The South East Asia Travel Show

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, General Manager of Alipay+ Offline Merchant Services, Ant Group, to discuss the Chinese travel recovery so far and emerging spending patterns. We discuss how Alipay enables Chinese travellers to book hotel rooms and flight tickets, buy meals at Singapore hawker centres, make purchases at Bangkok night markets and treat themselves to tailor-made perfumes at duty-free stores. Dr Cherry also outlines the latest trends in Chinese outbound travel, and the outlook and hot destinations in Asia Pacific and worldwide for the rest of 2023. Plus, we discuss the new Alipay+ solution that enables Chinese and global travellers to use their own preferred digital wallet from home while travelling in different countries.
There are so many rich insights to pick out. if your destination or travel or lifestyle-oriented business wants to understand how Chinese travel is changing, you may want to listen to this podcast more than once.

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 beyond. We journey from Augmented Reality experiences to Sustainable Aviation Fuel announcements and from tourism taxes to record airline profits. En route, we also examine how Japan is promoting outbound tourism to South East Asian markets, and the long-discussed liberalisation of Vietnam's entry visa policy. Plus, are the prospects dimming for "Cannabis Tourism" in Thailand? And which city in Malaysia is developing a waterfront project touted as "The New Milan"?

"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 Consultant for the Bali Hotel’s Association. In a broad-ranging chat, we address Bali's top inbound markets, with India and Russia performing well and Chinese tourists starting to return, and the importance of Indonesia's huge domestic market. We address increasing air connectivity, strengthening hotel metrics and shorter booking windows. And, we talk air connectivity and look ahead to Emirates launching its A380 service to/from Dubai in early June. Plus, as media worldwide continue to focus on negative aspects - such as disrespectful tourist behaviour and proposed response measures like a Tourism Tax and Tourist Quota - Simona and Melina provide thoughtful insider perspectives from Bali's hotel industry. 

"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 in travel and tourism to, from and across Indonesia. Good timing, too, as the nation prepares for an extended Lebaran (Eid) holiday with domestic and outbound flights fully booked. Where are the hot destinations for Indonesian travellers? We discuss the impact of high air fares on destination choice, and on inbound tourism to popular spots like Bali. Plus we get the latest lowdown on Indonesia's 5 Super Priority Destinations, and a last-minute price increase for tourists at a popular national park in Labuan Bajo. Finally, with President Joko Widodo encouraging Indonesians to explore more of their own country, Pauline explains the large volume forecast for domestic travellers over the upcoming holidays.

“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 hold its Adventure Travel World Summit in Asia for the first time, in Hokkaido, Japan. We discuss the evolution of travel focused around activity, nature and culture – and the influences of the pandemic on outdoor travel motivations. Plus, we explore the potential for expansion in South East Asia  (“The opportunity to build small, more focused travel experiences is real”). The journey also takes us around the globe, to discuss how tour operators, Tourism Ministers and local communities from the Balkans to Brazil and from Antarctica to Shannon’s beautiful home state of Colorado are rethinking travel experiences in places of unique natural and cultural diversity.

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 impacting Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore once the rainy season ends in those parts. Plus, a 'heatwave alert' in Thailand, an oil spill in the Philippines and "oil waste" dumped at sea reaching the coastline in Bintan. Will these events result in booking cancellations for the various festivals during April and the five-day Chinese Golden Week at the start of May - which South East Asian tourist boards hope will kickstart the return of Chinese travellers in large numbers? And, we discuss a new report by McKinsey, Accor and Trip.com addressing the sustainable motivations of Chinese tourists, and we look at how airlines and cruise lines are trying to control the narrative around sustainable aviation and cruise fuel.

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 2022. Here's the list we discuss on the podcast:
Thailand is South East Asia’s 'Tourism Central'
Competition to attract tourists is intense – and intensifying
Intra-regional flight capacities still aren’t what they were
Smaller ASEAN countries are dependent on the air capacity recovery of neighbouring countries
“High-Quality" tourism is selectively applied
“Sustainable”, “Ecotourism” and “Green” tourism discourse isn't delivering notable change
Airports haven’t invested in the right areas – and it’s showing
Domestic tourism focus has largely fallen by the wayside
The manpower crisis is still far from over
Rail travel is this decade's big trend to watch

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 overseas. Plus, we crunch the numbers of Vietnam's latest visitor arrival forecasts and talk transport infrastructure investment in the Philippines. And, we look back at last weekend's MATTA Fair, Malaysia's largest consumer travel show, and discuss South East Asian representation at ITB Berlin.