From pop-up restaurants to food delivery, discover how Dusit Hotels and Resorts in Thailand are thinking like entrepreneurs to create opportunities from challenges.

With borders still closed to international travellers, Thailand’s once-thriving tourism industry continues to be heavily impacted. Considering that foreign tourists account for about 70% of the total sector here, it’s clear that hotels are especially suffering.

​Step in the savvy teams from Dusit’s properties in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Phuket.

Determined to compensate for the losses in room revenue resulting from the ongoing situation, the teams have innovated their way through the challenges by thinking like entrepreneurs and creating new business opportunities based on their existing skillsets, experience, and product knowledge.

Recognising that Pa Thong Ko (a Thai-style doughnut) has long been a breakfast favourite at Dusit Thani Pattaya, the hotel’s dynamic crew took the initiative to open a pop-up restaurant outside the hotel selling high-quality versions of this popular morning staple to members of the general public.

The quality of the food, and the hotel’s fighting spirit, soon caught the imagination of the community. Word spread fast on blogs and social media, and local and national media coverage followed.

Offering Pa Thong Ko, quality teas and coffees, and other simple breakfast favourites at excellent value for money, the ‘D-JAI To Go’ pop up store is now a must-visit attraction. In fact, the daily queues have been so large (with the amount of dough needed to fulfil demand rising from 10kg to 100kg), customers are now requested to order at least one day in advance to get their hands on the hotel’s deep-fried golden goodness.

The team has even set up a separate LINE account and Facebook page – ‘D-JAI TO GO by Dusit Thani Pattaya’ – to facilitate orders.​

Dusit Thani Hua Hin, Dusit Princess Chiang Mai, Dusit Princess Srinakarin Bangkok, and Baan Dusit Thani, meanwhile, have also attracted much attention with morning pop-up stores selling high-quality traditional breakfast items – such as omelettes made with organic eggs – at affordable prices.

Dusit Thani Hua Hin and Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket are driving value by providing meal delivery services to government agencies, hospitals, and schools. And, capitalising on the popularity of its dim sum items, Dusit Princess Chiang Mai is selling frozen packages of its delicious dumplings for home delivery around the northern city.
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All these efforts are going a long way to helping the hotels through these challenging times, and we’d like to give them all a massive round of applause. ​

Great work, teams!

What do you think about these efforts? Have any other ideas you’d like to share?
Please let us know in the comments!