Ep 181: The Top 10 Travel & Tourism Talking Points in South East Asia in the First Half of 2023

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5 Jul 2023 • 37m57s

Thailand. China, India & Russia. Visa Backlogs. Indonesia’s Air Sector. A Short-Term Rental Ban. Taylor Swift & Coldplay. High-Speed Rail. Love the Philippines.

What connects the dots? All feature in our round-up of South East Asia’s Top 10 talking points from the first half of 2023. As the region moves on from its first full half year of travel since 2019, Gary and Hannah discuss the key issues and vital takeaways.

Plus, we forecast some of the hot issues to watch in the second half of the year. Will we see a slowdown in intra-regional pent up travel demand? Will Chinese tourists stream into South East Asia in larger numbers? Can regional airports cope if they do? Will long-haul air fares stay as high as they are right now? How will depreciating currencies impact inbound and outbound travel?

And should we finally cast off the shadow of the “return to 2029 levels” recovery benchmark?

« Next Episode Ep 182: Reflecting on 3 Years of Tourism Recovery in Maldives, with Thoyyib Mohamed, Visit Maldives Previous Episode » Ep 180: SuperApps Scale Up to Sell More South East Asian Travel, with Brett Henry, MG Group

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So, another year is almost over - but what did we learn in 2025, South East Asia’s third full year of travel since the Covid pandemic? This week, Gary and Hannah delve through the archives to take stock of an eventful 12 months for travel and tourism in South East Asia and the broader Asia Pacific region. We journey from the regional turmoil of Trump’s tariffs to the tourism impacts of scam centres, and from Singapore setting the standard on SAF to Timor Leste becoming ASEAN’s 11th member.

Ep 181: The Top 10 Travel & Tourism Talking Points in South East Asia in the First Half of 2023

About This Episode

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Ep 277: The Geopolitics of Travel & Tourism in ASEAN, Asia Pacific & Beyond in the Era of AI

Ep 276: Visa-easing Tricks, Tariff Turmoil, Vietnam's Breakout Year & What Happened to the ASEAN Tourism Visa?: 2025 in Review

Hannah Pearson

Gary Bowerman