Vietnam and South Korea have "visa-easing tricks up their sleeves" as China's October Golden Week nears. And, with two-thirds of 2025 completed, attentions are turning to the peak end-of-year travel season across Asia. That's the backdrop for a frenetic month of travel activity region-wide in August. For our regular monthly round-up, Gary and Hannah travel around ASEAN with stopovers in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, plus China and South Korea. Along the way, we discuss Vietnam's new 2025 arrivals target, plus Airbnb's big numbers to argue its economic value across APAC markets. Kuala Lumpur talks airport terminal inter-linkage and Thai Vietjet announces ambitious expansion plans, while the financial costs of the Thailand-Cambodia weigh heavily in both countries. Finally, could senior tour guides in the Philippines herald a new era of engaging mature tourism professionals to service travellers from ageing source markets?

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Indonesia plans to expand its total of international airports by Presidential decree. Thailand fires the regional starting gun for crypto payments in tourism (when will other countries join the race?). Vietnam launches its own 'Superapp' to be rolled out over the next two years. It's been a week of mega-announcements in South East Asia as concerns grow about slowing travel and tourism momentum and looming geo-economic disruptions. Join Gary and Hannah as they travel through ASEAN to discuss the top travel talking points of the past seven days. En route, we look at why Bali's governor says the island doesn't need a casino, and why the Philippines' Minister of Tourism has “nothing but a plastic bullet” to battle other countries for tourists. And finally, why is the free flights giveaway in Thailand proving less popular than hoped for?

“Indonesia has the potential to lead in eco-tourism, in cultural heritage and in Muslim-friendly tourism... but it tries to promote everything all at once, which dilutes the message.” Beautiful, vast and complex, Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago nation, and home to the planet’s fourth-largest population. But tourism is heavily concentrated in Bali, which recorded 45% of inbound arrivals to Indonesia in 2024. Meanwhile, Indonesia lags behind Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam for visitor arrivals, attracting 13.1 million visitors in 2024, while generating more than 1 billion domestic trips. So why does it underperform for inbound tourism? This week, Gary is joined by Bali-based travel executive Nur Wulan T, who has worked for leading travel-tech players and airlines, including Garuda, Traveloka, Tiket.com and STAAH, and is a speaker on tourism and hospitality topics. We discuss the diverse impacts of Indonesia’s infrastructure deficit and high domestic airfares. Plus, we asses the mixed progress of the 5 Super Priority Destinations - Lake Toba, Borobudur, Labuan Bajo, Mandalika and Likupang - and Bali's long-touted second airport. Wulan also explains the untapped potential of Sumba and Papua, the lessons to be learned from other Asian countries that are pushing creative boundaries in Muslim tourism, and areas for improvement in destination marketing.

Vietnam's inbound tourism boom in 2025 continues. Malaysia targets tourism to reach 16% of GDP. India and the Philippines talk "free visas". THAI Airways confirms its post-Covid comeback by returning to the stock market. Boracay "streamlines" its various entry fees" And Singapore celebrate its 60th birthday since independence. It’s been a pretty hectic news week across South East Asia. Join Gary and Hannah as they travel through ASEAN to discuss the top travel and tourism talking points of the past seven days. 

July was a challenging month for travel and tourism in South East Asia. A military conflict between Thailand and Cambodia shook the region. New 'reciprocal' US tariff rates will challenge bottom lines and business travel budgets for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, mixed results continue for visitor arrivals, consumer spending and travel sentiment. This month's Top 10 Travel Talking Points round-up takes Gary and Hannah from Malaysia to Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines and, inevitably given the global geo-economic situation, Washington DC. En route we discuss the potential implications of the Thailand-Cambodia War, the new US tariff rates and the Asian Development Bank's gloomy GDP forecasts for the region. Plus, we assess the latest visitor arrivals statistics - and Malaysia's controversial new accounting method - look at Singapore's tourism partnership with OpenAI, Hotel 101's lacklustre IPO in New York, and further delays for Thailand's casino resort legislation and tourism tax  And, we finish on a positive note with the newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Sites across South East Asia.

“You will see LCC fleet sizes increasing, and you’ll see them operating longer routes into East Asia, Central Asia and even into Eastern and Western Europe." More than 50% of available flight seats on any given day in South East Asia are provided by low-cost carriers (LCCs). Budget airlines have played a vital role in rebuilding regional air travel and tourism in ASEAN and Asia Pacific since the prolonged Covid border closures. Now, with ASEAN into its fourth year since reopening, LCCs are being emboldened to expand their route networks and stretch the geographic reach for passengers - with the help of advancements in aircraft technology and AI tools to improve operational efficiencies. This week, Gary is joined by Kuala Lumpur-based Shantanu Gangakedkhar, Senior Consultant, Aerospace & Defense, at Frost & Sullivan, to assess the outlook for low-cost air travel in South East Asia, North East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and beyond. En route, we discuss a range of pertinent issues from pricing and fierce market competition to air traffic management and the LCC market potential of South East Asia's tier-2 and tier 3 cities. Plus, we address the exit of Jetstar Asia from Singapore, ongoing aircraft supply chain challenges, and the current and potential impacts for the airline industry of US tariffs.

What is the future of Digital Nomadism, Remote Work and Work from Anywhere? And should ASEAN destinations do more than issue Digital Nomad Visas to integrate remote workers into tourism economies? And who, actually, are digital nomads. Are they remote workers? Are they laptop backpackers? Is digital nomadism a lifestyle? Is it a tourism segment? What is borderless living? What are Micro-Societies? Why is global mobility developing as a hot topic? Are co-working and co-living compatible concepts for destination marketing? This week, Gary is joined by Milos Pelucha, Co-Founder of Destinova, and an advocate for remote work as a high-yield travel segment. Milos and Gary's conversation coincides with the climax of the 2025 Bansko Nomad Festival - the world's largest digital nomad gathering - in Bulgaria. We take a global journey through the critical issues of the remote working economy and the future of "borderless" tourism, from Armenia to China, Azores to Bhutan, Thailand to the French Alps, Morocco to Georgia and Vietnam to India. En route we breakdown the key components for destination marketers seeking to engage the fast-evolving 'work from anywhere' movement - which is becoming more organised and more dynamic.

It's been a pretty unsettling first half of 2025 on a geopolitical level, and the regional outcomes are creeping but still uncertain. Against this backdrop, South East Asian airports have remained busy - but structural and cyclical challenges for travel economies are emerging. So, what do the events of January-June tell us about the rest of 2025 and into 2026? This week, Gary and Hannah assess the 10 top takeaways in the year so far. The regional rewind looks at Singapore's capacity to do things differently, Thailand's China-shaped hole in its visitor arrivals, mixed outcomes in Malaysia, a domestic travel downturn in Indonesia and the undisputed ASEAN success story of Vietnam. Plus, we travel to China, the Middle East and Central Asia, look at shifting geographies for LCCs, regulatory scrutiny for OTAs and nominee travel businesses - and examine the outlook over the coming years of a much closer conjunction of the Lunar New Year and Eid-al-Fitr travel periods (especially in 2028).

"Despite referencing the word 'tourism' 26 times in its new Vision 2045 plan, ASEAN remains uncomfortable discussing a regional tourism visa. This largely reflects its institutional limitations rather than a lack of ambition." Over recent months, significant hype has surrounded the possibility of the 10 countries (soon 11) of South East Asia launching a shared visa for tourists. The context is that each country in the region wants to expand tourism to support economic development. Enabling visitors to travel "borderless" throughout the region would, in theory, unlock more tourism and more revenue generation. Meanwhile, China and countries in the Middle East and Central Asia are intent on drawing away tourists from South East Asian nations. This week, Gary deconstructs the 6 key issues around a potential ASEAN Tourism Visa: The Historic Context; The Post-Covid Imperative; The Schengen Model; ASEAN's 2045 Community Vision; South East Asia's Institutional Challenges and the Way Forward. So, what happens next?

This week's edition of the show was inspired by a new article Gary has written, Will an ASEAN tourism visa take off?, for the Asia Media Centre in New Zealand, which you can read here: https://www.asiamediacentre.org.nz/will-an-asean-tourism-visa-take-off