• Nine years of collaboration evolve into a year-round platform for collective action as climate, pollution and waste threaten Thailand’s tourism competitiveness

PHUKET, THAILAND — 7 September 2026 — Thailand’s tourism industry must recognise sustainability as a fundamental requirement for long-term economic competitiveness, not simply an environmental initiative, according to Phuket Hotels for Islands Sustaining Tourism (PHIST) at its 2026 gathering at Angsana Laguna Phuket.
 
Now in its ninth year, PHIST has evolved from an annual sustainability event into a platform for collaboration and action. More than 1,000 delegates are attending this year, with 26 panel sessions, workshops and masterclasses, 93 speakers, 43 exhibitors and 13 non-profit organisations. Speakers include: KP Ho, Founder and Executive Chairman of Banyan Group, Dr Pinsak Suraswadi, Director-General of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and Phil Smith, General Manager of Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay Singapore, part of the Pan Pacific Hotels Group.
 
The platform’s growth comes as Thailand faces mounting environmental and climate pressures that increasingly threaten tourism competitiveness, destination reputation and community wellbeing.

“Sustainable tourism isn’t Thailand’s soft power, it’s Thailand’s hard proof. Our hospitality has always meant genuine care for guests, community and land, not a photo opportunity. The proof is a dump site that meets standard, air our children can breathe, and a coastline still here in ten years,” said Bill Barnett, Founder of PHIST and Managing Director of C9 Hotelworks.

“The hotel industry cannot solve destination challenges one property at a time. Phuket’s future depends on us working together — hotels, government, businesses and communities — with a shared vision and measurable goals. Sustainability has to become part of how we manage and develop the destination, not an initiative that sits on the side of the business,” said Bjorn Courage, President of the Phuket Hotels Association (PHA), the principal organisers of PHIST.

Three fault lines
 
Climate whiplash: Thailand is increasingly experiencing flooding, drought and extreme heat within the same broader cycle. Flooding across five southern provinces affected 236,375 people and 84,450 households according to the December 2025 Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation update. Meanwhile, national usable water reserves are projected to fall from 17,245 million cubic metres to 12,105 million cubic metres by November 2026, as El Niño-driven drought intensifies through mid-2027. Heat is also an emerging tourism and workforce risk, with 63 heat-related deaths recorded in 2024, according to the Department of Disease Control.
 
The haze tax: Air pollution is becoming an economic issue as well as a health crisis. In January 2025, Bangkok closed 437 schools in a single day amid hazardous PM2.5 levels. UNICEF estimates 13.6 million children nationwide are highly exposed to PM2.5, while Kasikorn Research Center estimates smog can cost Bangkok THB3–6 billion a month through tourism, healthcare and productivity losses.
 
Sinking standards: Only 111 of Thailand’s 2,074 waste disposal sites — approximately 5% — meet proper environmental and scientific standards, according to the Pollution Control Department. Thailand also generates an estimated 27.8 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, with roughly 2 million tonnes reaching the sea. For a destination built around beaches, islands and marine experiences, waste management is not an environmental issue. It is tourism infrastructure.
 
From “green” to collective action
 
PHIST is now calling for a “Whole Village” approach, bringing government, hotels, businesses, communities, NGOs, educators and visitors together around measurable destination-level action.
The platform is calling for:

• Climate resilience to become part of tourism and infrastructure planning
• Clean air to be treated as a public-health, productivity and tourism priority
• Waste management to be upgraded as essential destination infrastructure
• Sustainability performance to be measured through energy, water, carbon, waste, plastics, biodiversity and community indicators
• Collective action to replace fragmented, individual sustainability initiatives

PHIST’s ambition is to operate as a year-round platform for learning, connection and action, helping build a more resilient Phuket while sharing solutions with other island and coastal destinations.
 
For full event details see: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phuket-hotels-for-islands-sustaining-tourism-phist-2026-tickets-1986787341421