Gary Bowerman

Kuala Lumpur

Co-Founder and Host at The South East Asia Travel Show

Producer at Asia Travel Re:Set

Asia Travel & Consumer Trends Analyst | China Author | The South East Asia Travel Show | Speaker & Media Commentator

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Articles

Issue #183: Planes, Trains & China's ASEAN Trade Meetings

6 days ago | asiatravelreset.substack.com | Gary Bowerman

Welcome to Issue 183 of Asia Travel Re:Set. Over the past 2 weeks, reams of well-presented data have spotlit the scope of commercial interactions between China and ASEAN nations and the US. This is important because it helps plug a knowledge gap about international trade. But reliable trade data is mostly annual, quarterly or monthly, ie, back-dated. And what we saw in ASEAN this week was the trade-planning process in action.
Issue #182: China, ASEAN & Asia Pacific Confront the Turmoil of Trump's Tariffs

1 week ago | asiatravelreset.substack.com | Gary Bowerman

Welcome to Issue 182 of Asia Travel Re:Set. A bitcoin for Anwar Ibrahim’s thoughts? Malaysia’s (impressively statesman-like) Prime Minister has a tricky twin role to manage his country through the tariff crisis and chair the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). He will welcome China’s President Xi Jinping next week (15-17 April) at the start of an impromptu mini ASEAN tour. How many bitcoins to be a fly on that meeting room wall? Thanks for checking in…PS.
Issue #181: The Impact of Trump’s Tariffs in ASEAN & Asia Pacific: One Week On (Part 1)

2 weeks ago | asiatravelreset.substack.com | Gary Bowerman

Welcome to Issue 181, a special midweek edition of Asia Travel Re:Set. A hot, humid late-summer’s morning in Shanghai in 2008. I’m in a descending elevator from an upper floor of a skyscraper in Pudong: China’s Wall Street. A group of Chinese bankers enters on a mid-level floor. They speak in hushed, courteous but evidently upbeat tones. Lehmann Brothers had collapsed overnight. China’s major banks had been recently recapitalised. ICBC had completed the world’s largest IPO.
Issue #180: South East Asia's Top 8 Travel & Tourism Takeaways in March

2 weeks ago | asiatravelreset.substack.com | Gary Bowerman

Welcome to Issue 180 of Asia Travel Re:Set. Cambodia 49%. Laos 48%. Vietnam 46%. Myanmar 44%. Thailand 36%, Indonesia 32%. Malaysia 24%. Brunei 24%. Philippines 17%. Singapore 10%. The power-crazed machismo disguised as economic policy of the Ttump administration will see its new tariffs hit South East Asian economies very hard. The knock-on global impacts (including for the US itself) are blindingly obvious. Some countries may retaliate, others could yield. All have started to negotiate.
Issue #179: Vietnam Fast-tracks High-Speed Rail to Accelerate Economic Growth

3 weeks ago | asiatravelreset.substack.com | Gary Bowerman

Welcome to Issue 179 of Asia Travel Re:Set. So, firstly, all thoughts are with the people of Myanmar after Friday’s earthquake. The full, devastating impacts are still unclear. So, I said last week that there would be no newsletter this week. But, March was an intriguing month, which we reviewed on The South East Asia Travel Show. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of speculation about Vietnam’s strategy should it be targeted (next week) by US tariffs. So, let’s follow that train of thought.
Viet Nam Fast-Tracks High-Speed Rail

4 weeks ago | asiamediacentre.org.nz | Gary Bowerman

“This project is pivotal for restructuring transport and serves as a cornerstone for Viet Nam’s leap into a new era of growth.” Those words by Nguyen Danh Huy, Viet Nam’s Deputy Minister of Transport, summarise the rationale for investing USD67 billion in South East Asia’s advanced rail system. On 30 November 2024, Viet Nam’s National Assembly approved the development of a 1,541km North-South high-speed railway with trains set to run at up to 350kph.
Issue #178: "The term 'sustainable tourism' has been bankrupted"

1 month ago | asiatravelreset.substack.com | Catherine Byaruhanga |Gary Bowerman

Welcome to Issue 178 of Asia Travel Re:Set. It’s no secret that the term ‘sustainable tourism’ has become heavily diluted, and over-used to the extent that the objectives are often hard to discern. But what is a realistic substitute? How about Less Bad Travel? It recognises both the challenges inherent in trying to travel ethically and the existence of genuine forces for good. So, let’s follow that train of thought.
Issue #177: 5 Covid Travel Revival Projects We Often Forget in South East Asia

1 month ago | asiatravelreset.substack.com | Gary Bowerman

Greetings from a cool and cloudy Hong Kong, and welcome to Issue 177 of Asia Travel Re:Set. Five years ago this week, South East Asia embarked on 2 years of border closures, lockdowns and quarantine mandates that suffocated international travel. During those long dark days, various solutions were proposed (and tested) to revive travel despite rigid governmental regulations. On this week’s The South East Asia Travel Show, we revisited those pandemic trains of thought - and their enduring importance.
Issue #176: The Tourism Outlook Between Australia, South East Asia, China & India

1 month ago | asiatravelreset.substack.com | Gary Bowerman

Welcome to Issue 176 of Asia Travel Re:Set. Five years ago on Tuesday (11 March 2020), the WHO declared a global pandemic. Almost exactly 3 years ago (6 March 2022), Issue #74 of this newsletter was titled: Australia Reopens & Targets ASEAN Inbound Markets. It was subtitled, Can South East Asia's "Rising Stars" help rebuild Australia's tourism economy? So, let’s bring that train of thought up to date.
Issue #175: South East Asia's Top 8 Travel & Tourism Takeaways in February

1 month ago | asiatravelreset.substack.com | Gary Bowerman

Welcome to Issue 175 of Asia Travel Re:Set. So where did February go? Already, we are 2 months into 2025, and what a fascinating month it proved to be for travel developments in South East Asia. So, let’s follow that train of thought - by looking back and forth…Thanks for checking in…5. Years. Ago. On 26 February 2020, Dr Piotr Chlebicki and I hosted a seminar, What Will be the Economic Impacts of Covid-19? at the The American Club Singapore.