Ep 170: The Top 10 Travel & Tourism Talking Points in South East Asia in March 2023

Listen to this episode

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Google

Podbean

View All Episodes

About This Episode

22 Mar 2023 • 36m56s

With travel and tourism activity continuing to ramp up across South East Asia, Gary and Hannah tackle the top news stories and talking points in March. The journey takes us to Vietnam, Bali (Indonesia), Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Laos … and Switzerland!

En route, we discuss mobile rail ticketing in Laos, bad tourist behaviour shaming in Bali, free tourism experiences in Singapore and an interesting legal case in Malaysia addressing the constitutional right (or otherwise) to travel overseas.

Plus, we crunch the numbers of Vietnam’s latest visitor arrival forecasts and talk transport infrastructure investment in the Philippines.

And, we look back at last weekend’s MATTA Fair, Malaysia’s largest consumer travel show, and discuss South East Asian representation at ITB Berlin.

Resources

Ep 167: The Travel Fun is Back in the Philippines, with Feliz Axalan, Tradewings

OAG Southeast Aviation analysis

« Next Episode Ep 171: 10 Key Tourism Takeaways 12 Months Since South East Asia Reopened Previous Episode » Ep 168: Mini Update - China Restores Inbound Tourism & Expands Outbound Travel

View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play

9 Oct 2026 • 23m31s

Ep 322: Phu Quoc Fuels Vietnam's Tourism Rocket Ship, Thailand Moves Closer to Taxing Tourists & Russia's Rising Influence on South East Asian Tourism Planning

“Vietnam is riding a tourism rocket ship, and is on a totally different trajectory to the rest of South East Asia.” As we accelerate through October, this was another week packed with hot travel and tourism topics to discuss. To kickstart the weekend, Gary and Hannah journey across ASEAN and beyond with stopovers in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Laos, Russia and India. We assess Phu Quoc’s dramatic tourism surge to already surpass its 2026 visitor target.

Play

1 Oct 2026 • 30m38s

Ep 321: Tracking the Take-off of AI, Intelligent & Automated Technologies at South East Asian Airports

Digital Twins. Automated Ground Operations. Predictive Sustainability. Humanoid Robots. E-Gates. Urban Air Transport. Inter-modality. South East Asia’s air landscape is changing before our eyes, as air travel volumes increase and passenger expectations are constantly upgrading. These factors broaden the range of operational challenges for major hub airports, fast-growing airports in tier-two and tier-three cities and the new mega-airports opening from Singapore to the Philippines and Australia to Vietnam. Can AI and intelligent technologies improve the management of busier skies and more crowded departures and arrivals lounges without the need to build bigger terminals?