Ep 163: Sustainable Travel Tracking in Vietnam & AI in Tourism, with Stuart McDonald, Travelfish

About This Episode

9 Feb 2023 • 32m29s

“It just doesn’t feel like a living Vietnamese town.” Environmental impact, carbon emissions and artificial intelligence (AI) are three of the hottest topics in tourism. Today Gary & Hannah welcome back Bali-based Stuart McDonald, Founder of Travelfish, to take on these vital talking points.

Stuart recently travelled through Vietnam, where he tracked his carbon footprint using the Capture and Pathnet Zero apps. He discusses his findings and observations while travelling from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi by train.

Stuart also discusses the contrasting challenges (and current outcomes) for tourism in Hoi An and Hue. Taking a tangential turn, we chat about AI chatbots in tourism, and the building of AI-generated content into travel products and information services.

Rounding out the discussion, we address a phantom train in Cambodia (which tops the search rankings) and diving in Raja Ampat in Indonesia.

View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play
28 Oct 2026 • 26m15s

Ep 324: Malaysia's Air Passenger Slump, Sydney Joins the 'Two-Airports Club' & Singapore Plans Christmas with BTS

As we head into the final two months of a turbulent 2026, there’s a multitude of travel talking points to decipher across ASEAN and beyond. We start with Australia’s first major new airport for 50 years, which catapults Sydney into the club of cities with two international airports. We move onto Malaysia, which reported a 12% decrease in airport passengers in September, including a worrying 22% decline in domestic air travel.
Play
16 Oct 2026 • 26m01s

Ep 323: Singapore's Tourism Spending Slump, Scam Centres in Luxury Hotels & Resorts & Are Australians Starting to Adopt Vietjet?

As we march through Q4, upbeat news is in short supply across the region’s travel industry. This week’s round-up of South East Asia’s top talking points takes Gary and Hannah to Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Australia, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia. With markets abuzz about earnings season, Singapore reports downbeat spending and arrivals numbers, and the best-case scenario for the Philippines in 2026 is flat versus 2025. Meanwhile, regional governments issue travel safety warnings for Saudi Arabia and airlines cancel flights after the deadly attack on Riyadh airport.