Ep 67: Take-off for the Australia-New Zealand Travel Bubble, with Simon Westaway

About This Episode

22 Apr 2021 • 36m00s

This week marks the start of the two-way travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand. So there’s no better time for Gary and Hannah to welcome back Simon Westaway, Executive Director of the Australian Tourism Industry Council, to the show.

Back in December, Simon accurately predicted April for the two-way travel bubble getting started. In a fascinating discussion, we look at how Australia’s domestic tourism sector has recovered, and trends have shifted. These include more travel within home states, and a surge in self-drive trips. Meanwhile, some regions of the country have never had it so good. Plus, the outlook for travel between Australia and New Zealand as the winter sports season beckons, and some of the new routes that airlines are introducing.

Beyond the bubble, are South Pacific islands next on the itinerary, and will Australia push ahead with a much-touted travel corridor with Singapore? And how about Vietnam? Finally, what’s the outlook for long-haul international travel in 2021, or more likely 2022?

View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play
13 Jun 2025 • 33m14s

Ep 257: Chinese Backpackers, Mountains Clad with Solar Panels, a Giant Lenin Statue & Delightful Almaty: An Epic Overland Journey from Bali to Britain, with Stuart McDonald

“I wish I had 640 days to do this trip, not 64.” Bali-based Stuart McDonald, founder of Travelfish, is 34 days into an ambitious two-month overland trip across 18 countries from his Bali home to Leeds in the UK. So, why is he doing it? What has he experienced en route? And what have been the finest discoveries of the journey so far? This week, Gary catches up with Stuart in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, to track back across his train and-bus route so far, which has taken him from Bali to Jakarta, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Play
6 Jun 2025 • 40m55s

Ep 256: A 'Resort Airline', An OTA Law Suit, Time for Timor Leste & Blackpink Back in the Area: May 2025 in Review

May was another hectic month of BIG travel, tourism and geopolitical talking points in South East Asia. This month’s roundup takes Gary and Hannah around ASEAN, from our home city of Kuala Lumpur to Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Timor Leste and Vietnam – plus China, India (sort of), Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan. En route, we discuss China’s new ASEAN visa, Indonesia clings to its high-speed rail ambitions, and ASEAN accumulates an 11th member, and perhaps as a 12th in future.