SEAHIS 2023, the 6th edition of the Summit, was held in Bangkok on 26-27th June at the Westin Grande Sukhumvit, with the first night reception on the rooftop at the Hyatt Regency Bangkok Sukhumvit.
It was the largest SEAHIS to date, with 330 attendees, out of whom 106 were speaking.The mood was generally upbeat, though there was some caution revolving around the slow pace of recovery of outbound business from China, the Vietnam real estate crisis and high global interest rates. Nonetheless, with trading well up in most countries, attendees were pretty confident about the prospects for the year.
SEAHIS had record numbers of attendees from Australia, Cambodia and the Maldives, as well as strong contingents from right around the region.
Topics discussed included the best ways of securing debt finance; concrete examples of value-added ESG investing; the ongoing surge in the performance of luxury hotels; the use of GOP per square metre as a new metric, the role of longstay properties and how Asian groups have performed when investing outside the region, the latter featuring Kenny Gaw, Amar Lalavani and David ling. An exciting debate including Shirley Tan, Choe Peng Sum, Suchad Chiaranussati and Toby Smith saw Japan comfortably win a debate on the best place to invest in the region today. The audience also participated in voting sessions which looked at the strategies of some new investment funds and some new tech start-ups.
Feedback has been very positive, with 95% of respondents rating the content as “good” or “excellent” – and scores of 97% “good” and “excellent” for the networking.
We would like to thank our sponsors, speakers and of course delegates, without whom SEAHIS could not happen. We hope to welcome them all back next year and well as seeing more new faces.
