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 folks and locations. This 12 months, Bangkok has another excuse to have fun. One day later, on September 28, 2026 Skål International Bangkok marks 70 years since its founding in 1956.

The timing may hardly be higher. World Tourism Day 2026 carries the theme “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism,” placing the highlight on how know-how is altering the best way travellers select locations, how companies function and the way experiences are designed. The United Nations has additionally pressured that know-how should serve folks, communities and sustainable growth.

For Skål Bangkok, that future-facing dialog arrives with seven a long time of historical past behind it. Andrew J. Wood has traced the membership’s journey from a small circle of journey professionals into one in every of Asia’s established tourism networking organisations. Founded when worldwide journey was nonetheless restricted, the membership introduced collectively executives from aviation, cruise, rail, hospitality and tour operations to change concepts and construct relationships.

Wood’s personal Skål lineage mirrors a lot of that story. A Bangkok member since 1992, he has served on the Bangkok Executive Committee, twice as President of Skål International Bangkok, as National President of Skål International Thailand, as a Director of Skål International and as President of Skål International Asia. He can also be a recipient of Skål’s Order of Merit and President’s Award and holds the excellence of Membre d’Honneur.

Across these years, the business has modified past recognition, however the worth {of professional} relationships has not. Skål Bangkok has continued to carry folks collectively via common occasions and business engagement, whereas adapting its communications and outreach for a extra digital tourism world.

That evolution is constant underneath President James Thurlby, whose agenda has targeted on membership development, strategic partnerships and stronger business engagement. As the membership enters its eighth decade, the problem 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 have seen firsthand how Skål creates opportunities for promising young tourism professionals to learn from established industry leaders, build meaningful professional networks and grow into leadership roles,” stated Dr. Scott Michael Smith, Director of Young 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, one of the best ways we can honour that legacy is by opening doors for the people who will lead tourism through its next chapter.”

That subsequent chapter can be written in an business more and more influenced by synthetic intelligence, digital platforms, sustainability and altering traveller expectations. Yet the anniversary is a reminder that tourism stays, at its coronary heart, a folks enterprise.

On September 27, World Tourism Day asks the business to contemplate how digital know-how and AI may also help redesign tourism. On September 28, Skål International Bangkok celebrates 70 years of bringing the folks behind that business collectively.

Seventy years on, the connections proceed – and so does the journey.