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

Listen to this episode

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Google

Podbean

View All Episodes

About This Episode

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

View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play

13 Jun 2025 • 33m14s

Ep 257: Chinese Backpackers, Mountains Clad with Solar Panels, a Giant Lenin Statue & Delightful Almaty: An Epic Overland Journey from Bali to Britain, with Stuart McDonald

“I wish I had 640 days to do this trip, not 64.” Bali-based Stuart McDonald, founder of Travelfish, is 34 days into an ambitious two-month overland trip across 18 countries from his Bali home to Leeds in the UK. So, why is he doing it? What has he experienced en route? And what have been the finest discoveries of the journey so far? This week, Gary catches up with Stuart in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, to track back across his train and-bus route so far, which has taken him from Bali to Jakarta, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Play

6 Jun 2025 • 40m55s

Ep 256: A 'Resort Airline', An OTA Law Suit, Time for Timor Leste & Blackpink Back in the Area: May 2025 in Review

May was another hectic month of BIG travel, tourism and geopolitical talking points in South East Asia. This month’s roundup takes Gary and Hannah around ASEAN, from our home city of Kuala Lumpur to Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Timor Leste and Vietnam – plus China, India (sort of), Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan. En route, we discuss China’s new ASEAN visa, Indonesia clings to its high-speed rail ambitions, and ASEAN accumulates an 11th member, and perhaps as a 12th in future.

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 257: Chinese Backpackers, Mountains Clad with Solar Panels, a Giant Lenin Statue & Delightful Almaty: An Epic Overland Journey from Bali to Britain, with Stuart McDonald

Ep 256: A 'Resort Airline', An OTA Law Suit, Time for Timor Leste & Blackpink Back in the Area: May 2025 in Review

Hannah Pearson

Gary Bowerman