Ep 171: 10 Key Tourism Takeaways 12 Months Since South East Asia Reopened

Quarantine be gone! One year ago this week, on 1 April, the borders reopened across much of South East Asia as countries dropped quarantine-on-arrival mandates. The past 12 months have flown by, but the long pandemic travel shutout seems a part of history – especially as all of Asia Pacific, including China, is now open.

So, what have (and haven’t) we learned over the past year? For this week’s show, Gary and Hannah have compiled a list of the 10 key travel and tourism takeaways since 1 April 2022. Here’s the list we discuss on the podcast:

1. Thailand is South East Asia’s ‘Tourism Central’
2. Competition to attract tourists is intense – and intensifying
3. Intra-regional flight capacities still aren’t what they were
4. Smaller ASEAN countries are dependent on the air capacity recovery of neighbouring countries
5. “High-Quality” tourism is selectively applied
6. “Sustainable”, “Ecotourism” and “Green” tourism discourse isn’t delivering notable change
7. Airports haven’t invested in the right areas – and it’s showing
8. Domestic tourism focus has largely fallen by the wayside
9. The manpower crisis is still far from over
10. Rail travel is this decade’s big trend to watch

Resources

OAG Southeast Asia air traffic March analysis

Listen to Ep 164: South East Asia’s Top 10 New Airport, High-Speed Rail & Transport Projects, with James Clark, Future South East Asia