The Tourism Recovery in South East Asia: Twelve Months On.

This is where our community discusses almost anything! While we're mainly a Cambodia expat discussion forum and talk about expat life here, we debate about almost everything. Even if you're a tourist passing through Southeast Asia and want to connect with expatriates living and working in Cambodia, this is the first section of our site that you should check out. Our members start their own discussions or post links to other blogs and/or news articles they find interesting and want to chat about. So join in the fun and start new topics, or feel free to comment on anything our community members have already started! We also have some Khmer members here as well, but English is the main language used on CEO. You're welcome to have a look around, and if you decide you want to participate, you can become a part our international expat community by signing up for a free account.
User avatar
Kung-fu Hillbilly
Expatriate
Posts: 4152
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 11:26 am
Reputation: 4963
Location: Behind you.
Australia

The Tourism Recovery in South East Asia: Twelve Months On.

Post by Kung-fu Hillbilly »

Image

by Gary Bowerman
5th April, 2023


The travel buzz is definitely back although tourist volumes remain well below the record 2019 levels.


One year ago, on 1 April 2022, the borders fully reopened in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines as quarantine mandates were removed. Cambodia and Vietnam had recently reopened. Thailand, although open for tourism since November 2021, still required a lengthy online visa application, a Covid test on arrival and a one-night stay in an assigned hotel until a clear test result was confirmed. Laos would reopen in early May

Airline seat capacity in South East Asia in March was 20 percent lower than the same month in 2019. Domestic air capacity is recovering fastest, down just 13 percent from March 2019, while international air capacity remained 31 percent lower, according to OAG.

Thailand, which is South East Asia’s most visited country, leads the way. In the first quarter of 2023, it welcomed 6.15 million visitors, more than half the 11.15 million that visited across the 2022 calendar year. The Tourism Council of Thailand forecasts 30 million visitors this year, which would represent a 75 percent recovery from 39.9 million in 2019. Vietnam greeted 2.7 million visitors from January to March this year, compared to 3.6 million in all of 2022. In the first two months of 2023, Singapore’s Changi International Airport handled more than one quarter of total passengers in 2022.

A more worrying development also explains the muted celebrations. Dry season has arrived in mainland South East Asia. With it comes farmland and plantation burning on a huge scale to facilitate agricultural renewal. The unwanted outcome is acrid smoky air hanging over the region. On Saturday 1 April, parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam experienced air quality deemed unhealthy.

All of this is happening against a backdrop of high airfares, a situation unlikely to improve anytime soon. “I see airfares going higher and higher,” Shukor Yusof, CEO of Malaysia-based Endau Analytics, told The South East Asia Travel Show in March. “Airline capacities have not yet risen back to pre-pandemic levels to cater for the number of people travelling at the moment, and some carriers are not back to 100 percent in terms of putting planes back into their fleets.”

It's not all about air travel in 2023, though. South East Asian nations will invest heavily to expand rail infrastructure over the next decade, but two projects developed before the pandemic offer exciting travel possibilities. The China-Laos railway, which connects the Chinese city of Kunming and the Lao capital Vientiane is scheduled to commence cross-border trips later this month.

full. https://www.asiamediacentre.org.nz/feat ... months-on/
User avatar
phuketrichard
Expatriate
Posts: 16761
Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 5:17 pm
Reputation: 5721
Location: Atlantis
Aruba

Re: The Tourism Recovery in South East Asia: Twelve Months On.

Post by phuketrichard »

never made it past this line which is BS

......."Thailand, although open for tourism since November 2021, still required a lengthy online visa application, a Covid test on arrival and a one-night stay in an assigned hotel until a clear test result was confirmed. Laos would reopen in early May"
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
User avatar
armchairlawyer
Expatriate
Posts: 2480
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 1:43 pm
Reputation: 1496
Cambodia

Re: The Tourism Recovery in South East Asia: Twelve Months On.

Post by armchairlawyer »

Landed at BKK on March 31. Very busy at immigration yet staffing was so full that waiting time was short.
On the ground in Bangkok, however, not seeing many foreign visitors. Barang family groups being the most common.
User avatar
hanno
Expatriate
Posts: 6765
Joined: Fri May 16, 2014 12:37 pm
Reputation: 3137
Location: Phnom Penh
Contact:
Germany

Re: The Tourism Recovery in South East Asia: Twelve Months On.

Post by hanno »

phuketrichard wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:00 am never made it past this line which is BS

......."Thailand, although open for tourism since November 2021, still required a lengthy online visa application, a Covid test on arrival and a one-night stay in an assigned hotel until a clear test result was confirmed. Laos would reopen in early May"
He referred to the situation one year ago; not the current situation.
User avatar
phuketrichard
Expatriate
Posts: 16761
Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 5:17 pm
Reputation: 5721
Location: Atlantis
Aruba

Re: The Tourism Recovery in South East Asia: Twelve Months On.

Post by phuketrichard »

hanno wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2023 10:18 am
phuketrichard wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:00 am never made it past this line which is BS

......."Thailand, although open for tourism since November 2021, still required a lengthy online visa application, a Covid test on arrival and a one-night stay in an assigned hotel until a clear test result was confirmed. Laos would reopen in early May"
He referred to the situation one year ago; not the current situation.
my bad
old age fucks with comprehension skills

I will say here in Phuket, this high season ( dec 10th- now) was nearly as busy as 2019, only missing were the massive numbers of Chinese
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Re: The Tourism Recovery in South East Asia: Twelve Months On.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Interviews
Thong Khon: Cambodia’s Ambitious Tourism Roadmap
Theodore Koumelis
12.04.2023
Image
Ahead of the Mekong Tourism Forum in Preah Sihanoukville 26 April, Cambodia’s, Minister of Tourism, Mr Thong Khon outlines his country’s targets for tourism, aviation and dispersing a new generation of visitors beyond Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh.

What are your targets for Cambodian’s tourism in 2023?
The target for Cambodia’s tourism in 2023 is to increase the international tourist arrivals from 4.0 to 4.5 million. Cambodia is host of the Southeast Asian Games 2023 in May, a major tourist event.

Is there a new emphasis or focus in Cambodia’s 2023 tourism promotion campaigns?
Our focus is “Visit Cambodia Year 2023”. It has the theme “MICE and Sports” and the slogan “Every Day is A Wonder”. Apart from the SEA Games we also have the 12th ASEAN Para Games from 3-9 June in Phnom Penh, with the theme, “Sports Live In Peace”. There’s also the Mekong Tourism Forum 2023 in Sihanoukville from 25-27 April on “Rethinking for Resilience and Digitalization”. Moreover, Cambodia is organising historical new year celebrations in Siem Reap province, “the 10th Anniversary of Angkor Sankranta,” 14-16 April.

How has tourism in Cambodia changed since the pandemic?

Like many other countries, Cambodia faced a big challenge from the global Covid-19 pandemic. The number of international arrivals dropped from 6.6 million in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2020 and to only 200,000 in 2021. With tourism coming back there have been some positives:

Cambodia has been awarded “Asia’s Leading Culture Destination 2022” and “Asia’s Leading Youth Travel Destination 2022” in the World Travel Awards , held during the International Travel Expo in Ho Chi Minh City.

On 17 March this year, the Ministry of Tourism of the Kingdom of Cambodia won the “Leading International Tourism Campaign 2022” with its Visit Cambodia NEXT (New Exciting eXperience and Taste) campaign. We also organised roadshows in ASEAN markets such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam and participated in international tourism exhibitions both virtually and physically.

Moreover, Cambodia became the first country in ASEAN to fully re-open for international travellers in October 2022. That helped bring the number of international arrivals to 2.23 million by the end of 2022. Cambodia expects to receive around four million international visitors by the end of 2023, five million in 2024 and seven million in 2025. We have also seen strong domestic tourist demand within Cambodia.

We developed new tourism infrastructure during the pandemic, such as 38 new roads in Siem Reap, the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville expressway, and the new Siem Reap International Airport, which is due for completion in Q3 this year. The new Techo Takhmao International Airport south of Phnom Penh is due to complete its first phase in mid 2024.

What changes to the aviation sector are you trying to encourage to boost Cambodia Tourism?

By March 2028 we plan to have 33 airlines connecting to Cambodia through three international airports with an average of 494 flights per week or 988 movements. The government aims to boost the influx of international tourists and new airlines by applying tax incentives and reducing or waiving landing fees. We are investing a lot in two new airports: Kandal province, just south of Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap.
https://www.traveldailynews.asia/column ... m-roadmap/
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
User avatar
John Bingham
Expatriate
Posts: 13632
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:26 pm
Reputation: 8871
Cambodia

Re: The Tourism Recovery in South East Asia: Twelve Months On.

Post by John Bingham »

Mr Thong Khon wrote:
Our focus is “Visit Cambodia Year 2023”. It has the theme “MICE and Sports”
Great slogan.
Image
Silence, exile, and cunning.
Anchor Moy
Expatriate
Posts: 13458
Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 11:37 pm
Reputation: 3974
Tokelau

Re: The Tourism Recovery in South East Asia: Twelve Months On.

Post by Anchor Moy »

John Bingham wrote: Wed Apr 12, 2023 12:16 pm
Mr Thong Khon wrote:
Our focus is “Visit Cambodia Year 2023”. It has the theme “MICE and Sports”
Great slogan.
Image
Fits right in with the slogan: "“Every Day is A Wonder”. :good:
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post