As destinations face growing climate and environmental pressures, sustainability is becoming increasingly important to tourism. How the industry should respond was a key theme at the Phuket Hotels for Islands Sustaining Tourism (PHIST) 2026 gathering at Angsana Laguna Phuket. Now in its ninth year, PHIST featured insights from industry leaders, experts and government representatives.
When “Green” Is No Longer Enough
Banyan Group founder and Laguna Resorts and Hotels executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping called on the hospitality industry to rethink what sustainability means, arguing that reducing emissions and going “green” is no longer enough.
Ho argued that “Being green is great, but sustainability is a bigger concept.” He said the meaning of sustainability has become too narrow and, in some cases, too polarised to capture the challenges facing tourism businesses. The industry, he suggested, is still relying on a definition developed decades ago.
Ho’s argument is not that hospitality should abandon efforts to reduce emissions, waste or resource consumption. Rather, he believes those measures should form part of a wider assessment of what companies can influence and what they are prepared to take responsibility for.
For the hospitality industry, that means putting greater emphasis on climate adaptation alongside mitigation. As climate risks become increasingly difficult to avoid, hotels and destinations need to prepare for disruptions to water, energy, infrastructure and other resources, rather than focusing solely on reducing their carbon footprint.
Laguna’s own developments in Phuket illustrate this approach. Ho pointed to investments in backup power generation and reverse-osmosis facilities to prepare for potential electricity shortages and water stress, as well as underground car parks that allow more land above ground to remain green.
The approach also extends beyond the physical property. At Laguna’s Lakelands developments, plans include 12–15 kilometres of cycling and hiking trails and botanical gardens that are open to the public, reflecting Ho’s view that resorts should contribute to shared spaces and community life rather than operate as isolated enclaves.
Ho also sees tourism as having a wider role beyond its economic contribution. Speaking about Banyan’s operations in destinations such as AlUla, Saudi Arabia, and its plans for Mongolia, he argued that tourism can encourage visitors to better understand local cultures while supporting communities through employment, local sourcing and other economic opportunities.
Ultimately, Ho said sustainability should be about more than doing good things. It should be about taking responsibility for, and actively addressing, the problems that businesses and governments have the power to influence.
His central message is therefore less about redefining hotels as “green” businesses and more about redefining their responsibility to the destinations in which they operate.
Building Tourism Around Community and Nature
Chakrit Chakrabandhu Na Ayudhya, advisor to Matalay, said the Boonsong family’s Matalay master plan at Memories Beach in Khao Lak is being shaped around an existing surfing and local business community rather than developed as a standalone resort. Nature sits at the centre of the plan, with a 100-rai (16-hectare) green area and 50 rai (8-hectare) of lagoons forming a “green spine” from the main road towards the beach. The development also incorporates spaces for local vendors, an international school and medical facilities, reflecting needs identified within the wider Khao Lak community.
For Khao Lak, the next phase of tourism development is therefore being positioned not simply around adding hotel rooms, but around creating a destination where nature, tourism and local life can grow together.
From Reducing Impact to Restoring Nature
The idea of moving beyond “green” was also reflected by Hyatt Regency Phuket Resort Sustainability Manager and Marine Biologist Marat Khaidarov, who offered a practical example of how tourism businesses can move from reducing their environmental impact towards actively restoring nature.
For Khaidarov, the starting point is to recognise nature as a core tourism asset. Destinations such as Phuket depend on their beaches, coral reefs and marine ecosystems to attract visitors, making their health directly connected to the tourism economy.
His approach centres on five practical steps for hotels: know your nature, build a science baseline, turn conservation into an experience, connect restoration with the community, and tell the story.
At Hyatt Regency Phuket, this has translated into a Marine Biological Center that serves as an educational hub for guests and the local community, alongside a coral restoration programme at Kamala Beach. Working with Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, the resort restores coral fragments damaged by fishing nets and other human activity by securing them to specially designed frames so they can stabilise and regrow.
The programme has so far installed 16 frames supporting 110 coral fragments, with 79 surviving, representing a 71.8% survival rate. It has also brought conservation into the community, with Phuket Technical College students helping build the frames as part of their vocational training.
Education is another part of the model. Through partnerships with local schools, children learn about coral reefs and marine pollution, while guests can participate in activities such as beach clean-ups and turtle releases. The objective is to move conservation from something visitors simply hear about to something they can see, understand and participate in.
The principle is simple: a hotel does not need to become a research institute to contribute to the health of its destination. It can instead become a gateway connecting visitors and communities with local ecosystems, science and conservation.
For Khaidarov, the ambition goes beyond minimising harm. The goal is not simply to leave a destination with a smaller environmental footprint, but to help leave it with more nature and greater resilience.
MICE as a Tool for Nature, People and Prosperity
The same shift — from minimising tourism’s impacts to using tourism as a force for positive destination outcomes — was also evident in the MICE sector.
Suratwadee Phetriang, director of the Southern Regional Office of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), posed a broader question for the MICE industry: Can MICE and events be designed to foster nature, people and prosperity, rather than creating competition or harm?
She said destinations should not be treated simply as tourism products, but as living systems in which beaches, mangroves, oceans, islands and local livelihoods are closely connected. In Southern Thailand, these natural assets are not only attractions for visitors but also the foundation of local economies.
MICE, she argued, can be a policy instrument for changing how tourism value is distributed. Because events are organised and planned in advance, organisers can make intentional choices about accommodation, catering, activities and suppliers — directing spending towards local businesses, community enterprises, local food, traditional knowledge and conservation-based experiences.
TCEB is seeking to turn that potential into action through its “Creative MICE Empowering Community” approach, built around local ownership rather than a standardised model imposed from outside.
The process starts with finding local champions who understand their destination’s ecosystems, economic conditions and networks of businesses and communities. TCEB then brings together what Suratwadee describes as “content masters” — combining expertise in conservation and natural-resource management with MICE professionals, local knowledge, creativity and storytelling.
Community leaders are also brought into the process to ensure local people have ownership of how their destinations are represented and how they participate in the MICE supply chain.
The approach follows a journey of “develop, promote and win”, with community-led experiences developed and promoted to event organisers and buyers, creating opportunities for business while allowing communities to tell their own stories.
For Suratwadee, however, winning is not defined solely by securing business.
She highlighted one local participant whose ambition was simply to “pass what we want on to the next generation” — including the island’s livelihoods, natural resources, cleanliness and healthy ecosystem.
For Suratwadee, that is the ultimate measure of success: not simply how much money MICE can generate, but whether it can help keep destinations healthy, resilient and economically viable for the generations that follow.
From left to right: Phil Smith, General Manager of Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay Singapore; Bjorn Courage, President of the Phuket Hotels Association, the principal organiser of PHIST; Jayne MacDougall, Executive Director of the Phuket Hotel Association and Bill Barnett, Founder of PHIST and Managing Director of C9 Hotelworks. PHIST 2026 took place on September 7 at Angsana Laguna Phuket, Phuket, Thailand.
