Skål Bangkok Celebrates a Milestone on World Tourism Day
September 27, World Tourism Day has at all times been about tourism’s energy to attach individuals and locations. This 12 months, Bangkok has another excuse to have a good time. At some point later, on September 28, 2026 Skål Worldwide Bangkok marks 70 years since its founding in 1956.
The timing might hardly be higher. World Tourism Day 2026 carries the theme “Digital Agenda and Synthetic Intelligence to Redesign Tourism,” placing the highlight on how expertise is altering the best way travellers select locations, how companies function and the way experiences are designed. The United Nations has additionally burdened that expertise should serve individuals, communities and sustainable improvement.
For Skål Bangkok, that future-facing dialog arrives with seven many years of historical past behind it. Andrew J. Wooden has traced the membership’s journey from a small circle of journey professionals into certainly one of Asia’s established tourism networking organisations. Based when worldwide journey was nonetheless restricted, the membership introduced collectively executives from aviation, cruise, rail, hospitality and tour operations to alternate concepts and construct relationships.
Wooden’s personal Skål lineage mirrors a lot of that story. A Bangkok member since 1992, he has served on the Bangkok Government Committee, twice as President of Skål Worldwide Bangkok, as Nationwide President of Skål Worldwide Thailand, as a Director of Skål Worldwide and as President of Skål Worldwide Asia. He’s additionally a recipient of Skål’s Order of Benefit and President’s Award and holds the excellence of Membre d’Honneur.
Throughout these years, the business has modified past recognition, however the worth {of professional} relationships has not. Skål Bangkok has continued to deliver individuals collectively by means of common occasions and business engagement, whereas adapting its communications and outreach for a extra digital tourism world.
That evolution is continuous beneath President James Thurlby, whose agenda has centered on membership progress, strategic partnerships and stronger business engagement. Because the membership enters its eighth decade, the problem just isn’t merely to protect a proud historical past, however to make that historical past related to the individuals who will form tourism subsequent.
“I’ve seen firsthand how Skål creates alternatives for promising younger tourism professionals to be taught from established business leaders, construct significant skilled networks and develop into management roles,” mentioned Dr. Scott Michael Smith, Director of Younger Skål Bangkok, who has been concerned with Skål for 20 years and has served the organisation at membership, nationwide and worldwide ranges. “As Skål Bangkok celebrates 70 years, among the best methods we will honour that legacy is by opening doorways for the individuals who will lead tourism by means of its subsequent chapter.”
That subsequent chapter will likely be written in an business more and more influenced by synthetic intelligence, digital platforms, sustainability and altering traveller expectations. But the anniversary is a reminder that tourism stays, at its coronary heart, a individuals enterprise.
On September 27, World Tourism Day asks the business to contemplate how digital expertise and AI may help redesign tourism. On September 28, Skål Worldwide Bangkok celebrates 70 years of bringing the individuals behind that business collectively.
Seventy years on, the connections proceed – and so does the journey.