BANGKOK, 20 March 2026: Centara Hotels & Resorts reports a highly successful visit to ITB Berlin 2026, where it met with its travel industry colleagues and revealed updates for the coming year and beyond.
Staged at the Berlin ExpoCenter City, ITB Berlin is the world’s largest travel trade show, attracting more than 100,000 attendees.
This provided the platform for Centara’s senior executives, including Thirayuth Chirathivat, CEO, and Michael Henssler, Chief Operations Officer, to showcase the group’s latest news, reaffirm progress on its expansion plans, and reconnect with its esteemed industry partners from Europe and around the world.
This year, Centara’s strapline read “Real Thai Hospitality, Shared with the World,” and the concept was brought to life at two “Centara Journeys” cocktail evenings at KaDeWe, the famous luxury department store owned by Central Group, Centara’s parent company.
On the evenings of 3 and 4 March 2026, guests were greeted with a Thai welcome ritual and treated to locally inspired drinks and light bites amid an enchanting ambience of traditional Thai décor.
Delegates at ITB Berlin learned about Centara’s expansion milestones, including its 2025 openings and the launch of the 42-key Himalayan Hideaway Resort Pokhara, The Centara Collection, in January 2026, marking the group’s debut in Nepal.
At least four more properties are set to open their doors this year. They comprise: The 300-key Centara Life Namba Hotel Osaka, Japan; the 481-key Centara Hotel & Residences Van Don and the 496-key Crystal Holidays Harbour Van Don, both in Vietnam; and the 110-key Centara Life Hotel Surat Thani, Thailand.
In addition, two of Centara’s most popular Thai resorts will be transformed in 2026: Centara Grand Beach Resort Hua Hin and Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Krabi. The latter will re-emerge as Centara Reserve Krabi — the world’s second Centara Reserve.
Centara also discussed how the adoption of smart technology will drive its global growth. Central to this strategy is the Centara Data Warehouse, which will support advanced analytics and enable hyper-personalisation. A new customised booking engine has been designed for seamless connectivity and future AI integration, and the Centara App has already exceeded 100,000 downloads since its launch in December 2025.
Another important talking point was sustainability, which is woven throughout Centara’s business. It became the first Thai hotel group to achieve full Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) certification in 2025, reduced its energy use by 26%, water consumption by 33%, waste-to-landfill by 23% and overall emissions by 24%, while also generating three times more solar power. Overall, Centara has set itself the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
“ITB Berlin is one of the world’s most important travel trade events, so we were delighted to return to Germany again this year to meet with our esteemed industry colleagues and media friends. Despite global headwinds, Centara has enjoyed a highly productive last 12 months, as we opened new hotels and introduced our authentic, family‑centric hospitality to even more guests from around the globe. We look forward to working closely with all our trade partners and media friends in 2026, as we strive to become ‘The Place to Be’ for the world’s travellers,” said Centara Hotels & Resorts CEO Thirayuth Chirathivat.
With a growing global portfolio of exceptional hotels and resorts under six inspiring brands, including locations in Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Laos, Nepal, the Middle East, and four distinct resorts in the Maldives, Centara is moving confidently towards its goal of becoming one of the world’s top 100 hotel operators by 2027.
For more information about Centara Hotels & Resorts, please visit www.centarahotelsresorts.com.
(Source: Your Stories — Centara Hotels & Resorts)
