Asia's hospitality industry is evolving faster than most operators can keep up with and the question of who will lead it into the next decade is more urgent than ever. That was the central thread running through this week's conversation with Chris Meylan, COO of the Asian Institute of Hospitality Management in Bangkok.
AIHM launched in the middle of COVID not exactly an ideal moment for a new university, yet five years on, it is now in its tenth student cohort, drawing talent from Thailand, Myanmar, Russia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and even the UK and the US. The mission is clear: deliver Swiss-quality hospitality education, at Asian-market relevance and accessibility, to produce the general managers of tomorrow from within the region itself.
Chris was quick to push back on one of the industry's most repeated complaints that Gen Z workers are lazy and disengaged. Having just returned from a training session in Phuket where this same frustration came up, his view is that the challenge is not motivation, it's meaning. Young people today don't want to be told what to do; they want to know why. Managers who learn to coach and provide direction rather than simply issue instructions will unlock a generation that is, in Chris's words, just as hard-working as any before it. The difference is that they arrive already digitally fluent, instantly curious, and deeply uncomfortable with face-to-face interaction, a critical gap that AIHM addresses from day one, building the confidence and conversational presence that luxury hospitality demands.
On AI, Chris was candid about where he sees the real disruption coming: not in front-of-house roles, but in the entry-level back-office positions that have traditionally been the first rung on the graduate career ladder. Competitor research, slide decks, PowerPoint presentations for the boss — these tasks are increasingly being handed to AI tools faster and better than any new hire can produce them. For educators and operators alike, this raises an uncomfortable question: how do you onboard and develop a graduate when the traditional stepping stones have been automated away? Chris's answer is to embed AI literacy into the curriculum now, so that students arrive in the workforce not threatened by the tools, but already knowing how to use them to impress.
Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of AIHM is how it weaves Asian identity into an internationally rigorous framework. Rather than importing a Western hospitality model wholesale, the institute actively celebrates what Thai and Southeast Asian students bring naturally warmth, generosity, and a culture of care rooted in Buddhist values. The work is less about teaching them to be hospitable and more about giving them the confidence to express what they already are. As Chris put it, the challenge is cultural rather than behavioral: helping students overcome a natural reticence to approach elders or guests, not because they lack the instinct, but because they fear causing offence.
Industry collaboration runs deep at AIHM. Through the Integrated Hospitality Project a capstone consultancy programme in the final year students work on live briefs from real hotel companies, from critiquing sustainability strategies to developing employee value propositions for attracting younger talent. Students use Opera Cloud, Minor's own property management system, and in more than one case have arrived at internship properties to find themselves training the hotel's own team on a system they already know better. Simulation tools like REFSim bring revenue management and P&L thinking to life through competitive team exercises. The pipeline is real: students graduate with a preferred employment pathway into Minor's Ascent Management Training Programme, placing them in hotels across the Maldives, Bangkok, Dubai and beyond.
On loyalty programmes, Chris offered a clear-eyed assessment: everyone has one, which means they've largely stopped being a differentiator. The real opportunity lies in using the data and AI behind those programmes to genuinely personalise the guest experience, knowing a guest's preferred room temperature, their dietary requirements, the cushion arrangement they like and delivering it seamlessly, property to property. The brands that combine points with experience and personalisation will earn the kind of loyalty that booking.com can never replicate.
Tune in to this episode of Accelerate to hear Chris Meylan's vision for the future of hospitality education, and why the industry's next great leaders may already be sitting in a classroom in Bangkok.