"I was at a tourism conference in Hangzhou in 2018, where Chinese companies showed how they were using AI to personalise travel for users. That's nearly eight years ago." In 2025, AI became a strategic commercial tool in all sectors, including travel and tourism. But it isn't widely understood just how effectively embedded AI already is in China's tourism sector, and how far ahead its leading players are to much of the world. On the final show of 2015, Gary welcomes back Joao Romao, Associate Professor at Yasuda Women’s University in Japan, to debate the shifting Geopolitics of Travel in Asia six years after the first cases of Covid-19 were discovered in Wuhan, China. Joao is the author of Economic Geography of Tourism, which places contemporary tourism in the context of global economic, technological, societal, environmental and political challenges. We discuss the evolving AI-in-travel landscape and the multiplicity of post-Covid variables shaping travel decision making. We analyse how Covid savaged the value of the Yen leading to a surge of inbound tourism, while making outbound travel expensive from Japan. And we dive into the implications for regional travel of icy bilateral relations between China-Japan. Plus, we look at the Middle East's investment-driven approach to tourism growth, and how this might impact South East Asian destinations in future. Meanwhile, what is the Circuit of Proximity, and why does it matter? And what did governments across Asia learn about their travel economies during the Covid shutdowns - and are those learnings are being effectively applied six years later?

So, another year is almost over - but what did we learn in 2025, South East Asia's third full year of travel since the Covid pandemic? This week, Gary and Hannah delve through the archives to take stock of an eventful 12 months for travel and tourism in South East Asia and the broader Asia Pacific region. We journey from the regional turmoil of Trump's tariffs to the tourism impacts of scam centres, and from Singapore setting the standard on SAF to Timor Leste becoming ASEAN's 11th member. Plus, we ask what happened to the ASEAN Tourism Visa, and question why the Philippines is pushing to promote ASEAN as a single destination. We discuss India's secondary city tourism wave, and look at which countries made new visa-free access moves throughout the year. And we gaze into a crystal ball to foretell whether Thailand and Cambodia might make peace and reopen their borders any time soon. Finally, we delve into Vietnam's remarkable breakout year after an initially slow post-Covid recovery - and its reluctance to offer visa-free access to Chinese tourists.

With one month remaining of 2025, airports are getting busy across South East Asia as the year-end travel season swings into gear. And November was another month filled with intriguing talking points to break down. We begin by discussing the long-term societal, political and travel impacts of heavy flooding in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. We take to the skies to address whether AirAsia might enter Vietnam via a stake share in Vietravel Airlines, and ponder the science fiction elements of new Biometric Corridors to verify traveller identities in Indonesia. Moving to China, we calculate which countries in ASEAN are (and aren't) improving their airline seat capacity with China* - and then dive into the complexities of Chinese airlines cancelling flights to Japan, and where that capacity may get redirected in the coming months. Plus, we talk hotel taxes in Malaysia, new charter flights between Brunei and Hainan Island, and the Philippines makes new strides in its play to become a regional player in gastronomy tourism.

[* Click here to access the OAG graph discussed in the show which illustrates China's airline seat capacity with its top 20 air markets for November 2019, 2024 and 2025.]