Ep 35: Is it Vaccine or Bust for Tourism Reopening in South East Asia?

About This Episode

10 Sep 2020 β€’ 36m00s

“This virus is just beating us all, isn’t it?” Gary and Hannah fend off feelings of despair on this week’s pod, and tackle different approaches for rebooting travel.

From Iceland to Bali, Phuket to Maldives, China to New Zealand, we assess what measures have been tried, which are being ruled out, and those that still hold out faint hopes for the near future.

En route, we seek to trademark the phrase “Vaccine Bubble,” and canvas ideas from travel industry figures in Asia and worldwide on taking those all-important next steps to revive tourism.

But with Asian leaders proceeding with extreme caution, and no-one wanting to be the first to fail, are some countries simply waiting it out in anticipation of a vaccine being available in early 2021?

View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play
1 Oct 2026 β€’ 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?
Play
29 Sep 2026 β€’ 30m01s

Ep 320: Vietnam Leads on ASEAN Air Passenger Integration, Severe Weather Events Pummel Asia & Low-Key Chinese Golden Week Outlook

“If you go back three of four years, you’d have expected Singapore to take the lead on such a regionally important project - but now it’s Vietnam.” That seems significant. With three quarters of 2026 completed, pan-Asian air travel networks look rather different from the start of the year. The 9th month of the year, September, featured a raft of intriguing developments across South East Asia, plus China, Australia and Canada.