Ep 236: South East Asia's Top 8 Travel Mega-Projects in 2025, with James Clark, Future South East Asia

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16 Jan 2025 • 34m48s

Wherever you find yourself in South East Asia, it’s impossible to miss that travel infrastructure is being built out on a vast scale – and 2025 is an important year for some major projects.

This week, Gary chats with James Clark, Founder of the Future South East Asia newsletter, to assess the Top 8 Mega-Projects under-development across the region.

In order, we discuss these transformative airport and high-speed rail projects in

Vietnam,
Singapore,
Cambodia,
Indonesia,
The Philippines,
Malaysia,
Back to Vietnam, and
Thailand.

We analyse the potential impact on travel and tourism, plus the economics and politics, and the financing, planning and construction challenges, behind each one. With South East Asia at the centre of Asia Pacific’s ambitious economic growth trajectory, these mega-projects will carve out new contexts for domestic and international travel.

« Next Episode Ep 237: South East Asia's Top 8 Pre-Lunar New Year Travel & Tourism Talking Points: January 2025 in Review Previous Episode » Ep 235: South East Asia's 15 Travel & Tourism Hot Topics to Watch in 2025

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26 Jun 2025 • 40m18s

Ep 259: South East Asia's Top 10 Talking Points of 2025 So Far: Travel & Tourism in a New Era of Global Uncertainty

It’s been a pretty unsettling first half of 2025 on a geopolitical level, and the regional outcomes are creeping but still uncertain. Against this backdrop, South East Asian airports have remained busy - but structural and cyclical challenges for travel economies are emerging. So, what do the events of January-June tell us about the rest of 2025 and into 2026? This week, Gary and Hannah assess the 10 top takeaways in the year so far.

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20 Jun 2025 • 17m26s

Ep 258: Is an ASEAN Tourism Visa South East Asia's Most Pressing Travel Concern?

“Despite referencing the word ‘tourism’ 26 times in its new Vision 2045 plan, ASEAN remains uncomfortable discussing a regional tourism visa. This largely reflects its institutional limitations rather than a lack of ambition.” Over recent months, significant hype has surrounded the possibility of the 10 countries (soon 11) of South East Asia launching a shared visa for tourists. The context is that each country in the region wants to expand tourism to support economic development.

Ep 236: South East Asia's Top 8 Travel Mega-Projects in 2025, with James Clark, Future South East Asia

About This Episode

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Ep 259: South East Asia's Top 10 Talking Points of 2025 So Far: Travel & Tourism in a New Era of Global Uncertainty

Ep 258: Is an ASEAN Tourism Visa South East Asia's Most Pressing Travel Concern?

Hannah Pearson

Gary Bowerman