Catriona Deredas

Director

When Catriona was a child her parents owned and managed quintessential British pubs across southern England, and she spent much of her childhood mixing with tourists and travelling between the hustle and bustle of London, and the quaint and calm Suffolk countryside and coast. Learning about hospitality from a young age captured Catriona’s imagination, and after travelling extensively through Europe in her teens, she eventually went to the University of Surrey where she completed a bachelor’s degree in Tourism Management.

Since joining Ampersand in 2011 Catriona has travelled through much of Asia, both on research trips and on her own holidays. She has journeyed to destinations for the first time, such as Bhutan and Japan, returned to her much-loved favourites of India and Sri Lanka, and revisited some of the countries that she once backpacked through, including Indonesia and Thailand, but this time in luxury. On each trip Catriona meets new people from all walks of life, giving her a richness and depth of understanding to the country. Whilst India remains her favourite, she also loves Bhutan as an incredibly humbling county; “not only was the setting just stunning, the people are so gracious and welcoming, it was almost like returning home!”