stay WHERE TO
Tui Blue Angkor Grace, Siem Reap: Available with Tui Blue since 2025, the Angkor Grace wellness hotel was opened by Elain Younn, a refugee who returned to Cambodia with the aim of bringing a healing dimension to the tourist hotspot. It includes a vast yoga and sound healing centre, not just for tourists but also for hosting community events, and trains young local women as wellness practitioners.
among murals, street food, local crafts, hip-hop battles and even women’s drumming – something traditionally the preserve of men in Khmer culture. Raising Battambang’s profile as a tourist destination is also a way of tempting visitors away from Siem Reap and its iconic temples Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm. The world’s largest religious complex remains a must-see, but too many visitors jet in just for Angkor Wat and miss how much the rest of the country has to offer. Cambodia is on the UN’s list of ‘least developed countries’ and is looking to tourism to bring in much-needed income. So a visit to several Tui Care Foundation-supported projects offers an interesting perspective on the impact tourism can have.
Tui Blue Berawa Hotel and Villas, Bali: This stylish 134-room resort opened in 2024 in the trendy coastal neighbourhood of Canggu. It features a rooftop infinity pool, wellness area and private-pool villas for up to four.
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WORKING FOR WOMEN Women make up more than half the workforce in southeast Asia’s tourism sector, but are often concentrated in service roles with lower pay and limited advancement. Yet in Siem Reap, the Tui Care Foundation is supporting Satcha, a social enterprise created after the pandemic to help artisans make a living by creating meaningful handmade products that are an alternative to cheap, mass-produced plastic souvenirs. Visitors are free to chat to the artisans as they go about their leatherwork or weave baskets using water hyacinths grown in the gardens. The centre markets their products with a cooperative model that ensures they earn more than the Cambodian minimum wage, as well as teaching money management skills. Ceramics maker
33The aim is to make farming sexy again, to restore Bali’s soil and reconnect people with food sources and nature in general
Nimol tells me she’s learning to create intricate designs so she can start running pottery classes from her home. Another local beneficiary is DMC Journey Cambodia, which runs everything from food tours to village visits. We go to the home of rice noodle maker Sey, who supports her family by selling her noodles at nearby markets. She welcomes tourists to watch her craft the noodles, with time to taste them afterwards in a nourishing, herb-laden soup.
BALI: SEA OF STARS For a very different take on southeast Asia’s tourism economy, we fly to Bali, where decades of overtourism have led to water shortages, traffic congestion and plastic pollution. The island accounts for nearly half of Indonesia’s tourism, despite making up only 0.29% of its land mass. But several regenerative projects are working to counteract these effects and also to help women shift from traditional roles to earn a sustainable living. In the fishing village and ferry port of Padangbai, on the island’s southeast corner, I chat to Ni Luh Putu Juliandari (Putu) and Salma Salsabila from the Living
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