The South East Asia Travel Show

South East Asia is preparing for its third successive Lunar New Year holiday – aka Chinese New Year and Tet in Vietnam – to be impacted by the pandemic. Although this year will focus on domestic travel across the region, there is a growing sense that governments are readying to reopen their borders. Quite how quickly that will happen, or at what scale, is still hard to predict - but positivity is in the air. Today, Gary and Hannah tour vicariously around South East Asia to check out what is and isn’t happening in travel and tourism... and which countries are setting out their next moves. Are the Philippines poised to reopen?Will Singapore scale up its VTLs, and will the borders be open for the return of the Formula 1 Grand Prix? Is Vietnam edging towards welcoming back inbound travellers? Can we expect a similar announcement from Malaysia? What's the latest on Thailand's revival of its 'Test & Go' visitor entry scheme? And is Bali concentrating exclusively on hosting the G20 summit? Let's hope these hopeful vibes bring positive actions for the region's travel and tourism landscape in the Year of the Tiger.

A new year brings new hopes … and plentiful new challenges. So (roll the drum…) it’s time for Part II of our third annual travel wish list show, which this year we are calling ’22 for 2022’. Gary and Hannah have put together a list of 20 ways in which travel and tourism could get better in 2022, plus two ideas submitted by our learned listeners – to make a total of 22. In Part II, our travel wishes include: governments start communicating with common sense, not in vacuous acronyms and proxy terms; domestic tourism stimulus packages assist players across the value chain; and the tourism industry is seen as an attractive once again for fresh grads. Plus, should all tourism businesses be required to set and publish zero emissions targets? Will the  travel media be more responsible with its pandemic terminology? And when will travel be fun again?

The beautiful Indonesian island of Lombok has long sat in the shadow of its neighbour, Bali. Things may change in future, as the coastal region of Mandalika has been prioritised by Indonesia's government for tourism infrastructure development. On today’s show, Gary chats about capturing travel on camera in different Lombok locations with Senggigi-based independent filmmaker Josh Edwards. Josh’s career took a twist during the pandemic, as he relocated from the UK to Lombok and set about producing an engaging travel show series called The Lombok Life. Season 1 featured broad-ranging documentaries filmed in the Gili Islands and at the Bayu Nyale Festival. He also climbed Mount Rinjani, and interviewed his local guide about his experiences climbing the volcano during the 2018 earthquake. Josh is currently shooting Season 2, and promises new episodes covering local cuisines, coral reef restoration and the Mandalika motor-racing circuit, which will host the Indonesian Moto GP in March. We also talk about the recent floods in western Lombok, the scale of development in Mandalika - and his work with an environmental foundation that organises beach clean-ups and helps protect Lombok's mangroves and reefs.

A new year brings new hopes ...  and plentiful new challenges. So (roll the drum...) it’s time for our third annual travel wish list show, which this year we are calling ’22 for 2022’. Gary and Hannah have put together a list of 20 ways in which travel and tourism could get better – and surely, it really must get better – in 2022. We also added two extra ideas submitted by our learned listeners – to make a total of 22. The show is separated into two halves. In Part 1, our travel wishes include: a separation of border control from tourism management; a recognition that quarantines are unworkable; the word “reopening” will disappear from our vocabulary; and a more nuanced understanding of the value that backpacker tourism brings to South East Asia. Plus, the travel industry must confront the fact that two years of Covid-19 have changed many things. Some of these changes will be temporary, but some might be permanent.

It's January. This should be peak season for travel across South East Asia. But 2022 is not starting as a 'normal' year. Instead, as we prepare for a third year of living with COVID-19, the impending spread of Omicron dominates the economic and social discourse across the region. Shards of light for travel and tourism glistened briefly back in November 2021, but most borders are once again closed or heavily patrolled. The same applies throughout much of Asia Pacific. So, Gary and Hannah kickstart the third year of the podcast by updating the current situation in 9 of the 10 ASEAN countries (in order of appearance): Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. The important Lunar New Year holiday period looks like being domestic-only again this year, and a washout for intra-regional travel - but what are the prospects for the rest of the first quarter of 2022?

This time last year, our 2020 in Review show described it as “12 months that no-one will ever forget.” We  could say exactly the same for 2021. Long periods of lockdown throughout South East Asia, stop-start domestic travel, governments moving forwards and backwards and strict border policies in place. There were a few bright spots, but not as many as hoped for, or perhaps expected. So, for the 2021 in Review show Gary and Hannah created a list of 10 events and developments that will always remind us of this year, plus 4 more that bubbled just beneath. The only spoiler alert is in the headline of this podcast - so, please listen and let us know your thoughts and comments on our selection of the 10 definitive impacts on travel and tourism in South East Asia in 2021. Roll on 2022!  

As the world awaits definitive scientific conclusions about the transmissibility and viral impact of Omicron, travel developments in South East Asia have been few and far between. Governments continue to be cautious and defensive. On today’s show, we’ve got the latest updates from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, where a “will it, won’t it?” drama is playing out regarding the phased reopening for international flights. So what is it like to travel from South East Asia to Australia during a time of such uncertainty and administrative overload? On today’s show, Gary chats with Melina Caruso, Business Development Director of the Bali Hotels Association, who recently completed a roundabout journey from Bali to Melbourne, via Jakarta and Singapore – and back. From her quarantine hotel, Melina talks in detail about the multiple new challenges for making trips that we once took for granted. She also provides valuable insights for anyone preparing to embark for the first time during the pandemic.

This was the week that Omicron caused the return of flight bans, quarantines and an overall retreat from travel across South East Asia. It now appears that Singapore has recorded the region’s first cases. We've got the latest updates from the Philippines and Indonesia, as they turn away from travel reopenings. More optimistically, the first US-Vietnam direct commercial flights by a Vietnamese carrier landed this week. The pandemic has disrupted every aspect of travel and tourism over nearly two years, including the work of NGOs. Gary chats with Ho Chi Minh City-based Sophie Hartman, Regional Coordinator for the Association of Southeast Asian Social Enterprises for Training in Hospitality & Catering. Asset H&C brings together vocational training centres in four ASEAN countries to help vulnerable young people to learn new skills in sustainable hospitality and tourism, and has just published a responsible travel guide in local languages for its training schools. To finish, we've got clips from this week's The South East Asia Travel Show, in which Gary and Hannah tackle the emerging issues as countries across South East Asia and worldwide erect new travel barriers