Ep 95: 10 Tough Travel Learnings From the First Three-Quarters of 2021
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28 Sep 2021 • 37m21sAs South East Asia enters the 4th quarter of 2021, Gary and Hannah bash heads together to create a list of 10 top travel learnings from a year that – as yet – hasn’t really got going. Perhaps a rush of travel activity awaits around the corner… but 2021 has taught the travel industry some harsh lessons.
So on this week’s show, we discuss the following points:
- 2021 is shaping up to worse than 2020 for tourism businesses
- Governments being in control of travel is a disaster
- Any ASEAN cooperation is a pipe dream
- South East Asian tourism planners are directionless without Chinese tourists
- Vaccines have not been the save-all the tourism industry thought they would be
- Reopening may come down to 2 models: Thailand’s Phuket Sandbox or Singapore’s Vaccinated Travel Lane
- Pent-up demand is probable, but not guaranteed
- Overlooking domestic markets is a long-term mistake
- Outbound travel is of little importance to governments and
- Media reporting of travel during the pandemic is clickbait driven.
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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.
