Ep 68: The Current State of Travel in South East Asia and Beyond

About This Episode

28 Apr 2021 • 35m00s

With the COVID-19 pandemic now in its 14 month, what have we learned and how will those lessons be – or not be – applied in future? This week, Gary and Hannah take on some of the ‘big picture’ talking points in travel and tourism in ASEAN.

The show asks, and tries to answer, 7 critical questions:

  1. What do travel and tourism mean today, and do we have a different outlook than before the pandemic?
  2. What have been the biggest changes for the travel industry - which will be temporary, and will any be permanent?
  3. What has been the most overlooked development so far?
  4. What have we learned in the first 4 months of 2021, and is the current outlook different than expected at the end of 2020?
  5. Are travel bubbles relevant any more now that we have vaccines?
  6. Realistically, what are the expectations for travel and tourism in South East Asia in 2021 - and will there be a noticeable ‘turning point’?
  7. Looking further ahead, what are the reasons to be optimistic, and what are the pessimistic factors?
View All Episodes

Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed

Play
13 Nov 2025 • 31m53s

Ep 273: Singapore Leads on SAF, Cambodia Visitor Numbers Dive & A Bahrain Base for AirAsia?: The Latest South East Asia Travel News in Review

With less than 50 days remaining of 2025, South East Asia is barrelling towards the end-of-year holiday travel season. And there’s plenty of news to talk about. This week, Gary and Hannah zoom through the region’s top travel happenings, with stopovers in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos, plus China and Bahrain. We begin with downbeat news about the Thailand-Cambodia peace process, and the detrimental impact this is having on Cambodia’s visitor economy (remember in 2024, Cambodia was the first country in ASEAN to claim it had surpassed its 2019 visitor level).
Play
30 Oct 2025 • 26m28s

Ep 272: Scam Centre Tourism Impacts, SAF Mandates, Q4 Travel Promotions & Timor Leste Joins ASEAN: October 2025 in Review

After a quiet September, October travel activity was stimulated by various national holidays (including Golden Week in China, Chuseok in South Korea, Diwali/Deepavali in India, Malaysia & Singapore and Undas in the Philippines). These created air travel spikes that set the scene for the region’s highly anticipated end-of-year peak season, with destinations making promotional plays to attract each other’s holidaymakers. We begin by looking at the accession of Timor Leste to ASEAN and the prospects of a peace settlement between Thailand and Cambodia.