Hacking Angor Wat: How to build a next-generation tour company, old style

Just before sunset, Andrew Booth is sipping a gin and tonic aboard a boat carved like a golden phoenix in the moat surrounding Angkor Thom. One of several capitals of the Khmer empire (802 to 1431), Angkor Thom is part of Angkor Archaeological Park, a 400-square-kilometer Unesco World Heritage Site whose most famous attraction, Angkor Wat, draws some 2 million visitors a year. Thousands of them start the afternoon slog up the staircases at Angkor Thom’s Bayon temple to catch the sunset -- a feat akin to navigating New York’s Times Square on matinee day, Bloomberg Pursuits magazine will report in its Spring issue. Booth and I are alone save for a single oarsman and two chest-deep fishermen casting nets in the sky-mirroring water. A few hundred meters past a giant Buddha-headed gate, we disembark and climb an embankment to take in the view of an alluvial plain, where the sun silhouettes sugar palm trees intertwined by pale-pink mists. Booth, who retired in 2002 after a 15-year investment- banking career in London, promises “Angkor without crowds” through his nonprofit tour company, AboutAsia. While guidebooks offer tips such as rising before dawn to beat the crush, AboutAsia uses surveys of pedestrian traffic patterns, tools such as Google Earth and Booth’s own experience during a decade spent traveling and living in Cambodia to help clients outwit the tourist hordes. Analytic approach “There’s actually no need to get up two hours earlier than everybody else,” says Booth, adding that his staff has also discovered seldom-trafficked routes accessible by bicycle, foot and tuk-tuk, or motorized rickshaw. This analytic, off-the-beaten-path approach has made AboutAsia the company of choice for travelers who think nothing of dropping six figures during a three-week tour of Asia. However, the bulk of its business comes from a mostly Western clientele that desires exclusivity but doesn’t require presidential suites or helicopter flights between temples. A five-day, privately guided program (excluding airfare) starts at just $525 per person, including accommodation at a four-star hotel; the fee rises to $3,600 per person for a suite in a top-of-the-line resort. Booth’s goal isn’t profit but philanthropy. After paying his 34 employees, the 48-year-old former financier -- who doesn’t take a salary himself -- pours all profits into supporting 100 Cambodian schools benefiting some 53,000 students. Khmer Rouge “Because of the years