry rests on. Each reference is the card's own, published as the master cited it.