The hotel industry in Asia has long been dominated by male leaders, but that is changing.

According to a 2001 study published in International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, female general managers led just two out of 77 hotels in Singapore and three out of 72 hotels in Hong Kong.

Today, there is a growing number of senior female executives in top hotel management in Asia.

As one of the 10 founding signatories of the United Nations HeForShe movement, French hotel firm Accor said it is committed to gender equality, diversity and inclusion. In Accor’s Southeast Asia region, that commitment has resulted in 45% of leadership positions being held by women, said Garth Simmons, Accor's CEO of Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea.

“We are at a pivotal moment in history, with the #MeToo movement showing the prevalence of harassment and violence against women, and the best way to combat this is to ensure we have equal representation of women in positions of leadership across the workplace and the community,” Simmons said. “I am proud to say that my executive committee consists of five women and six men, and I have always believed that gender equity leads to a richness of ideas and greater collaboration and performance."

Simmons said that while his leadership committee at Accor is gender-balanced, more needs to be done to ensure equal representation of women across the company, especially in operations. There are more women heading the corporate finance, legal, human resources, commercial and communications teams than there are leading hotel operations. At Accor, women make up 14% of hotel general managers, while they comprise 40.5% of staff at the hotel level, Simmons said.

At Singapore-based Park Hotel Group, which has approximately 30 hotels open or in its pipeline across the Asia-Pacific region, 47% of the firm’s management are women, with the Grand Park City Hall and Park Hotel Alexandra in Singapore, Park Hotel Hong Kong and Grand Park Kunming in China all led by female general managers.

According to Park's executive director Tan Shin Hui, the company utilizes a unique tactic when reviewing job applicants.

“Hiring the right talent is key to the success of the company," she said. "We have adopted blind hiring for several years now, where candidates are not required to reveal their gender, age or ethnicity on our application forms.”

Priscilla Ng was promoted to general manager of the Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore in 2019 and with almost 15 years at Accor. She said the company prepared her to lead a hotel staff and attain her professional goals.

“[Accor] has supported me in many ways throughout the years," she said. "Most importantly, the guidance and training I have been fortunate to receive have helped me pave my own way … to reach my goals and bring me to where I am now.”

Jacqueline Poey, general manager for both Accor’s Fairmont Singapore and Swissôtel The Stamford Singapore, said collaboration with employees is critical.

“Together with my teams, we work to achieve the business objectives and targets for colleague engagement, guest satisfaction, brand consistency, [gross operating profit) and [revenue per available room]," she said. “It sounds like a lot to handle daily, but I love what I do because it is in my nature to embrace new opportunities and along with that, new challenges every day".

With more than 28 years of experience, Maria Manlulu-Garcia, general manager at the Novotel Manila Araneta City in the Philippines, began her hospitality journey in the U.S. and worked her way up to become the first Filipina general manager of an Accor brand in the Philippines. She officially became the Novotel Manila Araneta City general manager recommencing her role in December 2020.

As chairperson of Accor’s “RiiSE” program promoting sensitivity to gender, cultural differences and disabilities, Manlulu-Garcia said she is proud to be part of a company that has a strong stance, belief and support for diversity and female empowerment.

Hotel companies that have invested in leadership development programs have had success training and retaining female employees. Tan said Park Hotel Group "has put objective-focused performance appraisals in place through the use of balanced scorecards to ensure that we identify and groom the best talent in our organization.”

She added Park's “talent management policies and programs are designed to encourage work-life integration” with flexible work arrangement schemes in place since 2014 to enable staff to choose their working hours.

In light of the global pandemic, team members also have a permanent hybrid work arrangement with a choice to work from home or in the office.

Through Park’s executive leadership program, Rachel Ng became acting hotel manager of Park Hotel Alexandra in 2020 after joining the company more than 10 years ago.

“This fruitful journey in my career has been one that is possible because of the industry I am passionate about, the positive mindset that I keep and my hunger to learn. You are never too senior to ask questions, and must always be open to learning,” Rachel Ng said.