Traveling boy
Credit to Author: Leah C. Salterio| Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2019 16:19:40 +0000
“When I visited Prague for the first time… I felt I was taken back in time to the Middle Ages. The architecture of the buildings and the charm of the city just got me. I really felt I could live here.”
Vincent Soriano
Group Managing Director
Art of Travel
About me
ROLE MODELS
I call them my group of 12 consultants. In business: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerburg, Jeff Bezos Larry Paige and Sergey Brin. In sports: Micheal Jordan and Bruce Lee. In music: Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.
GOAL
To help affect change in making this world a better place
FIRST PAYING JOB
Media planner for Ace Saatchi & Saatchi in 1986, earning P1,900
MORNING RITUAL
Five-minute snooze I use for my morning prayer, mainly a prayer of thanks. Then, I drink a warm glass of water as soon as I get up.
BEST SKILL
I was told I could sell a bikini to an Eskimo.
TIME SPENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Very little. But that will change as I plan to start doing blogs and use Instagram, Twitter and YouTube more.
****
Not everything one sets out to do happens despite meticulous preparation and foresight. What was initially planned for does not always get fulfilled. There are things that turn out for the worse, and others for the better. Such was the circuitous, but colorful roadmap of the life of Vincent Soriano.
After graduating from De La Salle University with a bachelor of science in commerce, major in marketing — completing a four-year-course in seven years despite the trimestral system — Vincent was quickly accepted by an advertising agency. The experience was short-lived, though, because he was keen to start his own business. But marriage waylaid him first, and he joined his wife, a flight attendant for Cathay Pacific, in Hong Kong.
“That was in the late 1980s. I found myself moving from job to job without really intending to,” he recalls of those amazing times when his salary increased non stop. “Then one day, I saw a large advertisement in the newspaper. This multinational record label was looking for a dedicated regional manager to handle their jazz catalogue. I answered the call. I guess my love and passion for music and my background in regional sales and marketing spoke [to] me, even if I did not have any prior experience in the music industry.”
The opportunity entailed a move to Thailand to run the local outfit of BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group). He worked with them from the mid-to-late 1990’s, eventually leaving to start his own production company. “I did lots of advertising jingles during that year. In the process, I also started recording demos of songs that I had written,” Vincent recalls.
The universe had another surprise for Vincent — he became a recording artist. He narrates: “One of my demos ended up in the hands of a radio DJ, who loved the track and started playing it on air in one of Bangkok’s English stations called 107 Soft FM. Before long, the track Yehee was climbing the charts as listeners were requesting it. The song peaked at No. 2, past the releases of Shania Twain, Spice Girls, Mariah Carey, to name a few, at that time. To this day, I still keep a copy of that chart list, which the radio station sent to the record label, and I have it as a souvenir. It’s still surreal for me when I look at it.”
About the same time, Warner Chappell Music, an American music publishing company, also signed Vincent into a publishing deal. “My songs made it mostly in Hong Kong,” he says. “One song I wrote that became a hit was released by a famous local superstar named Aaron Kwok. It got picked up also by Pepsi since at that time, Aaron was one of Pepsi’s main endorsers, and so, Pepsi also used that track.”
Throughout all the excitement, Vincent knew he needed more stability in work, rather than just chasing songwriting deals. He even worked for a five-star property in Pattaya, Thailand, Royal Cliff Beach Resort, a job he snatched even without any hotel experience.
From Southeast Asia, Vincent moved to Europe. On his first visit to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, he was particularly attracted to the “awe-inspiring and magical beauty” of the city. It wasn’t hard for him to decide to eventually settle there. It was the gateway from which to explore the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe for business opportunities. “Previously, I had traveled all over Western Europe through some of my previous jobs,” he relates. “In fact, I was already drawn to Europe due to its diverse cultures and rich history.
“But when I visited Prague for the first time, it was a different feeling for me. I felt I was taken back in time to the Middle Ages. The architecture of the buildings and the charm of the city just got me. I really felt I could live here.”
He set up the Art of Travel in 2002, a brave thing for a Filipino to do in an unfamiliar market. “I landed in Prague with $1,500 in cash, which was all the money I had, three hotel contracts (to represent them in Europe) and a deal with Thailand’s tourist board.”
Initially, life was not easy, Vincent confesses. “Apart from giving geography lessons and explaining where Prague ws to most people, I also continued educating potential clients in Southeast Asia about the possibilities of the markets of Central and Eastern Europe. After two years of knocking on doors, something snapped, and I found I did not have to convince people anymore.
“The hotels were coming to me, and suddenly, I found myself representing more than 20 independent hotels and resorts, mostly from Thailand and one luxury (boutique) chain, Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, which had more than 10 hotels in [its] portfolio. I had grown my client base, which meant that I also had to expand my team.”
Fast forward 18 years, Vincent now deals with tourists from all over the world, with the Philippines as his fastest-growing market. He put up another company, Air Promotion Group, dealing with the global airline representation business, again without any prior airline industry know-how. He even plans to establish an IT base in the country, an idea spurred by his purchase of the premium domain Flytheworld.com last year. “I’m thinking this might be a chance for me to create something homegrown using some of the talent we have,” he explains. “For me, it’s finding the right team to get this project on the right path. My hope is to see Flytheworld.com serve customers globally within the market niche we have identified.”
Vincent is the elder of the two children of Carlos and Claire Soriano. His late father was a finance man before he retired and returned to his hometown in Negros Occidental. His mother, meanwhile, has lived in Sydney for 30 years now.
Vincent and his ex-wife are parents to sons Nikki, 29 and Miguel, 27, who are both professionals. The older one lives and works in Penang, Malaysia, while the younger lives in Hong Kong. “Although both of them grew up in Hong Kong with their mom, they spent the remainder of their high school here with me in Prague,” Vincent says. “They continued on to study here in Europe, with Nikki in Amsterdam and Miguel in Sweden, before they both moved back to Asia.
Vincent married again, this time to a Czech, but after four years, they also parted ways. “We have no children together, but we are the best of friends,” he says.
Vincent spends around 50 percent of his time in Prague and around 30 percent in Bangkok. The other 20 percent is devoted to sales trips, business and product development trips, meetings, and other things. “If I’m in Prague, on weekends I just really tend to enjoy my time at home. I do lots of reading. I also spend my free time learning something. At the moment, that would be coding, which I know will come in handy with the IT project I’m planning on.
“If I’m in Bangkok, I tend to switch off also on the weekends and do the same. Read, learn something and just recharge. As I still don’t have my own place there, I’m just usually in my hotel.”
The younger Vincent could not keep track of the many childhood ambitions he had nurtured. He says: “But I am where I am now because of the choices I made, and I am grateful. I wouldn’t trade where I am now for anything as I know I am where I need to be at this point in my life. I know there are more things to accomplish. I hope in my own little way, I can help affect change for the better.”
Asked to mention memorable mentors, he says: “I could not really say there was someone who influenced me to get into my work now. I made my own choices along the way. Every moment of our life is made up of choices.
“Happiness is a choice. Being fit is a choice. Whether you’re a positive person or a negative person is a choice. That is why there’s a saying: ‘Choose wisely’.”
Vincent Soriano likes to believe that he has.