Benjamin Liao

Chairman, Forte Hotel Group;
Vice Chair, PATA

Benjamin Liao is an active tourism expert based in Taipei, Chinese Taipei. He serves currently as chair of Forte Hotel Group and as board director of Howard Plaza Hotel Group. In Taiwan, he also serves as consultant to the Taiwan Visitors’ Association and as a director in the Taiwan Tourist Hotel Association. He organized the PATA x WCIT 2017 - Smart and Sustainable Tourism Symposium, to connect the tech and tourism community. From 2018 - 2020, he served as hospitality chair in PATA. From 2019, he also joined the board of Metropolitan Premier Hotel Taipei, a project collaborating with Japan Rail East Hotels. 

Besides hotels, Benjamin also consults for Velodash, a bicycle community app, and also started Imaten, a new food/media truck venture. During the COVID period, he converted and operated 500+ hotel rooms in Taipei for the quarantine market. In Chinese Taipei, Yamagata Kaku prepares to reopen to international travelers with the third Yamagata Matsuri this August 2022.

Outside of work, he continues to learn about business management, destination marketing, skateboarding, and architecture design.