A Few Words From Me
The biggest story coming out of the region this week is the weather itself. Green season brings a wash of colour to the region yet it can also prove to be a wash out, with lives disrupted through incessant rain that brings flooding to low-lying areas. Laos is dealing with flooding right now that’s affected more than 60,000 people in Khammouane province alone, the tail of a cyclone that battered northern Vietnam in early July, and the monsoon rains that followed, simply haven’t let up. Cross the border into Thailand and rural Isaan is experiencing much of the same: the Mekong nudging critical levels at Nakhon Phanom while Nan province sits under what locals are calling a maximum alert. Neither touches the stories below directly, but it’s worth knowing if you’ve got anything booked in the north of either country this month. Cambodia, meanwhile, is having a difficult year for entirely different reasons. As we reported last month, arrivals are down by nearly half against last year, a genuinely hard number to sit with if you’ve spent any time in Siem Reap. And yet Vietnam, right in the middle of all this, keeps posting record numbers, Hanoi alone up 15 percent on visitors so far this year. In fact, many travellers are opting for Vietnam over Thailand in big numbers, with uncertainty over the latter’s visa policies and tourist taxes making headlines and changing decisions. This region rarely moves in one direction all at once, and this week is as good a reminder of that as any. As always, you can find my contact details on this site, so let me know what you’re seeing on the ground, particularly if you’re anywhere near the Mekong right now.
This Week in Southeast Asia
Da Nang Sets A Tougher Bar For Green Accommodation
Da Nang has approved the most detailed sustainability benchmark any Vietnamese city has issued, and it goes well beyond swapping plastic straws for paper ones. Built with the Swiss Tourism for Sustainable Development project and drawing on Switzerland’s own Swisstainable model, the new 219-point green accommodation standard sorts properties into three voluntary tiers by size, covering everything from water and energy use to staff training and kitchen sourcing, and it replaces three overlapping certification schemes that previously left operators and guests equally confused about what any of them meant.
Monkey Mountain rises above Da Nang at dusk, home to one of the world’s rarest primates and a reminder of what the city’s new standard is ultimately meant to protect.
The scheme, approved on 14 August under the city’s own decision, is open to any hotel, resort or homestay in Da Nang, a city on Vietnam’s central coast reached directly by air through Da Nang International Airport from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and a growing list of regional hubs. Properties register through the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. For travellers booking a stay here this autumn, it is worth simply asking a property outright whether it holds Green Stay status. If it does not yet, that is no scandal this early into the scheme, but it is exactly the kind of question that starts moving the market.
Thailand’s New Arrival Fee Finally Gets A Timeline
Thailand’s long-delayed tourist arrival fee has moved from proposal to process. The National Tourism Policy Committee has approved a flat 450 baht charge, roughly £10, applying to every foreign visitor arriving by air, land or sea, and cleared it for a 30-day public hearing this month. Air travellers would pay first, with collection beginning 180 days after the measure is published in the Royal Gazette, and land and sea arrivals following around a year after that, giving border checkpoints time to prepare. Officials have said the fee would part-fund a new tourism development fund and automatic visitor insurance rather than lean solely on the state budget.
Nothing changes at immigration yet. Based on the government’s own timeline, the earliest realistic collection date for air arrivals sits in the first quarter of 2027, with five payment channels still under review and officials confirming the free Thailand Digital Arrival Card will not itself become a paid requirement. For anyone booking a Thailand trip well into next year, it is worth budgeting a small buffer for this and checking the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s own updates closer to the date, since the exact mechanism for paying is still being decided.
Malaysia’s Whale And Dolphin Tourism Needs A Rulebook
Southeast Asia’s whales, dolphins and porpoises are being pushed toward local extinction risk by unregulated boat tourism, according to Dr Louisa Ponnampalam, co-founder of the MareCet Research Organisation, Malaysia’s dedicated marine mammal research and conservation non-profit. The problem is not tourism itself but the absence of rules around it: boats crowding pods, engines run too close, and no licensing structure separating operators who know what they are doing from those who do not.
What responsible whale and dolphin watching should look like: space, patience, no chasing.
The encouraging part is that this is fixable, and MareCet’s own research is the foundation for exactly the kind of approach and withdrawal distance guidelines already working elsewhere in the region. For travellers booking whale or dolphin watching in Malaysian waters, the practical test is simple: ask an operator directly how close they approach, whether they follow a minimum distance rule, and whether they cut engines near a pod rather than chasing it. An operator who cannot answer confidently is one to avoid, whatever else the brochure promises.
Why Travellers Say One Thing And Book Another
Fresh travel industry research lays out a gap Asia Unmasked sees constantly in Southeast Asia: travellers say sustainability matters, and then book as if it does not. Some 78 percent of travellers say sustainability will factor into their decisions this year, yet only 24 percent actually seek out sustainable options or accept any trade-off for them, and 53 percent would still choose a faster, higher-emissions flight over a slower, greener one.
A board full of destinations, and exactly the kind of choice this week’s research says most of us don’t think twice about.
This is not a story about hypocrisy so much as pricing and effort. The same research found the sustainable choices travellers do consistently make cost them nothing extra: non-stop flights, avoiding overcrowded destinations, and booking eco-certified hotels, exactly the sort of certification Da Nang is chasing this week, all rank as the top actions people actually take. The lesson for anyone planning a Southeast Asia trip is not to feel guilty about the gap, but to look for the sustainable option that happens to be the convenient one first: a direct route, a quieter destination, a property that can show its credentials rather than just claim them.
What’s On
This Week
Hanoi Autumn Festival – Hanoi, Vietnam | 1-30 September 2026
This month-long celebration of Hanoi’s heritage spaces runs through art performances and traditional cuisine, ideal for combining with an autumn city break.
Echoes of Borneo – Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia | 3-12 September 2026
Ten nights of Chinese, Dayak and Malay/Melanau culture nights round off with a blowpipe competition, and admission is free throughout.
Coming Up
Vijit @Lampang: The Timeless Charm – Lampang, Thailand | 5-14 September 2026
A free ten-day light, sound and multimedia festival blends Lampang’s traditional heritage with contemporary artistry after dark.
Indonesia International Culture Festival – Jakarta, Indonesia | 10-16 September 2026
Now in its fifth edition of Indonesia’s culture showcase, bringing traditional and contemporary performance together in the capital.
Worth Reading
If this week’s gap between what travellers say and what they book sounds familiar, it is worth revisiting Asia Unmasked’s own guide to telling a genuinely sustainable stay from one that only sounds like one: How to Spot Greenwashing: A Traveller’s Guide to Authentic Eco-Tourism.
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