Vietnam's Travel Transformation Accelerates, Chocolate Hills Under Threat in the Philippines & What is the Value of Heritage in Singapore?: Start the Week with The South East Asia Travel Show

"The challenges around jet fuel and flight cuts are going to get worse in the region before they get better." As South East Asian countries face up to tough economic choices from the  Middle East war fallout, Gary and Hannah head to Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and China to tackle this week's big travel questions. We begin by discussing Vietnam's radical reshaping of its travel landscape and the MoUs signed last week by President To Lam with China related to cross-border railway development and Chinese COMAC planes. Next to Malaysia, where another KLIA service mishap is making headlines - this time related to the breakdown of its luggage delivery system. We look at how Singapore tourism and passenger numbers on Singapore Airlines proved resilient during a challenging first quarter of the year. Plus, we address different environmental issues for the Komodo National Park in Indonesia and the Chocolate Hills in the Philippines. Finally, we return to Singapore to discuss the role of heritage in society and its travel industry as rising costs, an ageing population and general disinterest among younger generations question the viability of traditional businesses brought to the city-state by immigrants from across Asia that are an integral part of the Singapore story.