The South East Asia Travel Show

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. We feature a mini round-up of travel takeaways from the Philippines, including airport privatisation, a digital nomad visa and visa-free access for Indian travellers. Plus, Vietnam's "resort airline in the sky," AirAsia takes on Saudi Arabia and Vietjet lands in Kazakhstan. And, we finish with a regional concert tourism review and preview, featuring Lady Gaga in Singapore and Blackpink preparing to kill the love in four South East Asian capitals.
 

Vietnam is the most dynamic and talked-about travel market in South East Asia. The nation's economic growth, which outpaces China and India, made the cover of The Economist last week. Global leaders jet in and out for trade talks, and foreign investment has flooded in. Meantime, Vietnam is developing one of ASEAN's largest airports and its most ambitious high-speed railway. But what happens next, especially with the spectre of 46% US trade tariffs? To deconstruct the key elements of travel, tourism and national economic and social development, Gary chats with Dr Nuno Ribeiro, Senior Lecturer at RMIT University in Ho Chi Minh City. Nuno is an experienced tourism and hospitality management academic, consultant and speaker, and has held senior roles in academia and industry across the US, Canada, Portugal, and Vietnam. In a broad-ranging chat, we discuss the interaction between Vietnam's surging inbound, outbound and domestic travel sectors, and the role of tourism in national branding and projecting soft power. Plus, how high is the 'glass ceiling' for travel growth? We also discuss the perceptions (and employment power) of Vietnamese tourism and hospitality students, the influence of AI in hotel management education - and the role of sustainability in shaping the attitudes of tomorrow's travel industry leaders.

Since the turn of the year, Gary and Hannah have been travelling across South East Asia and worldwide, speaking at various travel conferences. So, this week, we’ve compiled a long list of the most ubiquitous concepts, words and phrases we’ve encountered on stage and in the venue break-out spaces and receptions. We discuss the current contexts around popular buzzwords such as Authentic Experiences, Hyper-Personalisation, Seamless Trips and Frictionless Travel. We wonder where the Visa-Free Access debate goes next, and applaud the greater integration of Muslim Tourism themes into travel conference planning. Of course, we can't leave out Over-tourism, Agentic AI, Gen Zs, Digital Arrival Cards and Chatbots, and we make a forecast about how Trump Tariffs will be discussed in a travel context across the rest of 2025. Plus, what happened to Super Apps, the Metaverse and our most disliked phrase "Owning the Customer"?

AI and Sustainability are hotly debated topics in travel. But how might new policies and regulations in these areas impact future interactions between travellers, suppliers, booking platforms and governments? This week, Gary and Hannah discuss the current landscape for OTAs, sustainability and AI policy development with Yang Li, Head of Public Affairs, Asia Pacific, at Booking.com. Which ASEAN and APAC countries are developing structured legal frameworks around sustainability? And how prepared are businesses region-wide for the EU Greenwashing Claims Directive, which is due to enter into force in 2026? Yang selects some key findings from Booking.com's 9th global Sustainability Report, and their applicability to ASEAN markets. We also touch on sustainable tourism target setting, certifications and investment, and the current state of the Intention vs Action gap. Plus, what are 'closed loop' AI trip-planning tools, and how are travellers using them? How will the interface between OTAs and AI agents shape up? And will Asian governments continue their light touch approach to AI regulation, or are new legal frameworks on the horizon? 
 

South East Asia comprises 10 diverse nations and nearly 700 million people spread across a vast landmass. Consequently, the numbers are often large, impactful and scaleable - and travel and tourism are no exceptions. This week, Gary and Hannah select the Top 8 statistical talking points from across the region. These cover inbound and outbound travel, ASEAN vs APAC airline seat capacity, the Hajj pilgrimage from Indonesia, human capital development in Vietnam – and electrified living everywhere. Plus, can Love Win All in Thailand? Which capital city is spending almost USD200 million on urban heritage revitalisation? And which country is surging far ahead of the pack for year-on year tourism arrivals growth? Plus, much more...

April began with the announcement of US "reciprocal tariffs", which ranged from 10% to 49% on exports from South East Asian nations. This has created toxic uncertainty across all industries in the region, notably business travel. But before the tariff turmoil, Q1 had delivered mixed results for travel and tourism, with the Eid al-Fitr holiday numbers particularly weak in Malaysia and Indonesia. Was this the result of the Lunar New Year and Eid public holidays being in the same quarter, or are we at the start of a cyclical travel slowdown in ASEAN? On our monthly roundup, Gary and Hannah assess the latest data and insights gleaned from attending and speaking at travel industry events throughout the month. Plus, Thailand plans to reframe its 2025 tourism strategy after reducing its revenue forecast, Vietnam experiences glitches at the opening of a new airport terminal, and China and Malaysia extend their bilateral visa-free access agreement. And, Indonesia and UN Tourism unveil a detailed set of tourism investment guidelines, Balis vows to enforce new behavioural rules for tourists, and more South East Asian vacationers are heading to Macau.  

Casino Tourism. Concert & Event Tourism. Medical Tourism. The Night Economy. Live-streaming. Public-Private Tourism Partnerships. Many of the hot topics related to Macau's diversification of its tourism economy and inbound market mix bear similarities to countries in South East Asia. There are two key differences, however. 1) Macau is the world city most reliant on tourism income as a proportion of GDP due to casino tourism, and it famously outstripped Las Vegas for gaming revenue in 2006. 2) Macau is 22 times smaller than Singapore, but last year attracted more than twice the total of visitors. To reduce its heavy reliance on visitors from China and Hong Kong, Macau is aggressively marketing to South East Asian travellers - and with some success. To assess the future outlook, Gary is joined by Glenn McCartney, Associate Professor of Integrated Resort & Tourism Management at the University of Macau, and a Tourism and Hospitality Consultant and Executive Trainer. He worked in Macau's hospitality industry during the handover from Portugal to China in 1999, and undertook research for the Macau Government on tourism and gaming development during the casino liberalisation period of the early 2000s. Together, Gary and Glenn unpack the challenges ahead for Macau's next phase of tourism economy development, and assess how the tiny island city is confronting new competition in casino tourism, as Japan, Thailand and the UAE covet this highly lucrative sector.

What connects CNN, Coldplay, Bollywood, The White Lotus, Bluey, Minecraft and K-dramas? All are linked to the burgeoning trend of representing tourism destinations in TV series, movies, videos, documentaries and computer games. This week, Gary and Hannah assess the top 8 TV and Movie Tourism talking points in ASEAN, Asia Pacific and beyond. The global journey takes us from Jakarta, Koh Samui and Singapore to Seoul, Jeju Island and Okinawa - and beyond to the UK, New Zealand and Australia. En route, we discuss the influence of micro-dramas, Ne Zha 2 and Black Myth: Wuking on domestic tourism in China. We look at the darker side of tourism on screen, including No More Bets, The Beach, Iseltwald and the filming issues around The Expats in Hong Kong. Plus we tap into the changing role of tourism boards and travel suppliers in destination placement, assess the surging growth of on-location cookery shows, and explore how Netflix is financing local TV productions to promote culture, heritage and tourism in Indonesia and South Korea for domestic and regional audiences.