Ep 162: The Top 10 Travel & Tourism Talking Points in South East Asia in January 2023

Listen to this episode

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Google

Podbean

View All Episodes

About This Episode

2 Feb 2023 • 30m06s

2023 is a vital year for travel and tourism in South East Asia and Asia Pacific. January was a fascinating kick-start month for the region’s visitor economies. China reopened its airport gates, albeit gradually, the Lunar New Year launched the domestic and outbound travel calendar and tourism boards set out their (initial) 2023 visitor forecasts.

On today’s show, Gary and Hannah review January’s Top 10 travel talking points and discuss what they could mean for the 12 months ahead. The journey takes us to 9 countries around the region.

En route, we assess the return of Chinese tour groups to 7 ASEAN countries, discuss airport capacity in Vietnam and Thailand and address an administrative bottleneck for the Laos-China train.

Plus we talk sales tax refunds in Philippines, tourism villages in Indonesia, sky-high hotel rates in Singapore and two Malaysian Prime Ministers challenged in the courts over an aborted high-speed rail project. Phew!

« Next Episode Ep 163: Sustainable Travel Tracking in Vietnam & AI in Tourism, with Stuart McDonald, Travelfish Previous Episode » Ep 161: Ethics, Sustainability & Accessibility in Tour Operations, with Ewan Cluckie, Tripseed

View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play

13 Nov 2025 • 31m53s

Ep 273: Singapore Leads on SAF, Cambodia Visitor Numbers Dive & A Bahrain Base for AirAsia?: The Latest South East Asia Travel News in Review

With less than 50 days remaining of 2025, South East Asia is barrelling towards the end-of-year holiday travel season. And there’s plenty of news to talk about. This week, Gary and Hannah zoom through the region’s top travel happenings, with stopovers in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos, plus China and Bahrain. We begin with downbeat news about the Thailand-Cambodia peace process, and the detrimental impact this is having on Cambodia’s visitor economy (remember in 2024, Cambodia was the first country in ASEAN to claim it had surpassed its 2019 visitor level).

Play

30 Oct 2025 • 26m28s

Ep 272: Scam Centre Tourism Impacts, SAF Mandates, Q4 Travel Promotions & Timor Leste Joins ASEAN: October 2025 in Review

After a quiet September, October travel activity was stimulated by various national holidays (including Golden Week in China, Chuseok in South Korea, Diwali/Deepavali in India, Malaysia & Singapore and Undas in the Philippines). These created air travel spikes that set the scene for the region’s highly anticipated end-of-year peak season, with destinations making promotional plays to attract each other’s holidaymakers. We begin by looking at the accession of Timor Leste to ASEAN and the prospects of a peace settlement between Thailand and Cambodia.

Ep 162: The Top 10 Travel & Tourism Talking Points in South East Asia in January 2023

About This Episode

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Ep 273: Singapore Leads on SAF, Cambodia Visitor Numbers Dive & A Bahrain Base for AirAsia?: The Latest South East Asia Travel News in Review

Ep 272: Scam Centre Tourism Impacts, SAF Mandates, Q4 Travel Promotions & Timor Leste Joins ASEAN: October 2025 in Review

Hannah Pearson

Gary Bowerman