Issue #104 - Forget AI Chat, Tourism Infrastructure is South East Asia’s Big Play!
Real money is being invested in transport infrastructure that will create real demand.
Welcome to issue 104 of Asia Travel Re:Set.
Question: Is there a more boring topic of discussion in travel right now than AI chat?
Answer: No.
I should probably leave it there, but… if we legitimise code-enhanced web-scraping on a gigantic scale as ‘innovation,’ we will have to accept some unpalatable outcomes.
Meanwhile in South East Asia, real money is being invested in real time in real travel, tourism and transport infrastructure that will help create real demand.
So let’s follow that train of thought…
Thanks for checking-in.
- “IN THE NEWS”
- Forget AI Chat, Tourism Infrastructure is South East Asia’s Big Play!
Real money is being invested in transport infrastructure that will create real demand
- The China v India Inbound Battle Heats Up in South East Asia
China is back in the game. What have we learned so far?
“IN THE NEWS”
Many thanks to Mindy Poder and Ken Shapiro at TravelAge West in Los Angeles for asking me to pen some thoughts about how the travel trade can address 8 travel recovery challenges for attracting the China market. Read HERE.
It's not everyday you get to chat with Time magazine but I had an in-depth discussion with Charlie Campbell as he put together this excellent piece covering various aspects about China's reopening to international travel that often get overlooked. Read HERE.
Forget AI Chat, Tourism Infrastructure is South East Asia’s Big Play!
Real money is being invested in transport infrastructure that will create real demand.
Transport infrastructure is not a sexy topic. It’s dirty, noisy and environmentally disruptive. Financing and political motives can be opaque. Schedule delays and budget busts are customary. Workers’ and residents’ rights can be questionable.
But in a region like South East Asia, where travel demand - domestic, regional and international - will skyrocket over the next 20 years, infrastructure investment on a mass scale is deemed vital. It builds transport capacity, creates jobs and fulfils governmental agendas. Simultaneously, it makes people and products more mobile. Even if the GDP gains might be marginal, joined-up connectivity transforms lives. Also, it can support efforts to disperse tourists away from crowded hotspots.
Wherever you travel in South East Asia, it’s hard to miss the travel infrastructure build-out on a vast scale – often with financing and technology from China. This will be a feature through the 2020s and beyond - albeit with countries like Japan, South Korea and maybe India joining in.
On last week’s The South East Asia Travel Show, I was joined by James Clark, Editor of the Future Southeast Asia newsletter, to discuss the region’s Top 10 airport, high-speed rail and other transport development projects (Listen HERE).
Below, I’ve selected 5 from our list that most excite me.
1) Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway
“This will be a groundbreaking moment in the history of rail travel in South East Asia,” says James Clark. China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have them, but currently no South East Asian nation boasts a high-speed railway (HSR). That will change this year (possibly in July). Part-financed and built by Chinese rail technology and contracting firms, the region’s first HSR is a 142km line between Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and its 3rd-largest city Bandung. The project, inevitably, is delayed and expensive, recently overrunning budget by another USD1.2 billion. Nevertheless, the Qingdao-made trains will feature a livery inspired by Komodo dragons and the line might be extended to Surabaya. I can’t wait to ride those rails.
2) Singapore Changi Terminal 5
“In the longer term, air travel will keep growing because of a fast-expanding middle class in our region. Hence, we decided to restart the T5 project,” said Singapore’s PM, Lee Hsien Loong. Award-laden Changi Airport turns 50 in 2031, and will approach its second half-decade with customary ambition. Postponed in 2020 during Covid-19, T5 was rescheduled in August 2022. Set to open in the mid-2030s, it will be, essentially, a second airport. Changi’s 4 terminals welcomed 68.3 million visitors in 2019. T5’s capacity of 50 million will increase Changi’s capacity to around 120 million, in a nation without a domestic air market. Starchitect Thomas Heatherwick has been contracted to “create a social space that people living in the city are excited to visit.”
3) Trans-Sulawesi Railway
Sulawesi, Indonesia's fourth largest island, is preparing for the official launch of its first train service, the Trans-Sulawesi Railway. Before a recent trial opening, passenger rail services in Indonesia – South East Asia’s largest, most populous nation – have been only available on the islands of Java and Sumatra. The first 142km stretch of the Trans-Sulawesi Railway is located in the south of the island, from Makassar to Parepare. Once eventually completed (it has already been long-delayed), the railway will enable residents, tourists and business passengers to travel by train for the first time between the capital Makassar in the south and Manado in the north. A good route map here:
What will be the 88 key drivers of China’s outbound tourism recovery - and is your business prepared to welcome the new wave of Chinese tourists?
Grab your copy of the China Outbound Tourism Handbook 2023: 88 Practical Ways to Prepare for the New Wave of Chinese Visitors. Click HERE or HERE
More information HERE.
4) Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport
Siem Reap’s current airport is close to the Angkor Wat temple ruins, and visitors can see planes taking off and landing. So, a new site was selected to build a new airport some 50km southeast of Siem Reap. Slated to open in October this year, Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport is invested by an affiliate of China's Yunnan Investment Group. It will reportedly be able to handle about 7 million passengers per year initially, 10 million by 2030, and 20 million by 2050. Access could be an issue, although expectations are for a new highway to be opened.
5) Thailand High-Speed Railway
"Because the high-speed train project really is new to Thailand, we have to rely on China which helps us with designing the project and controlling construction," said Pichet Kunadhamraks, DG of Thailand’s Department of Transport, last month. It’s pretty complicated. Thailand is building a high-speed railway in two phases (with Chinese financing and technology) plus another railway system at the same time. Double-tracking in every sense of the term. The high-speed railway is the marquee project, set to run 609km from Bangkok to Nong Khai on the Thai-Laos border (where it will connect with the China-Laos railway). Construction began in 2017, and it will be the first HSR in mainland South East Asia when phase 1 (a 253km stretch from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima) opens in 2026.
The China v India Inbound Battle Heats Up in South East Asia
China is back in the game. What have we learned so far?
With the Chinese travelling again, tourism boards in South East Asia are already comparing arrivals from China and India. It’s early days, but what’ve we learned so far? How are tourism marketers dividing their dollars to attract visitors from the two regional giants? And which nation will allow Chinese tourists to pay in RMB?
Also this week: the new Tourism Fee in Thailand, visa-on-arrival issues in Malaysia and cruise ambitions in the Philippines. Plus, we get excited about Air Japan, ANA’s new low-cost carrier which will “launch flights to major cities in South East Asia.”
Listen to The China v India Inbound Battle Heats Up in South East Asia here:
🎧 Website 🎧 Spotify 🎧 Apple Podcasts
Or search for The South East Asia Travel Show on any podcast platform.
And, that’s a wrap for Issue 104.
The Asia Travel Re:Set newsletter will return on 12 March.
Until then, find me on LinkedIn and The South East Asia Travel Show - where this week we’ll be assessing the tourism recovery in the Philippines.
Happy travels,
Gary