Self-Drive Travel, Flying Taxis, Scam Fears & an Icy Winter Tourism Hotspot: October 2024 in Review

As South East Asian nations complete a second uninterrupted year of tourism since reopening, 2025 is viewed as a time to push on from recovery to growth. But staying in the here and now, Gary and Hannah travel around ASEAN to rewind the top talking points from October. Stopovers include Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos… plus India and wintertime China. En route, we reflect on the highlights from ITB Asia in Singapore, place the media hype about self-drive travel between Malaysia and Thailand in context, and discuss the priority issues on the desk of Indonesia's new tourism minister. We also assess the implications of a TV report in South Korea about alleged scam centres in Cambodia that is causing consternation for Korean visitors. Plus, Vietnamese travellers are booking trips to icy northern China, flying taxis are back in the news and we look back on one year of Whoosh, South East Asia's only high-speed railway which celebrated its birthday in Indonesia.