Ep 201: Future South East Asia: The Top 8 New Airport, High-Speed Rail & Urban Development Projects, with James Clark

About This Episode

4 Mar 2024 • 33m20s

Wherever you travel in South East Asia, it’s impossible to miss that transport infrastructure is being built out on a vast scale. After the lull of the pandemic era, this will accelerate over the next decade and beyond. Airport capacities are being expanded, high-speed and urban railways constructed and even new cities built from scratch.

So how will this influence the future direction of travel and tourism in the region? This week, Gary is joined by James Clark, Founder of the Future South East Asia newsletter, to assess the current status of 8 potentially game-changing travel and transport projects throughout ASEAN. From new airport terminals in Bangkok and Phnom Penh to high-speed railways in Vietnam and Thailand, we also look at the new light railway connecting southern Malaysia and Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City’s debut metro line.

Plus, we stop off in Indonesia to assess the progress of its new capital city, Nusantara, and the long-touted Bali Railway - which aims to reduce traffic congestion in the south of the island and speed up journeys to/from the airport.

View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play
26 Mar 2026 • 19m16s

Ep 293: A New Survey Report on the Impacts of War in the Middle East on Travel Businesses in South East Asia

“48% of South East Asian travel businesses believe that the prospects for their business in Q2 2026 are worse than they had anticipated at the start of the year.” But, dig deeper and the opinion variances between travel industry players throughout the region are noticeable. On this week’s show Hannah is in the hot seat, as Gary interviews her about a new survey report put together by her team at Pear Anderson and the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA).
Play
23 Mar 2026 • 19m02s

Ep 292: Eid Travel Trends, Thailand Merges Tourism & Culture & Vientiane's Electric Pole Superstar: Start the Week with The South East Asia Travel Show

Our fast-paced Monday morning Start The Week show is back. This week, Gary and Hannah stop over in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines in search of the answers to South East Asia’s big travel questions. We look at the Eid holiday trends across the region and even into China, and assess an intriguing new flight service connecting Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Czech Republic. Plus, we deconstruct the reasons why Thailand’s government wants to merge the Ministries of Tourism and Culture, and summarise the findings of a new report about the challenges of tourism infrastructure development in the Philippines.