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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5 May 2025 • 32m10s

Ep 252: From 40,000 to 152 Billion: South East Asia's Top 8 Travel & Tourism Statistical Talking Points

South East Asia comprises 10 diverse nations and nearly 700 million people spread across a vast landmass. Consequently, the numbers are often large, impactful and scaleable - and travel and tourism are no exceptions. This week, Gary and Hannah select the Top 8 statistical talking points from across the region. These cover inbound and outbound travel, ASEAN vs APAC airline seat capacity, the Hajj pilgrimage from Indonesia, human capital development in Vietnam – and electrified living everywhere.

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27 Apr 2025 • 33m31s

Ep 251: Mixed Travel & Tourism Vibes Across South East Asia: April 2025 in Review

April began with the announcement of US “reciprocal tariffs”, which ranged from 10% to 49% on exports from South East Asian nations. This has created toxic uncertainty across all industries in the region, notably business travel. But before the tariff turmoil, Q1 had delivered mixed results for travel and tourism, with the Eid al-Fitr holiday numbers particularly weak in Malaysia and Indonesia. Was this the result of the Lunar New Year and Eid public holidays being in the same quarter, or are we at the start of a cyclical travel slowdown in ASEAN?

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 252: From 40,000 to 152 Billion: South East Asia's Top 8 Travel & Tourism Statistical Talking Points

Ep 251: Mixed Travel & Tourism Vibes Across South East Asia: April 2025 in Review

Hannah Pearson

Gary Bowerman