Ep 109: Checking the Travel & Hotel Booking Pulse in South East Asia, with Dan Lynn

About This Episode

23 Nov 2021 • 37m00s

As the 2021 festive travel season draws near, the green shoots of recovery are emerging, even if South East Asia’s reopening landscape remains patchy.

On today’s show, Gary checks the region’s travel and hotel booking temperature with Dan Lynn, Co-founder of Singapore-based Zuzu Hospitality. Dan’s career also includes senior management roles with Expedia, the AirAsia-Expedia joint venture and eLong.

We discuss how Zuzu refocused its services to meet the shifting operational challenges of its hotel clients during the pandemic, and into the early days of recovery. We also talk about the way forward for online travel booking in South East Asia.

Plus, how will Singapore’s Vaccinated Travel Lane scheme further evolve, how can Thailand and Cambodia build on their recent restarts - and which ASEAN country is “on the cusp” of a scalable travel reopening?

The show finishes by assessing the outlook for 2022, and the prospects for the greater normalisation of travel for a new era.


Click the link to find out more about Zuzu Hospitality

View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play
27 Apr 2025 • 33m31s

Ep 251: Mixed Travel & Tourism Vibes Across South East Asia: April 2025 in Review

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?
Play
24 Apr 2025 • 34m37s

Ep 250: Macau's Ongoing Quest to Diversify its Casino Tourism Economy, with Glenn McCartney, University of Macau

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.