Issue #125 - New Year, New Travel & Tourism Challenges in Asia Pacific!
Digging beneath the headlines of this week’s emerging travel conundrums.
Happy New Year, and welcome to issue 125 of Asia Travel Re:Set. A special shout out to all new subscribers who jumped aboard during the holidays!
Two weeks into 2024, there’s plenty of agenda-setting media coverage with upbeat visitor forecasts and shouty year-on-year metrics. Across the region, the scramble to match “2019 levels” is on.
Meanwhile, the post-Covid build-up of travel industry challenges continues, and these issues are also getting plenty of headline space.
So let’s follow that train of thought…
Thanks for checking-in.
- “IN THE NEWS”
- New Year, New Travel & Tourism Challenges in Asia Pacific!
This week’s travel conundrums from across the region.
- The 2024 Travel & Tourism Wishlist for South East Asia
Our annual mash-up of hopes, expectations and predictions for the year ahead.
“IN THE NEWS”
Amazing Thailand vs Malaysia Truly Asia. From visa waivers to White Lotus and concert tourism to over-tourism, I enjoyed discussing the various tourism challenges and opportunities facing Thailand and Malaysia with Nigel Wong, President of the Malaysian Association Of Tour And Travel Agents (MATTA), and host Richard Bradbury on Malaysia's BFM 89.9 - The Business Station. Catch the discussion HERE.
I had a broad-ranging China chat with Rafat Ali, CEO/Founder of Skift on the Skift Travel Podcast. We covered plenty of ground, including the outlook for Chinese airlines, OTAs and hotel pipelines. Plus, the ongoing round of visa waivers, Chinese social media and consumer trends, and the link between tourism, trade policy and diplomacy. Catch the podcast, or read a summary of the transcript highlights, HERE.
New Year, New Travel & Tourism Challenges in Asia Pacific!
Regional media discourse about travel is a mash-up of head-scratching challenges.
A nasty diplomatic spat between Maldives and India saw Indian OTA EaseMyTrip suspend flight sales. India was Maldives’ #1 visitor market last year, although it was some distance behind China in 2019. So, guess where the Maldivian President visited this week? Yup, though he may (try to) visit Delhi, next. A succinct summary of the bilateral stand-off here by TTG Asia, while India Today notes: “Maldives does not even make it to the Top 10 overseas tourist destinations preferred by Indians” Ouch.
This week revealed a phrase to watch from the Philippines: “ugly-driven” tourism. Urban ugliness and pollution are driving city dwellers to seek cleaner climes. The reference in this Philstar article is capitalinos fleeing Metro Manila “to escape their ‘dirty city’” over the holidays. I’m sure Manila’s tourism authorities are rapt.
Meanwhile, “Moron Tourism” is making headlines in Australia. This relates to Canberra’s “infamous Summernats car festival that descended into punch ups and burnouts in the streets.” Quote of the Week from Australian Capital Territory’s Acting Police Inspector: “If we set up an IQ-testing station at the border instead of a vehicle-testing station, we’d halve our problems.”
Next to Thailand, where low domestic tourism spend (below the 2019 average) is creating a challenge for the government's goal of THB1.08 trillion in homegrown travel revenue. So, too, is airline capacity. Tourism Authority of Thailand is targeting 200 million domestic trips in 2024, but needs flight seat capacity to increase to 46.5 million from 36.5 million in 2023, notes this report in Bangkok Post.
In Singapore, bedbugs caused a political itch this week. A parliamentary question was tabled about measures in place “to detect and prevent travellers from transmitting [bedbugs] upon their arrival in Singapore,” following a global resurgence of such infestations. The Ministerial answer was that the National Environment Agency has “not detected any upward trend in reports regarding bedbug infestation.”
If you will be attending the ASEAN Tourism Forum Conference (25-26 January) in Vientiane, I hope to see you there. I’ll be speaking about China’s outbound tourism market on Day 1 of the conference.
Eastwards to South Korea, an issue raised by a vlogger is pressing authorities to take action. In November, a YouTuber queried the size of Korean pancakes served at the popular Gwangjang Market. This week, The Korea Times reported Seoul Metropolitan Government will “introduce a system to specify the required quantity of food along with its price,” and conduct “mystery shopper” inspections of food markets.
In Malaysia, a depreciating currency is being discussed as a tourism catalyst. “The weaker ringgit is likely to help boost the tourism sector,” reports New Straits Times. Local airlines whose industry is denominated in US dollars might disagree. More upbeat, The Star headlines with “Ringgit poised to be best performer in Asia,” citing a report by Affin Hwang Investment Bank. Clouds and silver linings.
The strength to Japan’s currency was debated throughout 2023, and now into 2024. A weak Yen created a “moderately inflationary environment,” says an Op-ed in Japan Times, “while Japan’s tourism sector is booming as a trip to Tokyo has become a bargain.” The Mainichi notes “The return of foreign tourists is a boon amid the yen's persistent weakness,” adding, “Japan posted a record current account surplus in November, helped by a smaller trade deficit and a revival of inbound tourism.”
Sadly, a dark start to 2024 in Guam, where arrivals in the first 11 months of 2023 were 61% down on 2019. This week, Pacific Daily News reported the fatal shooting of a Korean tourist, which “will make the numbers worse for the tourism industry in the months ahead [as] most of Guam’s visitors are from Korea, before and after the pandemic.”
And, finally, to North Korea, which Reuters reports is preparing to welcome a tour group from Russia: “the first known tourists allowed into North Korea since anti-pandemic border lockdowns began in early 2020.”
It’s going to be a rollercoaster year ahead!
The 2024 Travel & Tourism Wishlist for South East Asia
It will be a competitive year, but what critical issues need addressing? This week’s The South East Asia Travel Show sets out our 2024 wishes and expectations. We expect visa waivers to be a key battleground and wish ASEAN could create a standard to benchmark tourist arrivals. We discuss the sustainability gap in Asian travel, why Thailand might enjoy a diversity boost and bring the curtain down on Revenge Travel.
Listen to The 2024 Travel & Tourism Wishlist for South East Asia, here:
Or search for The South East Asia Travel Show on any podcast platform
And, that’s a wrap for Issue 125.
The Asia Travel Re:Set newsletter will return on 28 January.
Until then, find me at LinkedIn, The South East Asia Travel Show and re:set strategies.
Happy travels,
Gary