3. 23. 150,000. 17.9 million. 34 million. 80%. Numbers and statistics carry extra weight in South East Asia as we enter the fourth quarter, which is peak travel season in many countries and arrivals counting gets highly competitive. So what do those numbers relate to? This week, Gary and Hannah analyse the 8 top talking points from September - and the meaning of each figure is revealed during the show. The monthly round up takes us from Singapore to the Philippines via Malaysia, Cambodia,...

"The rates are not likely to drop from here." South East Asian hotel economics are changing since countries reopened - or are they? This week, Gary and Hannah discuss the outlook for the hotel sector in South East Asia and Asia Pacific with Jesper Palmqvist, Senior Director, Asia Pacific, at STR CoStar. We discuss the different drivers shaping room rates, occupancies and RevPar, as well as costs, productivity and profits, in cities and coastal areas across the region. Is business travel...

Australia counts one of Asia Pacific's most fascinating visitor economies. It combines vibrant inbound, outbound and domestic leisure and business travel segments with large international education, VFR and working holiday components. One in 7 businesses in Australia is related to tourism. So, how is Australia recovering from Covid-19, and how is it planning ahead for the rest of the decade, and beyond? This week, Gary and Hannah welcome Samantha Palmer, General Manager of Visitor Economy and...

From 4.4 million to 15.4 million. Thailand is way out in front in South East Asia for year-to-date visitors in 2023 vs 2022. Two-thirds through 2023, Gary and Hannah look back to compare the progress for visitor arrivals in 7 ASEAN nations. We also discuss 8 other key talking points from August, as the summer holiday season subsides and the region prepares for the Chinese Golden Week in October. En route, we discuss new developments in ASEAN's cross-border payments programme, and assess the...

"This is a South East Asian festival. It will be a mouthpiece for us to develop the vocabulary that surrounds South East Asian cooking, food culture and, moving forward, South East Asian restaurants." This week, Gary is joined by Leisa Tyler and Darren Teoh, co-founders of the Kita Food Festival - which this year celebrates its third anniversary in Malaysia and Singapore. Leisa is a Malaysia-based food and travel journalist and founder of Weeds&More, which supplies heirloom produce to...

South East Asia is abuzz with talk of Tourism Taylornomics as Singapore prepares for the billion-dollar Eras Tour to arrive. Coldplay are also headed to the region, Blackpink are filling soccer stadiums and fans await news of Beyonce's 2024 tour destinations. Pop Music Tourism is the region's breakout story of 2023. The economic windfall for airlines, hotels and tours and experiences players is enormous - as is the boost for destination branding. After Blackpink's recent Hanoi shows, a city...

July, the seventh month of 2023, proved another busy period along South East Asia’s road to a travel and tourism recovery. This week, Hannah and Gary chat through the Top 8 travel talking points in July. The journey unwinds from Thailand to Singapore, Bali to Kuala Lumpur, Japan to Cambodia and China to Saudi Arabia. We discuss the half-year arrivals in each country, the Top 10 airlines in the region and the three nations comprising almost two-thirds of South East Asia's total airline...

"We are hitting milestone after milestone at the moment." It's exactly three years since Maldives became one of the first countries in Asia Pacific to reopen for tourism during the pandemic. This week, Gary and Hannah welcome Thoyyib Mohamed, Managing Director of Visit Maldives, to discuss the challenges of the reopening process, and a successful three years since. In 2020, Maldives enticed a creditable 555,000 visitors to its resorts and beaches despite widespread global disruption. This...

Thailand. China, India & Russia. Visa Backlogs. Indonesia's Air Sector. A Short-Term Rental Ban. Taylor Swift & Coldplay. High-Speed Rail. Love the Philippines. What connects the dots? All feature in our round-up of South East Asia's Top 10 talking points from the first half of 2023. As the region moves on from its first full half year of travel since 2019, Gary and Hannah discuss the key issues and vital takeaways. Plus, we forecast some of the hot issues to watch in the second half...

What is a SuperApp, and why should the travel industry care about them? There are numerous reasons to care, as Gary and Hannah discuss this week with Jakarta-based Brett Henry, President & Director of MG Group. Brett guides us through a research-based definition of SuperApp characteristics, and explains the opportunities and challenges they provide for brands and travellers. En route, we discuss a bunch of SuperApps in ASEAN, including GoTo, Grab, WeChat, Meituan and Shopee. We also touch...

“Airports are making changes in their operation plans and strategies to adapt and inculcate the learnings of the last two years.” The airport sector continues to undergo a transformation as traffic flows recover, intelligent technology adoption accelerates and consumer expectations shift. This week, Gary and Hannah welcome KL-based Shantanu Gangakhedkar, Senior Consultant for Aerospace & Defence with Frost & Sullivan. Shantanu has authored a new White Paper entitled "Future of...

"Indonesia's domestic market is underpinning the growth of tourism." This is little surprise. The world's fourth-largest population is expected to generate 1.4 billion domestic trips in 2023. In addition, a "demographic dividend," whereby a youthful population is driving economic growth will support expansion of tourism and hospitality through the 2020s. This week, Gary and Hannah assess the travel outlook in South East Asia's largest country with Jakarta-based Ross Woods, an experienced...

Chinese tourists are returning to South East Asia in greater numbers. The recent May Labor Day holiday brought more passenger flights and travellers from cities across China into the region. But how will innovations in mobile payment technology over the last three years influence how Chinese and global travelers pay for products and services while overseas? And how should travel providers, retailers and merchants prepare for this new era? This week, Gary welcomes Dr Cherry Huang,...

May has been another hectic month as the travel recovery in South East Asia gathers momentum. It kicked off with China's May Golden Week, which delivered a huge domestic tourism boost, while Chinese outbound holidaymakers travelled around the region in greater numbers. This could presage an uplift in Chinese outbound tourism widely anticipated in the second half of 2023. This week, Gary and Hannah discuss the Golden Week among a list of 10 key talking points from across South East Asia and...

"Barring another pandemic, there would be very little to derail [Bali's] outlook for the next 12 months." Tourism in Bali bounced back impressively in the second half of 2022, and 2023 is seeing the recovery gather fast-paced momentum. This week, Gary chats all things travel and tourism in Bali with Simona Chimenti, Marketing & Media Relations Director of the Bali Hotels Association and General Manager of The Pavilions Bali in Sanur, and Melina Caruso, Technology & Marketing...

"Indonesians seem like they want to travel everywhere, as long as there are flights. If the flight ticket to a longer haul destination is too expensive, they just switch destination." Indonesia is the biggest country with the biggest population and biggest travel market in South East Asia - and travel activity is booming. So this week, Gary welcomes Pauline Suharno, Director of Jakarta-based Elok Tours and President of ASTINDO, the Indonesian Travel Agents Association, to discuss developments...

“Community and sustainable travel is so hard to get right, and so easy to get wrong. How do you bring people into a place and they enjoy it, and they’ll pay for it, and they won’t destroy it? Anybody who says they have a formula for that, is kidding themselves.” This week, Gary and Hannah explore the future of adventure-based travel with Shannon Stowell, CEO of the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), a US-based organisation with members in 103 countries. In September, the ATTA will...

The term "haze" relates to dry season plantation burning at this time of year which creates palls of toxic smoke across the region. This is impacting communities, healthcare systems and tourism throughout mainland South East Asia. So this week, Gary and Hannah discuss the environmental stories linked to travel and tourism in South East Asia and the broader region. We look at the transboundary haze hanging over Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam - and the likelihood of this...

Quarantine be gone! One year ago this week, on 1 April, the borders reopened across much of South East Asia as countries dropped quarantine-on-arrival mandates. The past 12 months have flown by, but the long pandemic travel shutout seems a part of history – especially as all of Asia Pacific, including China, is now open. So, what have (and haven’t) we learned over the past year? For this week's show, Gary and Hannah have compiled a list of the 10 key travel and tourism takeaways since 1 April...

With travel and tourism activity continuing to ramp up across South East Asia, Gary and Hannah tackle the top news stories and talking points in March. The journey takes us to Vietnam, Bali (Indonesia), Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Laos ... and Switzerland! En route, we discuss mobile rail ticketing in Laos, bad tourist behaviour shaming in Bali, free tourism experiences in Singapore and an interesting legal case in Malaysia addressing the constitutional right (or otherwise) to travel...

"I see airfares going higher and higher." As we approach the end of the first quarter of 2023 – and near the one-year anniversary since most South East Asian nations restored quarantine-free travel after the pandemic – what is the outlook for the airline sector? Many airlines are making handsome profits, but what challenges reside up ahead? To delve deeper, Gary welcomes back Shukor Yusof, Founder and CEO of Malaysia & Singapore-based Endau Analytics. In a broad-ranging chat, we discuss...

China began reopening to international travel on 8 January 2023, but the impact so far has been gradual. There are various reasons, including the Chinese government's decision to phase the scaling up of outbound travel capacity. From today, 15 March, outbound group package tours are permitted to 60 countries worldwide. Independent travellers are, of course, free to travel globally. Also from today, China will begin issuing tourist entry visas, and has reestablished visa-free access to Hainan...

"The fun is back in the Philippines... even more so!" It's almost a year since the Philippines reopened its borders after the pandemic. Inbound, outbound and domestic travel volumes are expanding fast. To gain a clearer picture of the travel recovery in South East Asia's second-largest nation, Gary chats with Manila-based Feliz Axalan, General Manager of Tradewings Tours & Travel. We discuss the hot destinations for Philippine outbound travellers (spoiler alert: Japan yes, South Korea no)...

After the disruptions of 2020, 2021 and 2022, 2023 will be the most important year for travel and tourism in living memory. Two months into the year, South East Asia is confronting an anticipated travel demand rebound now that Asia Pacific is fully open. Major issues are emerging around tourism and the environment, energy, water and waste management. Meanwhile, transport infrastructure is being built out on a massive scale across the region. So this week, Gary and Hannah rewind the big...

With China finally back in the game, tourism boards and the media across South East Asia are starting to compare inbound arrivals from China and India. It's still very early days, of course, but what have we learned so far? How are tourism boards dividing their marketing dollars to attract visitors from the region's two largest countries? And which country will allow Chinese tourists to pay in RMB? Also this week, Gary and Hannah discuss the new THB300 Tourism Fee in Thailand, a...