As a Thailand-based Destination Management Company (DMC), there are many reasons we want to book hotels on behalf of our overseas guests and business partners, but the short answer is that it works towards a stronger and more sustainable travel ecosystem for all of us.

It is the end of the year – another hard year if you’re in travel, or on the planet. And despite this latest annoyance (Omic-xxx, you know who you are!), I’m filled with gratitude.

A year ago we thought we were almost over this thing, and then the endless 3rd wave came like a tsunami and again challenged every notion we’d had.

Traveling the sandboxes to Thailand during Q4 2021 and early Q1 2022 is a once-in-fifty year experience. It is the tourism crowds of the 1960’s, with the prices of the 1990’s, and the modern luxuries of 2021. Like a sneak preview of pre-tourism Thailand, come now, before the world returns.

My first visit to Phuket was back in 1995. I remember the island already seemed well developed, full of luxurious resorts and naturally stunning beaches. “There’s potential for great things for us to do here!”, I thought to myself. Over the last twenty-plus years building Smiling Albino, Thailand’s largest island has been somewhat of a luxury adventure playground for us, and we’ve been fortunate to host guests who empowered our team to push our creative limits.

Phuket is undoubtedly the most famous island in Thailand, if not all of Asia. Fame comes with a price of course, and perhaps for that reason there are many people around the globe who connect Phuket’s global fame to somehow lacking local authenticity. For some, being globally famous and well-promoted means it must be over-developed, or there must be too many tourists.

This is a reflection on a trip that took us on a soul-searching journey where we re-discovered ourselves and our mission.

Question: What do you do when the opportunity of a lifetime arrives at your most dire moment?

Answer: You go back to your roots.

As we thought more about it, it became apparent that it had nothing to do with the canvas. The location. The destination. How could we have momentarily forgotten our purpose on earth? Nothing we ever did was about the destination. It is about value. The journey. The pleasant surprise. The spontaneity. Our journeys have always been a metaphor for life.

Yesterday our team at Smiling Albino and I had the good fortune to host 6 local expat + Thai guests on a cycling adventure exploring the diverse riverside communities in old Bangkok. Hosting locals can sometimes be a daunting task, some of whom are in the travel biz, or media world, or were born and raised here and know the city well.

For over a decade I’ve been repeating the same guilty pleasure upon checking into a hotel. No, it’s not the spa, or the free cocktail, or the chocolate fondant next to the welcome fruit. I like those things too, but my guilty pleasure allows a stealth peek into how the hotel thinks, and by extension how it projects its brand. I order a Club Sandwich.

A recent indecent reminded me of the value of the quality-pricing philosophy that my travel company, Smiling Albino, uses for the services we provide in SE Asia.