The Travel Industry Podcast for ASEAN and Asia Pacific...

“I was at a tourism conference in Hangzhou in 2018, where Chinese companies showed how they were using AI to personalise travel for users. That’s nearly eight years ago.” In 2025, AI became a strategic commercial tool in all sectors, including travel and tourism. But it isn’t widely understood just how effectively embedded AI already is in China’s tourism sector, and how far ahead its leading players are to much of the world.

So, another year is almost over - but what did we learn in 2025, South East Asia’s third full year of travel since the Covid pandemic? This week, Gary and Hannah delve through the archives to take stock of an eventful 12 months for travel and tourism in South East Asia and the broader Asia Pacific region. We journey from the regional turmoil of Trump’s tariffs to the tourism impacts of scam centres, and from Singapore setting the standard on SAF to Timor Leste becoming ASEAN’s 11th member.

With one month remaining of 2025, airports are getting busy across South East Asia as the year-end travel season swings into gear. And November was another month filled with intriguing talking points to break down. We begin by discussing the long-term societal, political and travel impacts of heavy flooding in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. We take to the skies to address whether AirAsia might enter Vietnam via a stake share in Vietravel Airlines, and ponder the science fiction elements of new Biometric Corridors to verify traveller identities in Indonesia.

Will Indonesia build a high-speed railway to Bali? Why Is 19 December a vital date in Vietnam? What is the ‘Cosmic Turtle’? When will the first passengers touch down at Long Thanh Airport? And will Thailand’s “Three Airports High-Speed Train” ever take to the tracks? This week, Gary welcomes back James Clark, Founder of the Future South East Asia newsletter, to discuss the politics, financing, construction and traveller benefits of 2025’s biggest and boldest travel and transport mega-projects across the region.