Bill Barnett

Sustainability in tourism has spent a decade being treated as a cost centre. Solar panels, water recycling, plastic bans, which are all real, all worthwhile, and all too often bundled into a marketing line rather than a business plan. Thailand’s hospitality sector carries that same gap between intention and outcome, and no single conference is going to close it.

Hospitality has never had a talent problem when it comes to women. It has a seniority problem. Women make up 51.2% of the global hospitality workforce, according to industry data reported by Hospitality Investor in March 2025, yet hold only 30% of executive roles. Thailand’s hotel and tourism sector reflects the same gap, and on 3 September, a new industry platform is aiming directly at it.

For decades, the Sarasin Bridge was simply the road out of Phuket, a short concrete span that visitors crossed on the way to the airport and rarely thought about again. That is changing. The bridge is becoming a dividing line in Thailand’s hotel investment map, separating an island that has run out of room from a mainland coast that has plenty of it. Phuket’s problem is a good one to have: too much success, not enough land.