Travel & Tourism news, views, and reviews. A closer look at developments in sustainable and eco-friendly travel across Southeast Asia and beyond
Latest South East Asia tourism news, events, and stories. From culture to cuisine, nature to nightlife, gain insights for your next adventure. Must see destinations and must stay accommodation. Helpful updates and articles to help you plan your perfect trip.
Nakai-Nam Theun is being assessed for international recognition. Its most famous resident hasn’t been confirmed alive since 2013. No scientist has ever seen a saola in the wild. Not once, not briefly, not through binoculars from a safe distance. Everything known about the animal comes from a handful of camera-trap images, a few individuals that
Cambodia’s discount campaign has split the tourism industry down the middle, and the divide says something uncomfortable about who gets to hold out for quality Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism launched the 2026 Siem Reap Tourism Service Mega Sale on the first of August, offering discounts of 10 to 50 percent at more than fifty hotels,
A decade of peer-reviewed research and a protection law barely a year old point to two very different answers on how to see the world’s biggest fish responsibly. Ninety-three percent. That is the proportion of tourists at Oslob, in southern Cebu, who were found swimming closer to a whale shark than the town’s own ordinance
There are 8,582 registered tuk-tuks in Bangkok. As of the end of May this year, 1,056 of them, nationwide, were electric. Hold those two numbers next to each other for a second, because they explain almost everything about what’s actually happening across Southeast Asia right now, and why I think the region’s sudden enthusiasm for
Angkor’s visitor numbers have fallen by a third, for reasons that have nothing to do with the temple itself. Turning up still matters. I have stood in front of Angkor Wat at sunrise exactly once, shoulder to shoulder with several hundred other people, all of us holding phones over each other’s heads trying to catch
Southeast Asia spent fifty years destroying its most useful coastline. It’s finally growing back, and Vietnam has the receipts. Nobody puts a mangrove forest on a postcard. Ask someone to picture Southeast Asia and you get white sand, a longtail boat, maybe a temple roof catching the light. Nobody pictures a tangle of grey roots
Three new UNESCO biosphere reserves landed in June, including a first for Timor-Leste. What the designation is actually betting on, and what it asks of anyone who visits. Three places joined a very short list this June: UNESCO biosphere reserves, one of them a first for its country entirely. A biosphere reserve isn’t just a
If you have filmed a sponsored reel on a Canggu beach, tagged a villa in a story in exchange for a free night, or posted a paid partnership from a rooftop bar in Seminyak, Indonesian immigration now considers that work, not tourism, and they are actively watching social media to find it. Content that pays,
Thailand tested its sustainable tourism model in Krabi. Now the same blueprint is heading north, and it changes how you should plan a Chiang Mai trip. Five years ago, Krabi became the testing ground for an idea Thailand’s tourism authority wasn’t sure would work: that a destination could be rebuilt around certified low-impact routes, trained
GSTC, Green Key, Green Hotel Plus: what these logos actually mean, and how to tell a genuine credential from a marketing sticker Booking.com’s own data puts the figure above 80%: most travellers now say they want to stay somewhere sustainable. Hotels across Southeast Asia have responded with a wall of green badges on their booking
From 1 July 2026, a mandatory health declaration applies to every person crossing a Vietnamese border – arriving, departing, or in transit. You cannot submit online yet. Here is what to do instead. Vietnam has never made border admin particularly straightforward, and 2026 is not the year it starts. On top of the e-visa and
Whale sharks are the largest fish on the planet – and one of the most exploited animals in ocean tourism. On a small Philippine island, something unusual just happened: the people in charge decided enough was enough. Whale sharks are not dangerous. That is the first thing to understand. Despite the name, they are filter
