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

April began with the announcement of US “reciprocal tariffs”, which ranged from 10% to 49% on exports from South East Asian nations. This has created toxic uncertainty across all industries in the region, notably business travel. But before the tariff turmoil, Q1 had delivered mixed results for travel and tourism, with the Eid al-Fitr holiday numbers particularly weak in Malaysia and Indonesia. Was this the result of the Lunar New Year and Eid public holidays being in the same quarter, or are we at the start of a cyclical travel slowdown in ASEAN?

Casino Tourism. Concert & Event Tourism. Medical Tourism. The Night Economy. Live-streaming. Public-Private Tourism Partnerships. Many of the hot topics related to Macau’s diversification of its tourism economy and inbound market mix bear similarities to countries in South East Asia. There are two key differences, however. Macau is the world city most reliant on tourism income as a proportion of GDP due to casino tourism, and it famously outstripped Las Vegas for gaming revenue in 2006.

What connects CNN, Coldplay, Bollywood, The White Lotus, Bluey, Minecraft and K-dramas? All are linked to the burgeoning trend of representing tourism destinations in TV series, movies, videos, documentaries and computer games. This week, Gary and Hannah assess the top 8 TV and Movie Tourism talking points in ASEAN, Asia Pacific and beyond. The global journey takes us from Jakarta, Koh Samui and Singapore to Seoul, Jeju Island and Okinawa - and beyond to the UK, New Zealand and Australia.

“ASEAN, being the fifth largest economy in the world, is deeply concerned over the recent introduction of unilateral tariffs by the US, including the tariffs announced on 2 April and subsequently the suspension on 9 April… [These] will impact economic security and stability, affect livelihoods of millions of people in the region, and hinder economic progress in ASEAN, particularly less developed economies.” It’s unusual for ASEAN to word its statements so strongly.