Issue #106 - 6 Tourism Stories You May Have Missed This Week in South East Asia!
Dynamic visitor forecasts, ASEAN airport rankings and a new cross-border train.
Welcome to issue 106 of Asia Travel Re:Set.
This week, on 1 April, marks the first anniversary of the return of quarantine-free travel across most of South East Asia. Building new, and rebuilding pre-existing, patterns of travel took time. It’s still a work in progress.
Vital regional markets, such as Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, did not open until Q4. China, the largest inbound market, only began reopening in January this year.
Twelve months later, travel talking points are shifting away from generic post-lockdown recovery concerns, and each country is trying to navigate its own path.
So let’s follow that train of thought…
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- “IN THE NEWS”
- 6 Tourism Stories You May Have Missed This Week in South East Asia!
Dynamic visitor forecasts, ASEAN airport rankings and a new cross-border train.
- Top 10 Travel & Tourism Talking Points in South East Asia
From tourist behaviour shaming in Bali to free tourism experiences in Singapore.
“IN THE NEWS”
Really enjoyed this live TV debate with Otelli Edwards & Steve Saxon on CNA about the outlook for inbound, outbound & domestic travel to/from/in China as the next phase of the reopening to international travel began on 15 March. Click to watch HERE.
Early start on 15 March for an interview on BBC News with Karishma Vaswani to discuss China's resumption of tourist visa issuance and a second tranche of 40 countries approved to receive Chinese outbound tour groups.
6 Tourism Stories You May Have Missed This Week in South East Asia!
Dynamic visitor forecasts, ASEAN airport rankings and a new cross-border train.
1) China-Laos Train Finally Opens
I’ve been tracking the China-Laos train for years. Financed and constructed by Chinese companies and using Chinese rail technology, the train line opened in December 2021. With Chinese borders closed, however, it only operated within Laos.
That will change from “mid-April” with operations set to commence between the Lao capital Vientiane and Kunming (via Boten) in southwestern China. Just in time, a new mobile ticketing app was launched. Having to queue in person to buy a ticket to ride has been a frequent complaint of travellers in Laos since the train launched.
As I said on The South East Asia Travel Show this week: “This shows how travel bottlenecks that have built up across the region will get solved now China is open.”
(NB: The new Golden Triangle airport at Bokeo near the Laos, Thai, Myanmar border is set to open this year. TTR Weekly reports the airport is “close to a massive casino project and high-rise condominiums built by Chinese investors.”)
2) Skytrax Shows Up ASEAN Airport Failings
No surprise that Singapore Changi returns to #1 in the 2023 Skytrax World Airports rankings. Its impressive investment and tech upgrading during the pandemic is reaping rewards. But how did other South East Asian airports rank? Not at all well.
The next highest ranked was Jakarta, in 43rd, followed by KLIA (67th), Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (68th) and Bali Denpasar (80th). No other regional airport made the Top 100. Governments make many promises about airport expansions and upgrades. Views differ about rankings lists, but a broader point stands. Investment in airport customer services over recent years often lags behind passenger expectations.
As mentioned in Issue 105, consternation in Malaysia continues about a lack of investment at KLIA. The malaise in service offerings has resulted in a slew of media articles about “a major revamp” to restore its previous Skytrax Top 10 position (which it last achieved in 2012). It has a great deal of catching up to do.
3) Constitutional Right to Travel in Malaysia
An interesting legal case was decided by the Court of Appeal in Malaysia about whether the ability to travel overseas is a constitutional right. The case dates back to September 2019, when the then-government enacted a Departure Levy Act. This introduced fees to depart Malaysia by air graded depending on the distance of travel.
A lawyer issued a challenge contending that the levy infringed the fundamental right of Malaysians to travel overseas. The Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the challenge, citing a 1979 ruling that the government can issue restrictions on overseas travel, which is not a constitutional right of liberty.
While the case related to the 2019 Departure Levy, it resonates with pandemic border closures and the restriction of travel freedoms. Although the court concluded that international travel is not a right, the ability to “move freely in Malaysia” is. From mid-January to mid-September 2021, domestic travel was prohibited in Malaysia.
“The China Outbound Tourism Handbook’s very auspicious number of subsections run from Adventure Tourism to Zheng He. The info is necessary because China will probably soon regain its crown as the biggest travel source market in the world,” Mark Footer, Travel Editor, South China Morning Post.
Click to download your copy of The Chinese Outbound Tourism Handbook 2023: 88 Practical Ways to Prepare for the New Wave of Chinese Visitors in:
English French German Spanish Italian
4) Air Traffic Capacity is Rebuilding
The air recovery across South East Asia was patchy for the first few months after the region fully reopened last April. So how is air capacity shaping up 12 months later?
New figures from OAG show overall airline capacity is 20% lower in March 2023 compared to March 2019. There is a notable contrast between domestic air capacity, which is 13% behind March 2019, and international capacity, which lags 31%. Singapore added the most international seats this month, but the region’s other major airports, KL, Bangkok Don Mueang, Manila and Jakarta, are scaling up, too.
New flights schedules in China and expanded re-coupling with North East Asian markets will accelerate the recovery in the coming months. However, the resilience of domestic air travel will be a fascinating trend to watch. Has the pandemic recalibrated demand for travelling within, rather than across, borders for the long-term - or are we, one year later, still witnessing the unfolding of new travel patterns?
I’d say the latter, but the projected outcome of decisive variables is hard to call.
5) Dynamic Visitor Forecasting in Thailand
Remember the old days when a tourism board would set an annual target for visitor arrivals. Thailand is recasting that format with dynamic forecasts responding to new monthly and half-monthly arrivals figures.
Having received 5.57 million visitors from 1 January to 18 March, a government spokesperson predicted full-year arrivals of 27 million - up from 11.5 million in 2022, and a 67.7% recovery on the 39.9 million visitors to Thailand in 2019.
Watch this dynamic forecasting approach take hold across the region as competition to attract visitors intensifies now that Asia Pacific is fully open.
As a footnote, the Thai government dissolved parliament ahead of a national election in May. Keep your eye on this as the political battles ahead will be fiercely fought.
And finally…
6) Hong Kong Monthly Visitors Surpass 1 Million
OK, not strictly a South East Asia story, but stick with me. This week, Hong Kong announced it received more than 1 million monthly visitors (1.46 million) in February for the first time since February 2020. So where is the link?
Two things to note…
Firstly, 1.1 million visitors were from mainland China. How will (or won’t) the ease-of-travel appeal of Hong Kong impact visitation to South East Asia in the near term?
Secondly, ‘short-haul arrivals’ to Hong Kong, which includes South East Asia, increased to 165,847 in February from 49,532 last December. Although local media is debating the pace of Hong Kong’s recovery, it is an inbound and outbound market to follow closely in 2023.
Top 10 Travel & Tourism Talking Points in South East Asia
From tourist behaviour shaming in Bali to free tourism experiences in Singapore.
With travel activity continuing to ramp up region-wide, this week’s The South East Asia Travel Show tackles the top news stories in Vietnam, Bali (Indonesia), Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Laos … and Switzerland!
En route, we discuss mobile rail ticketing in Laos, bad tourist behaviour shaming in Bali and free tourism experiences in Singapore. Plus, we crunch Vietnam’s latest visitor arrivals forecasts and talk transport infrastructure plans in the Philippines.
Listen to The Top 10 Travel & Tourism Talking Points in South East Asia in March 2023 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 106.
The Asia Travel Re:Set newsletter will return on 9 April.
Until then, find me on LinkedIn and The South East Asia Travel Show.
Happy travels,
Gary