Hotels Cannot Be Resilient If Their Destination Is Not

A hotel can withstand a flood, maintain backup power, and protect its guests during extreme weather. Yet if roads are impassable, airports are closed, and utilities fail across the surrounding area, the property may still be unable to operate.

Climate resilience at the property level remains a critical priority for the hospitality sector. Measures such as flood protection, resilient design, emergency systems, backup power, and operational preparedness all play an essential role in protecting guests and maintaining business continuity. However, even well-prepared hotels remain dependent on the wider systems and infrastructure that support tourism destinations. 

Across Southeast Asia, a broader reality is emerging. The resilience of a hotel increasingly depends on the resilience of the destination around it.

A Regional Challenge

Tourism is one of Southeast Asia's most important economic sectors. According to UN Tourism, the region welcomed more than 120 million international tourist arrivals in 2024 as visitor numbers continued to recover and grow following the pandemic.

Many of the destinations driving that growth share a common characteristic. They are located in coastal, riverfront, or island environments that are increasingly exposed to flooding, storm surges, extreme rainfall, sea level rise, and heat stress.

From Phuket and Koh Samui to Bali, Da Nang, and Boracay, hospitality assets are often concentrated in areas where climate risks intersect with critical infrastructure and natural systems.

This creates a challenge that extends beyond any individual property boundary.

Source: UN Tourism, World Tourism Barometerhttps://www.unwto.org/tourism-data/world-tourism-barometer

Resilience Extends Beyond the Hotel Property 

Resilience planning in the hospitality sector often focuses on what happens within the property itself. Can guest rooms remain operational during an emergency? Are critical systems protected? Is backup power available?

These questions are important, but a hotel's ability to continue operating also depends heavily on systems beyond the property boundary.

Many hospitality disruptions occur even when hotels themselves experience little or no physical damage.

A flooded access road can isolate a resort. A power outage can affect an entire tourism district. Water shortages can disrupt guest services. Airport closures can trigger cancellations long before a storm reaches a destination.

Research on tourism resilience increasingly highlights the importance of interconnected systems. Transport networks, utility infrastructure, communications systems, emergency services, and surrounding communities all contribute to a destination's ability to continue functioning during and after extreme events.

Even highly resilient hotels may struggle to remain fully operational if the external systems they depend upon have failed.

Source: Asian Development Bank, Climate Risk and Resilience in Southeast Asiahttps://www.adb.org

Building Resilience Starts at the Property Level

Discussions around resilience in hospitality need to be focused on individual properties first and foremost as this is what remains in control of owners and operators. Hotels are increasingly recognising the need to prepare for a wide range of climate-related risks, including flooding, extreme heat, storms, and water scarcity.

At the building level, resilience involves ensuring that critical systems can continue operating during and after disruptive events. This may include measures such as backup power generation, flood protection, water storage capacity, resilient building materials, and emergency response and business continuity plans. Designing assets to withstand future climate conditions is becoming increasingly important as climate risks intensify across many tourism destinations.

From Building Resilience to Destination Resilience

While property-level resilience remains essential, hotels do not operate in isolation. Today, many destinations are recognising the need for a broader, destination-wide approach that complements asset-level resilience efforts. Destination resilience considers how an entire tourism ecosystem responds to disruption.

This includes physical infrastructure such as roads, airports, drainage systems, energy networks, and water supply. It also includes governance, emergency response coordination, environmental management, and community preparedness.

The concept is gaining attention because climate-related disruptions rarely affect a single asset. They affect entire destinations.

A flood that closes an airport affects every hotel in the region. A prolonged drought can impact restaurants, attractions, landscaping, and visitor experience across an entire tourism economy. Extreme heat can place pressure on infrastructure while reducing the attractiveness of outdoor destinations.

Alongside questions about how individual hotels recover from disruption, stakeholders are increasingly asking whether entire destinations can continue functioning and recover effectively after extreme events.

Why This Matters for the Building Sector

For developers, investors, and asset owners, destination resilience is becoming a long-term value consideration.

Hospitality assets are often planned around investment horizons measured in decades. A resort developed today may still be operating in 2050 or beyond. Decisions about location, infrastructure, and design therefore need to consider future climate conditions rather than historical patterns alone.

Investors are also paying closer attention to physical climate risks. The World Economic Forum has identified extreme weather and climate adaptation challenges among the most significant long-term risks facing economies globally.

As a result, resilience is increasingly influencing financing, insurance, operational costs, and asset valuation.

Properties located within resilient destinations are likely to be better positioned to maintain operations, protect revenue streams, and attract investment over the long term.

Source: World Economic Forum, Global Risks Reporthttps://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-report

What Hospitality Leaders Should Be Asking

The next generation of resilience planning should extend beyond the hotel boundary.

Questions worth considering include:

• How vulnerable are access roads, airports, and surrounding infrastructure?

• Can the destination maintain power, water, and communications during extreme weather events?

• Are local authorities investing in climate adaptation measures?

• Does the destination have coordinated emergency response and recovery plans?

• How might climate risks affect visitor perceptions over the next decade?

These questions are increasingly as important as building specifications and operational planning.

Looking Ahead

Climate resilience in hospitality must be addressed at both the building and destination levels. At the property level, hotels need to continue investing in resilient design, operational preparedness, and future-proofing measures to protect assets, safeguard guests, and ensure business continuity during extreme events.

However, resilient buildings alone cannot guarantee operational continuity if the wider destination is unable to function. The resilience of transport networks, utilities, ecosystems, emergency services, and local communities also plays a critical role in determining how effectively destinations can withstand and recover from climate-related disruptions.

As climate risks intensify across Southeast Asia, resilience will increasingly need to be approached as a shared responsibility among property owners, operators, investors, governments, and local communities.

For the region's hospitality sector, long-term success will depend not only on strengthening individual assets, but also on building resilient destinations. Ultimately, resilient hotels and resilient destinations must go hand in hand.

Sources

1. UN Tourism, World Tourism Barometer https://www.unwto.org/tourism-data/world-tourism-barometer

2. McKinsey & Company, Advancing Climate Adaptation in Southeast Asia https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/sustainability/our-insights/advancing-adaptation-in-southeast-asia

3. Asian Development Bank, Climate Risk and Adaptation Resources for Southeast Asia https://www.adb.org

4. World Economic Forum, Global Risks Report https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-report

5. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/

6. World Travel & Tourism Council, Travel & Tourism Economic Impact Reports https://wttc.org/research/economic-impact

7. World Bank, Climate and Development Reports for East Asia and Pacific https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eap