Ep 241: Indonesia's Tourism Budget Bust, Malaysia's New State Airline & the Philippines Goes Michelin: February 2025 in Review
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28 Feb 2025 • 30m50sWhere did February go? Already, we are two months into 2025, and what a fascinating month it proved to be. Some compelling regional stories emerged. So, as we do every month, Gary and Hannah discuss the Top 8 tourism talking points from a hectic February. The journey takes us to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, plus Hong Kong, China, Japan and India.
En route we ask and answer the following questions:
- Which was the first ASEAN country to surpass 2019 arrivals?
- How will Indonesia’s tourism budget cut impact inbound arrivals?
- Why is China promoting Xishuangbanna as visa-free for South East Asian tour groups?
- Who will win the race to 40 million visitors, Thailand or Japan?
- And where in the world was the first Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant?
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Ep 270: From Japan to South East Asia to South America: Confronting the Cumulative Challenges of Tourism, with Joao Romao
Economic and social processes shape tourism development, but - in turn - tourism reshapes economic spaces, and that is creating new challenges in South East Asia and beyond. This week, Gary welcomes Joao Romao, Associate Professor at Yasuda Women’s University in Japan, to discuss his new book, Economic Geography of Tourism. An economist, tourism strategy advisor and former travel documentary maker, Joao assesses contemporary tourism through a lens of shifting global economic, technological, societal, environmental and political challenges.
