SEAHIS 2023 Breaks Attendance Record, Unleashing Bangkok’s Hospitality Power!

June 27, 2023

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The 6th edition of SEAHIS kicked off on Monday. The two-day conference will see 106 speakers in Thailand on 26-27 June 2023 at the Westin Bangkok.

Mr Simon Allison, Chairman and CEO of Hoftel Asia Ltd, organiser of SEAHIS 2023, the owner-driven event focused on hotel real estate investors, developers and franchisees, spoke to me before the start of the conference said, “The industry is bouncing back from Covid. Globally, the Middle East never really went down, and it’s breaking records; Europe bounced back a bit but is now fading away this year with the Ukraine war. Asia it’s coming back. However, with the Chinese outbound, as we all know, it’s slow, so it hasn’t bounced back as quickly but has gradually recovered.”

Mr. Simon Allison, Chairman and CEO Hoftel Asia Ltd, organiser of SEAHIS 2023 — Mr Simon Allison, Chairman and CEO of Hoftel Asia Ltd, organiser of SEAHIS 2023.

In his opening remarks, Mr Allison said, “SEAHIS is growing yearly. With a record 328 delegates (38 more attendees than last year), we have good support from the industry with a record number of sponsors ranging from owners to operators, lawyers and consultants. We have achieved a comprehensive spectrum once more, and we have achieved a truly regional event.”

“We grow gradually but we try and keep the quality, 45% of attendees are from companies with heavy hospitality real estate and 38% of attendees are company owners and CEOs, so it’s a high-quality conference that’s also affordable. We felt conferences were getting too expensive so we put the price up a little but we we do try and stay about 30% cheaper than the other big conferences and we think that’s fair to the people who attend.“

Speaking to me at the conference, Mr Jean- Philippe Beghin, Managing Partner of All the Angles Hospitality, agreed with Allison on pricing, saying, “SEAHIS is very well established, it attracts all the key players, and I have to say compared to similar conferences in Southeast Asia, it’s good value with great contacts.”

Delegates commented that they were looking forward to continuing the conversations. The mood is upbeat at the opening, and the discussions wide-ranging with 106 speakers over the next two days look promising. The tourism industry will face in the coming months – labour shortages, the increasing role of technology, challenges of refurbishing older hotels, the benefits and costs of big brands’ global programmes, new sources of financing, plus the need for increasing diversity and gender equality and the challenges of adopting sustainable practices that make a real difference.

Commenting on sustainability, Mr Sean Too of Sentinel Solutions Thailand said, “The industry, at the moment, is still very much focusing on the front end of hospitality operations,” However, properties must reduce waste and manage this effectively as climate change is imminent.

“We need to seriously look into carbon reduction and implementing sustainability initiatives rather than just some green washing CSR program that hardly has any impact on improving the environmental pollution issue,” he added.