Will AI Drive or Derail Sustainable Travel? Solving the Industry’s Challenges
Artificial intelligence presents significant opportunities and risks for sustainable travel. This article highlights key insights from our recent Asia Travel Future Summit—a collaboration between Asia Sustainable Travel and Wise Steps Group—which featured experts from Travalyst, Archipelago International, Advant Labs, Lightblue, Lemongrass Marketing, Baotree, and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). Discover practical strategies for using AI to enhance efficiency and guest experiences, while managing its environmental impacts and ethical concerns, ensuring technology benefits people, the planet, and profits.
From Choice Simplification to Cosmic Itineraries: The 5 Trends Redefining Travel in 2026
The traveler of 2026 is not the traveler the industry designed for a decade ago. Findings from the Lemongrass Marketing Travel Trend Report 2026 and Booking.com’s “Era of You” show people entering this year with new psychological drivers shaped by cognitive overload, climate anxiety, identity change, and a clearer expectation that travel should align with their values and emotional needs.
These shifts are already shaping how travelers plan, choose, spend, and evaluate. In Asia — the world’s fastest-growing and most culturally diverse tourism region — the implications are immediate.
The following five structural shifts will define the competitive landscape for 2026.
Further East 2025: Regeneration in Focus Amid Bali’s Overtourism Challenges
Further East returned to Bali at a moment when APAC’s tourism sector was being forced to confront its contradictions. For the third year, Asia Sustainable Travel arrived with a question rooted in genuine curiosity: can this conference catalyze meaningful sustainability transformation in the region – a question we posed two years ago. And how might Bali’s overtourism pressures shape that conversation?
Is Biophilic Design the Secret to Happier Guests and Healthier Profits?
Biophilic design isn’t about plants; it focuses on evidence-based, sensory-driven architecture that enhances the guest experience, boosts sustainability, and drives revenue. This article distills expert insights from a recent AST webinar, offering practical strategies on retrofitting, sensory design, and budget-friendly implementations that you can apply immediately to create spaces that deliver tangible business results for your hotel or resort.
The Business of Balance: Can Asia’s Wellness Boom Stay True to Its Soul?
Wellness, across Asia, is never a passing trend. Wellness practices are an inheritance, passed down through generations, woven into dawn rituals, temple offerings, forest walks, and herbal teas brewed by hand.
Long before “detox retreats” appeared on luxury itineraries, Ayurveda mapped the human body as a universe of balance, Thai massage offered preventive and rehabilitative benefits to the human body, and Zen Buddhism guided the Japanese to find serenity in simplicity.
But in the last two decades, the continent that originated many holistic healings has become the world’s largest wellness marketplace. Asia-Pacific’s wellness tourism sector is projected to reach US $290.4 billion by 2030 — a surge driven by rising incomes, digital fatigue, and the modern epidemic of burnout.
The paradox is stark: while wellness has never been more in demand, it is also facing the greatest risk of losing its essence.
Are Your Sustainability Efforts Meaningful—or Just Measurable?
Hospitality can thrive when profit and purpose align across six stakeholders. This recap of the AST Forum for Next-Gen Leaders shows how Meaningful Tourism turns intent into measurable impact using SMART KPIs, practical pilots, and effective governance. For hotel and travel leaders, it serves as a concise playbook for creating lasting value and proving your sustainability efforts are meaningful, not just another report.
Why Does Sustainability Integration Still Feel So Difficult for Hospitality Brands? It Shouldn’t.
Sustainability has become the top achievement symbol in Asia’s hospitality industry. From boutique retreats to global chains, every brand now wants to speak the language of circularity, carbon neutrality, and local sourcing.
However, beneath the glossy websites and bamboo straws lies a persistent paradox: for most hotels, embedding sustainability still feels complex, costly, and out of reach.
It isn’t a question of not knowing the challenge or the opportunity.
Hoteliers and tourism professionals know that today’s travelers, especially Gen Z and Millennials, are willing to pay a premium for brands that reflect their values.
But translating that awareness into measurable, profitable change requires three things: capital, credibility, and capability.
Designing Tomorrow’s Resorts: Sustainability, Immersion, and ROI at HPC2025
At HPC2025’s Hotel Design Summit, industry leaders shared groundbreaking strategies for designing resorts that balance sustainability, cultural authenticity, and profitability. From soulful design rooted in Filipino wellness traditions to modular construction and energy-efficient innovations, discover how the future of hospitality is being shaped by creativity, care, and community.
Turning the Tide: Innovative Solutions to Asia’s Water Challenges in Hospitality
For your property, water is the silent partner in delivering exceptional guest experiences—filling your pools, powering your kitchens, and providing guests with comfort. Yet this vital resource faces a mounting set of challenges, from environmental scarcity and rising operational costs to evolving guest expectations. In this article, you’ll not only uncover these urgent issues but also discover case studies and targeted, actionable strategies to help you take control of water management, boost sustainability, and future-proof your operations.
Breaking the Chain to Save It: How Asia’s Hospitality Can Fix Food Systems
Asia’s hospitality industry is in culinary reckoning. Climate shocks are hitting staple crops. Global supply chains remain fragile and expensive. Rising guest expectations are pushing hospitality into a culinary reckoning.
In short, the way Asia eats and how hotels and restaurants serve food must change.
At the recent AST webinar, Breaking the Chain to Save It: How Asia’s Hospitality Can Fix Food Systems, three leaders showed what change looks like on the ground:
Their message was clear. To shape sustainable food systems, hospitality must address both ends of the chain: upstream and downstream.
A Closer Look at Sustainability-Centric Loyalty Programs for Independent Hotels in Asia
As modern travelers seek meaningful experiences and eco-conscious choices, independent hotels in Asia are reimagining loyalty programs. From personalized guest moments to sustainability-driven rewards, discover how platforms like GHA Discovery, Journey, and SLH Club are helping independent properties stand out in a competitive market.
How Hotels Turn Sustainable Food Sourcing into A Brand Advantage
Global Hotels in Asia Put Responsible Food Sourcing on the Menu
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort’s response to addressing food-related emissions and also providing healthy food has been to rebuild its food system from the ground up.
In April 2024, the resort launched the 27-acre JW Garden, perhaps one of the largest resort farms in Asia Pacific. The project was born from a simple question: What if a resort could grow food to cut imports, slash waste, and enrich its ecosystem, and at the same time create a richer experience for its guests?
Sustainability Beyond the Manager: Engaging Your Entire Team
How can sustainability evolve from a series of isolated efforts into a unified mission championed by every member of your team?
This question was at the heart of our recent webinar, where Dimitri Syrris, Founder & CEO of Baotree, and Rhea Vitto Tabora, Co-Founder of Asia Sustainable Travel, explored how to transform sustainability into an inclusive, shared responsibility within hospitality operations.
They discussed why this approach is more critical than ever for the hospitality and travel sector and shared actionable insights, compelling examples, and innovative tools to help professionals create a team-driven sustainability roadmap.
How These Hotels Turn Urban Sustainability Challenges Into Scalable Impact
From Bangkok to Singapore, designing and operating a sustainable hotel in a city means contending with limited footprints, ever-shifting policies, and relentless pressure on space and resources. Achieving meaningful impact in these compact city centers requires more than good intentions. It demands innovation, discipline, and long-term thinking.
And yet, it is precisely in these high-pressure environments that innovation flourishes.
As population centers and global travel gateways, cities offer hospitality brands not only their toughest test but their clearest opportunity to lead.
In this article, we spotlight three hotels, Pan Pacific Singapore, Grand Hyatt Singapore, and Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok that have risen to the challenge. Rather than seeing constraints as deal-breakers, they’ve turned them into design prompts and operational innovations.
Their stories offer valuable lessons in how to embed sustainability into the urban guest experience, not as an add-on, but as a defining feature.
Designing Desire: The Business and Wellness Case for Biophilic Hospitality
Hospitality has long been measured by its ability to provide comfort and luxury, but things are changing. With the rise of biophilic design, guests now want more than just a place to stay. They are looking for spaces that bring them closer to nature and rejuvenate them. It's now about blending the natural world into architecture and creating experiences that go beyond the built environment.
This article explores the core principles and growing importance of biophilic design, highlighting its benefits and successes. It offers hospitality professionals a practical guide to creating spaces that deeply resonate with guests while promoting sustainability.
Sri Lanka, South Asia’s Rising Star in Sustainable Tourism
Explore Sri Lanka’s transformation into South Asia’s leader in sustainable tourism. From eco-conscious initiatives like Sigiriya’s certification to diverse, high-value travel experiences, this article uncovers strategies shaping its revival. Hospitality and travel professionals will find valuable insights and future trends.
Key Insights from AST Forum Ha Noi
The Asia Sustainable Travel (AST) Forum Ha Noi gathered industry leaders to address two important challenges in hospitality and tourism. The discussion spanned two thought-provoking panels.
The first, “From Plastic Pollution to Solution,” spotlighted practical approaches to reducing plastic waste through innovative supply chains, guest engagement, and community partnerships.
The second, “Sustainability: Cost Center or Revenue Driver?” explored strategies to balance environmental, social, and economic sustainability while embedding these principles into business operations.
These sessions highlighted how the hospitality sector can achieve a meaningful impact by aligning business growth with responsible practices.
Pursuing Sustainability in Hospitality: Insights from PHILHOST 2025
Discover how the 4th Philippine Hospitality on Sustainable Tourism (PHILHOST 2025) is transforming hospitality with actionable strategies for sustainable tourism. From circular economy and data management to certifications and the journey toward Net Zero, the discussions provided valuable perspectives and practical strategies that are shaping the future of the tourism industry.
Why Asia’s Luxury Hospitality Has the Power to Lead Sustainability Innovation
Luxury hotels in Asia are uniquely positioned to lead sustainability innovation. By blending cultural heritage with bold experimentation, they can model holistic living systems that inspire guests and uplift communities. With flexibility, funds, and influence, these properties can redefine luxury—not as excess, but as purpose, impact, and deep-rooted connection to place.
Driving Change with Electric Vehicles for Low-Carbon City Tours and Resort Experiences
Learn how electric vehicles are improving city tours and resort experiences, cutting emissions, enhancing guest satisfaction, and highlighting sustainability-led practices in the hospitality sector.
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