Skift Take
Enough of abusing nature for luxury. Tourism players in Asia-Pacific share how conscious design and excursion-based wellness can change how we think about luxury resorts.
For all the trendy sustainability initiatives hotels have been touting, the industry has made little headway in rethinking its environmental footprint in the race to set up in picturesque yet ecologically fragile locations.
In Asia-Pacific, low-impact luxury advocates from Bangkok-based architect Bill Bensley, who will continue moving the needle with his latest “human zoo” concept, to niche wellness players like Australian pioneer in integrative and holistic medicine Marc Cohen — are bringing change. But they need an army.
To grasp the gravity of environmental degradation resulting from tourism development, one must look at Asia. Mangroves that provide coastal stability against natural disasters, among other important functions, have over the years been making way for tourist resorts in the region. And even after the sobering events from the 2004 tsunami leading to the beefing up of coastal protection including in India, ecologically sensitive environments are yet again opening up to hotel developments and tourism activities.
It's the perennial picture of how the chips fall between government intervention and capitalist motive. But also, if even lessons from recent history have not adequately imbued the private sector with sufficient imperative to protect environments at a breaking point, it would be wishful to think that hotels and real estate developers will see the urgency to tread lightly in areas still untouched by tourism.
The Role of Hotels
A 2018 Howarth HTL report estimated there were more than 120,000 hotels in Asia-Pacific, with at least four million rooms. And while chains made up 7.5 percent of the market, they hold 34 percent of the keys, equivalent to more
