At the AST webinar, Small Footprint, Big Impact: Independent Hospitality's Blueprint for a Better Travel Industry, three leaders working at very different scales examined what it takes to close the profit margin, distribution, and bargaining power gap faced by independent hotels.

Their messages converged on one critical point: “proximity to place” is a real commercial asset, but only when it is engineered into sourcing, storytelling, financing, and destination governance. But when it is left for people to make any assumption, it is just a marketing slogan.

Speakers: René Vijay Shrestha Einhaus, CEO & Owner, The Dwarika's Collection Rigzin Wangmo Lachic, Founder, Dolkhar; President, All Ladakh Hotel and Guest House Association (ALHGHA) Mark Wong, Senior Vice President Asia Pacific, Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH)

For tourism businesses in water-stressed destinations, the cost of a lack of water stewardship does not just appear on a utility bill. It is the cost of disruption: emergency supply, service failures, unavailable rooms, stressed employees, dissatisfied guests, regulatory exposure and a weakened relationship with the destination that makes the business possible.

That was the central message from the AST Webinar, “Is Your Brand Treating Water as a Risk or Strategic Asset?” featuring Charintip “Kade” Tiyaphorn, Director of Commercial & Finance at Pimalai Resort & Spa, and Syifa Muntaha, Eco Champion Coordinator at Waterbom Bali, the discussion moved beyond the familiar consensus to “save water.”

At the recent AST Webinar, Tinu Mathur, Barbara Kitane, Danti Yuliandari, and Rhea Vitto Tabora discussed why credible sustainability communication starts long before the message—in operations, alignment, and proof that can stand up to scrutiny.

The Irreplaceable Travel Advisor: Human Empathy in the Era of AI

For two decades, the online travel booking experience ran on a reliable, if imperfect, arrangement. Discovery flowed through Google. Brands and OTAs converted traffic into bookings. Influencers, media, travel advisors, and tour operators were compensated at every link in the chain. Whoever was closest to the customer held what mattered most: the data and sometimes also the relationship.

That architecture is now being dismantled faster than the industry could have anticipated. 

Phocuswright reported that 33% of travelers typically use Generative AI ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity for trip research, compared with just 6% in the second half of 2024.

AI travel planning tools like Travo, Layla, and Navan Edge can generate itineraries in seconds, on demand. Agentic tools like OpenAI Agent Mode and Claude Cowork can now search, select, and handle most of the booking process without the traveler visiting a single website.

The AI disruption, however, causes an equally impactful and consequential dimension. A peer-reviewed study published this year found that AI recommendation systems show a strong, consistent bias toward already-popular hotspots such as Kyoto, Bali, or Phuket.