The South East Asia Travel Show

As we march through Q4, upbeat news is in short supply across the region's travel industry. This week's round-up of South East Asia's top talking points takes Gary and Hannah to Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Australia, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia. With markets abuzz about earnings season, Singapore reports downbeat spending and arrivals numbers, and the best-case scenario for the Philippines in 2026 is flat versus 2025. Meanwhile, regional governments issue travel safety warnings for Saudi Arabia and airlines cancel flights after the deadly attack on Riyadh airport. Plus, we discuss the new IMF/World Bank 'Bangkok Blueprint' to tackle cyber-fraud just as 5-star hotels and resorts in Vietnam and Cambodia are linked to financial scams. Why hasn't the travel industry stepped up to the plate? Extending the gloom, Bali confronts fuel shortages, and the plantation burning-smoke haze that has smothered Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore since August is now impacting the Philippines, Timor Leste, parts of Australia and southern Thailand. On the upside, Russia grants visa-free access to Vietnamese travellers, Indonesia presents the 'Camino de Flores' spiritual route and the Australian media gets excited about a Vietjet route to Prague. We're both heading to Singapore next week to speak and moderate at ITB Asia, but we'll be back with a full report, and hopefully some more inspiring news, in two weeks' time...

"Vietnam is riding a tourism rocket ship, and is on a totally different trajectory to the rest of South East Asia." As we accelerate through October, this was another week packed with hot travel and tourism topics to discuss. To kickstart the weekend, Gary and Hannah journey across ASEAN and beyond with stopovers in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Laos, Russia and India. We assess Phu Quoc's dramatic tourism surge to already surpass its 2026 visitor target. Can it keep expanding, and where is the ceiling? Plus, KL and Singapore have been running each other close all week for an undesirable global title. We stop in Laos, Cambodia and India for the latest on scam centres, some of which are allegedly being run from hotel rooms, and discuss why the Philippines is belatedly setting a 2030 target for sustainable aviation fuel. Meanwhile, Thailand moves a closer to taxing inbound tourists - and possibly charging them again when they depart - and Malaysia steps up its efforts to secure more tourists from Russia by negotiating a bilateral visa-free agreement and direct flights between the two countries. All this and much more...

Digital Twins. Automated Ground Operations. Predictive Sustainability. Humanoid Robots. E-Gates. Urban Air Transport. Inter-modality. South East Asia’s air landscape is changing before our eyes, as air travel volumes increase and passenger expectations are constantly upgrading. These factors broaden the range of operational challenges for major hub airports, fast-growing airports in tier-two and tier-three cities and the new mega-airports opening from Singapore to the Philippines and Australia to Vietnam. Can AI and intelligent technologies improve the management of busier skies and more crowded departures and arrivals lounges without the need to build bigger terminals? This week, Gary dives into the AI, autonomous and smart tech airport revolution with Shantanu Gangakedkhar, Principal Consultant - Aerospace & Defense at Frost & Sullivan. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Shantanu recently wrote a White Paper called Next Generation Airports: Building Intelligent, Agile and Future Ready Airports in Asia - and he shares his insights about how AI technologies will transform the often disjointed processes of departing and arriving by plane across ASEAN and Asia Pacific. En route, we discuss the divergent tech needs of airlines and airport operators, and non-intrusive solutions to enhance passenger and digital security. Plus, how will robots improve airport services? And how are predictive AI tools enabling airports to plan for major weather events, such as floods or haze, and fast-paced micro-climate changes across an airfield and its terminals?

"If you go back three of four years, you'd have expected Singapore to take the lead on such a regionally important project - but now it's Vietnam." That seems significant. With three quarters of 2026 completed, pan-Asian air travel networks look rather different from the start of the year. The 9th month of the year, September, featured a raft of intriguing developments across South East Asia, plus China, Australia and Canada. On this week's show, Gary and Hannah track back through a highly consequential month and the implications for the crucial end-of-year travel period and into 2027. En route, we assess Vietnam's app-based ID card integration pilot project with Singapore and Laos for air travellers at two airports, and Vietjet's ambitions in contrasting global markets: the US and Australia. Plus, we address the impacts of catastrophic flooding in Bangkok and throughout Thailand, the grim continuation of fire-smoke haze blighting Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, while typhoon season proves deadly in Japan. Plus, why is Air Canada opening up to Vietnam but closing down to Singapore? And will the accelerating race to open one of the world's largest new airports meet its end of year deadline?

43 million. 15,000. 250. 154. 60%. 40%. 34%. Restating its statistical credentials is a vital part of AirAsia’s battle to reclaim the media narrative that it was starting to lose last week, reassure passengers and investors and arrest its market cap rout. As it reiterates its importance to ASEAN’s air travel landscape, the crucial number to watch is 70 million. During a combative press performance on Friday, AirAsia Co-Founder, Tony Fernandes, attacked media reporting, repeatedly stated that the KL-based, ASEAN-centric carrier group is financially viable and is seeking funding to recapitalise its debts at a lower borrowing cost not to stay afloat. He added that AirAsia had “carried more passengers than any other ASEAN carrier” in the first half of the year, and could exceed its own projection by carrying 70 million passengers in 2026. On this week’s show, Gary revisits a dramatic week for AirAsia, as negative media reports proliferated and social media speculation skyrocketed, which ended with the airline's figurehead standing firmly on the front foot. AirAsia will close its Q3 books in a few days’ time, and commence its most important quarter since Covid. The entire travel and tourism ecosystem of South East Asia and beyond will be watching closely. And so will we!