The publish Thailand’s hospitality benefit lies in logo energy and infrastructure – JLL’s Jon Cannon seemed first on TD (Trip Day by day Media) Trip Day by day Media.
He highlights how innovation, sustainability, and robust management are key to long-term resilience.
Amidst intensifying pageant and evolving traveller calls for in Thailand’s hospitality sector, trade leaders are leaning on strategic foresight, adaptability, and a dedication to innovation.
Providing precious insights is Jon Cannon, Senior Vice President – Lodge Asset Control for Thailand and Vietnam at JLL Lodges & Hospitality Staff. With over twenty years of journey within the hospitality trade, his profession has taken him from the UK to Australia, prior to organising a robust presence in Thailand thru senior management roles throughout Bangkok, Phuket, and Samui.
In his present function, Cannon oversees a various portfolio of inns throughout Thailand and Vietnam, managing initiatives that span pre-opening operations, finances critiques, strategic making plans, meals and beverage tasks, and regional tasks. Past his function at JLL, he additionally serves as Vice President at the Board of the Australian Chamber of Trade in Thailand and contributes as a visitor lecturer at trade occasions and Universities in Thailand and Vietnam.
As a pass judgement on on the TDM Trip Industry Excellence Awards 2025 – Thailand, Cannon highlights Thailand’s present marketplace positioning, the field’s reaction to rising tendencies, and the significance of cultivating management and sustainability, shaping the way forward for hospitality within the area.
Given your intensive journey throughout more than one areas, how would you assess Thailand’s present positioning within the regional commute and hospitality marketplace?
2025 is popping out to be tougher than many forecasted, in spite of the sturdy restoration we noticed in 2024. Thailand’s tourism sector is feeling the stress from a mixture of components: protection considerations among Chinese language travellers, geopolitical tensions which are disrupting air routes and lengthening commute occasions, and while price ticket costs have moderated, price lists and cost-of-living pressures in key supply markets are decreasing discretionary spend. Regionally, tighter family budgets in Thailand also are weighing on lodge and F&B revenues.
When evaluating the panorama to Vietnam, Thailand’s well-established logo and mature infrastructure stay transparent benefits, providing reliability and intensity of journey that more recent markets can’t but fit. Then again, Vietnam is capitalising on its recent attraction and fast expansion, attracting funding and guests hungry for rising locations, which places added power on Thailand to stay evolving.
All of this underscores the will for Thailand to pivot from reactive discounting against extra proactive methods curious about diversification and experience-driven price. It’s about constructing resilience to exterior shocks while doubling down on what makes Thailand uniquely horny.
With transferring traveller behaviours and emerging pageant throughout Southeast Asia, what strategic approaches are Thai hospitality firms adopting to tell apart themselves and seize new call for?
We’re seeing a transparent pivot against wellness and holistic way of life choices as more youthful travellers transfer clear of conventional, price-driven possible choices. The brand new technology of visitors is keen to pay a top class for studies that align with their values, whether or not that’s wellness retreats, hyper-local immersion, or boutique remains with a tale. Thai operators are making an investment extra in design-led homes, tough wellness programming, and customized visitor trips to fulfill those expectancies. On the similar time, there’s smarter segmentation of markets and extra agile virtual engagement to draw and retain various demographics. This mix of tailoring studies and embracing evolving client mindsets is how Thailand remains forward.
How can hospitality firms in Thailand combine sustainability into their long-term industry fashions while balancing visitor expectancies and calls for?
Sustainability has moved past a ‘great to have’—it’s changing into a essential a part of company RFPs, influencing the place main accounts e-book their remains. ESG metrics tied to waste, water, and effort use are actually usual dialogue issues, each for operators and homeowners, and more and more demanded by way of wholesalers too. Thai inns will have to construct tough data-driven reporting into their operations and transparently keep in touch those efforts to visitors and companions. The purpose is to make sustainability seamless to the visitor journey, improving slightly than compromising it. Those that embed ESG on the core in their technique won’t best meet emerging expectancies but in addition acquire a industrial edge.
What management qualities are an important for hospitality executives navigating Thailand’s present financial and aggressive panorama?
It stays a people-first trade, however leaders nowadays will have to additionally adapt to various generational studying kinds and the truth that groups are advancing thru roles extra impulsively, which affects turnover. Trendy hospitality executives want to be mentors who can steadiness fast construction paths with sustained culture-building. Adaptability, emotional intelligence, and the facility to domesticate innovation are key, as is monetary acumen on this margin-sensitive atmosphere. It’s about inspiring groups while making sure they’re supplied to ship remarkable visitor studies in a panorama that’s evolving at an extraordinary pace.
Taking a look forward, what vital shifts do you foresee in Thailand’s commute and hospitality sector within the coming years, and the way must firms place themselves to stay aggressive and related?
AI shall be transformative — now not by way of changing humans, however by way of automating regimen duties and unlocking extra time for workforce to interact meaningfully with visitors. Blended with virtual personalisation and persisted diversification into secondary locations, it’s going to redefine provider supply. Sustainability and unique native immersion will even deepen as core drivers of commute selections. To stick aggressive, Thai operators must embody era to spice up potency and tailor studies, while doubling down on what makes Thai hospitality particular: authentic human connection. This mixture of tech and center is the place the long run lies.
As a returning pass judgement on for the TDM Trip Industry Excellence Awards 2025 – Thailand, what standards will you be the usage of when comparing this 12 months’s nominees?
I’ll be in search of submissions which are really bespoke, now not merely tick-box solutions or generic templates. Innovation, measurable have an effect on, and a transparent dedication to humans, sustainability, and visitor journey will weigh closely. Given the impulsively converting panorama, I’ll additionally price how nominees show agility and a forward-thinking mindset. It’s about discovering tasks that now not best excel nowadays however set benchmarks for the trade the following day. In the end, the most powerful entries shall be those who really feel adapted, considerate, and authentically pushed by way of interest for excellence.
The publish Thailand’s hospitality benefit lies in logo energy and infrastructure – JLL’s Jon Cannon seemed first on Trip Day by day Media.
