Ep 234: South East Asia's Top 10 Travel & Tourism Stories of 2024: An Eventful 12 Months in Review

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6 Dec 2024 • 36m01s

Visa-Free Travel Between South East Asia & China. Tourism Taxes. The Politics of Taylornomics. ASEAN’s Most Expansive High-Speed Rail System. Singapore Vision 2040. And, The Quest For Post-Covid Recovery Continues.

It’s time for our annual 2024 review. As we complete the 2nd full calendar year of travel and tourism in SEA since the pandemic – it’s been a highly eventful 12 months. This week, Gary and Hannah discuss the Top 10 travel and tourism talking points in South East Asia in 2024 - and their implications for 2025… and beyond. Amid discussions about tourism politics and economics, national branding and soft power, demographics, technology and strategy development, we end the show with the region’s most positively uplifting societal story of the year. Hats off to… Thailand!

« Next Episode Ep 235: South East Asia's 15 Travel & Tourism Hot Topics to Watch in 2025 Previous Episode » Ep 233: A New Bali Airport, Laos Backpacker Perils & Chinese Aircraft Ready for Take-off: November 2024 in Review

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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.

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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?

Ep 234: South East Asia's Top 10 Travel & Tourism Stories of 2024: An Eventful 12 Months in Review

About This Episode

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

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

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

Hannah Pearson

Gary Bowerman