Ep 95: 10 Tough Travel Learnings From the First Three-Quarters of 2021
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Google
PodbeanAbout This Episode
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.
Latest Episodes Catch up with the pods you may have missed
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.
Play
10 Oct 2025 • 34m24s
Ep 271: Chinese Holidaymakers Jet Off, Multiple Muslim Tourism Initiatives & Fiscal Relief for Travel Workers: September + Golden Week in Review
After three weeks in Japan, Singapore and Italy, Gary and Hannah are back in KL to recap the top travel talking points from September and early October. China’s Mid-Autumn Golden Week has just wrapped up, so we assess the current state of play in a diversifying Chinese outbound market.
Elsewhere, we discuss a raft of new Muslim-friendly tourism initiatives being introduced across South East Asia, note a shift towards waterborne transport innovation and crunch the numbers of a tax relief scheme for travel industry workers in Indonesia.
