PHUKET, 6 February 2023: The Phuket Hotels Association, a non-profit organisation representing 80 of the island’s top hotels and resorts, has announced the reappointment of its senior leadership team, including President Bjorn Courage, who has been instrumental in the association’s success.
Following a recent election, Courage, also general manager of the InterContinental Phuket Resort, was re-elected president. The association’s members elected Brett Wilson, general manager of the Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach, as treasurer and Daniel Meury, general manager of the Andara Resort & Hotels as secretary.
Following his reappointment as president, Courage said: “As tourism and hospitality in Phuket continue to recover, we will make every effort to maintain and build on the important work which helps put people first and provides first-class hospitality-based education opportunities. The aim is to create a strategic pipeline of skilled personnel for current and future employment in this industry.”
The association concentrates efforts on easing the talent crunch by promoting investment in the education and training of local people in Phuket. It recently secured scholarships for 48 young adults at vocational institutions and universities across Phuket and Bangkok, including alliances with Cornell University’s General Managers programme and Dusit Thani College, Bangkok, which specialises in hospitality management and the culinary arts. From the Asia Pacific campus of Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) in Singapore, the association has also provided world-class, university-level online training.
Phuket Hotels Association hired Sumi Soorian as its executive director in 2016. Since it was founded in January 2016, the Phuket Hotels Association has grown to represent 80 of the island’s top internationally-branded and independent luxury and midscale hotels and resorts, comprising just over 12,000 rooms and 25,000 employees.
