For a long time, luxury was about having more – more layers in the plush bed, more entertainment in the itinerary, more Michelin-starred dinners, more dedicated attention.

The new luxury?

It is more of less, and more of what cannot be bought or owned.

An alluring illusion

It is the alluring illusion of time slowing down, the ability to take extended moments to observe a fleeting sight – a butterfly fluttering through the flowers, an elephant nurturing its young, a local fisherman casting his net in the foreground of a lilac dusk. It is the opportunity to take a few deep breaths while listening to a raging waterfall gush over boulders as old as time. It is the calming and clarifying sensation of hearing one’s own thoughts and feeling one’s own heartbeat.

Asia Pacific is welcoming a generation of luxury outdoor lodging properties in remote locations that offer the discerning traveller access to quiet and unabashedly raw, theatrical nature without compromising on upscale comfort.

Outdoor lodging — the category encompassing luxury tented camps, open-air resorts, eco-lodges, floating villas, and nature-immersive retreats where the environment is integral to the guest experience — is emerging in this part of the world. It is moving from a niche reserved for the adventurous to a defined hospitality category with its own design language, its own economics, and its own competitive logic.

In 2024, Asia-Pacific’s outdoor lodging market was valued at approximately USD 620.5 million and is projected to exceed USD 1 billion by 2030. At a compounded annual growth rate of 14–16%, Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region globally. The global outdoor lodging sector was valued at USD 25.8 billion in 2019 and is forecast to reach USD 41.7 billion by 2027.

Behind these numbers is something less quantifiable but more interesting: a generational shift in what luxury travellers believe a rejuvenating vacation should feel like — disconnection from our very wired and, at times, performative lives; an intimate acquaintance and exploration of our natural environment; and through that, a deeper connection with ourselves.

A growing legion of travellers across Southeast Asia and beyond are seeking restoration in preference to traditional cultural and sight-seeing touring. They want to feel the earth beneath their feet, wake to birdsong and the rustling of leaves rather than traffic, and return home genuinely awakened, re-energised and hopeful.

For property developers, operators, investors, and lenders paying attention, this is not a lifestyle trend. It is a structural market transformation with outdoor lodging at its core.

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Shyn Yee brings a commercial operator’s lens to the boardroom. She has previously held senior global leadership roles including Managing Director, Data and Software Solutions at PropertyGuru, Southeast Asia’s leading property technology platform; Director of Global Product Management and Market Expansion at Expedia Group; and Director of Revenue Management at Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

Shyn Yee leads the Tech Edit LAB, Horwath HTL Pacific Asia’s workshop programme on AI and hotel technology for senior leaders. She also serves as Director, Strategy and Marketing at the Asia Pacific Outdoor Lodging Association (APOLA), the regional industry body shaping the underwriting and operating frameworks for an emerging asset class. A seasoned workshop facilitator and panel moderator, she is a regular contributor to industry research and a frequent speaker at investment and policy forums including the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP), the World Cities Summit, Urban Land Institute forums and Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).

A business graduate of Singapore Management University, Shyn Yee has completed executive programmes at the London School of Economics, Harvard Extension School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management. She is a Member of the Singapore Institute of Directors and Board Director of Smiling Gecko Singapore, a Cambodia-focused non-profit.