The development model of innovative leadership among HR managers in hotel management entering wellness tourism: An empirical study of wellness tourism hotels in Phuket, Thailand

This study aims to develop a model of innovative leadership among HR managers in wellness tourism hotels to strengthen organizational adaptability and sustainability in response to the industry’s dynamic demands. A three-phase mixed-methods design was employed. In Phase 1, in-depth interviews were conducted with seven experts in wellness tourism HR, selected through purposive sampling, to explore core leadership components and inform the development of the survey instrument. In Phase 2, a structured questionnaire was administered to 387 HR managers from wellness tourism hotels in Phuket, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to validate the proposed model and examine the relationships among variables. In Phase 3, 12 senior HR managers, each with over seven years of leadership experience, participated in follow-up interviews to assess the practical relevance and contextual applicability of the findings. The study identifies four critical factors—HR professional skills, strategic intuition, networking capabilities, and dynamic capabilities—that play a significant role in shaping innovative leadership. Grounded in resource-based theory and service innovation capability theory, the findings contribute to advancing theoretical understanding of leadership in tourism contexts while offering strategic guidance for human capital development in wellness-focused hospitality enterprises.