A Few Words From Me…
Money keeps surfacing as the theme this week, or rather the question of where it actually ends up once it’s left your hand. Marriott Bonvoy’s new partnership with the orangutan foundation in Perak is about as clean an example as you’ll find: scan a QR code at check-in in Malaysia and it’s directed straight to a team that’s been rehabilitating orangutans for two decades, no middle-man, no guesswork required. Meanwhile, Brussels is chasing a similar idea from a different direction that will affect how some businesses function across Southeast Asia: new EU rules landing later this month mean hotels and operators marketing to European travellers can’t just say “eco-friendly” and leave it there; they’ll need to prove it or drop the word completely, which frankly should have happened years ago. Naga City in the Philippines is ring-fencing real money for a real mountain rather than just talking about protecting it. Then, just when you think we’re overloaded with positivity, there’s the story that shows what happens when none of that traceability exists: sand dredged from protected coastal waters in Cambodia, tracked by satellite straight to Singapore’s land reclamation projects, a trade that’s supposedly been banned for nine years. Two ways of doing tourism and development, one you can follow with a QR code, the other you can only follow with a ship tracker.
On a practical note, if you’ve got a Thailand trip pencilled in for later this year, check your dates against the new visa rules landing on 15 September, the old 60-day visa exemption is gone for good. And for anyone stuck in Northwest Europe, or North America, autumn’s arriving fast, which makes those green forests and lantern festivals further south look considerably more appealing than the greying skies.
As always, let me know what you’re seeing on the ground, and thanks for reading.
This Week in Southeast Asia
Marriott Bonvoy Turns Every Malaysian Stay Into an Orangutan Lifeline
Aggy the orphaned Bornean orangutan almost didn’t survive infancy. Now he’s the face of a new campaign putting Malaysia’s Marriott Bonvoy properties directly behind his species’ survival.
Orang Utan Island in Perak is home to Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island Foundation’s rehabilitation work, now part of a new Marriott Bonvoy conservation campaign.
Marriott Bonvoy has partnered with the Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island Foundation (BMOUIF) on a nationwide campaign called “A Story That Matters: Uniting Hospitality and Conservation for a Better Future,” folded into Marriott’s Serve 360 sustainability platform. Guests at Marriott Bonvoy hotels across Malaysia will find QR-code donation points funding BMOUIF’s rehabilitation and research work, alongside discounted admission rates to Orang Utan Island for Bonvoy members.
The island sits within Bukit Merah Laketown Resort in Perak, reached by a 15 to 20-minute boat ride across the lake: a straightforward add-on for anyone staying in the area rather than a dedicated expedition. Visitors can watch orangutans, including Aggy, in a semi-wild setting while learning directly from the team that hand-reared him after his mother died shortly after his birth.
For readers weighing where their holiday spending actually goes, this is about as traceable as it gets: book a Marriott Bonvoy stay in Malaysia, scan a QR code at check-in, and the money runs to a named foundation with two decades of orangutan rehabilitation work behind it. Combine the stay with the short boat crossing to the island and the donation becomes a visit you can see the impact of first-hand.
Thailand’s 60-Day Visa Exemption Ends for Good on 15 September
Anyone banking on Thailand’s generous 60-day visa exemption needs to rethink their trip. The Royal Gazette published the final regulations on 31 August, confirming the 60-day scheme ends on 15 September 2026, replaced by a tiered 30-day and 15-day system.
Nationals of 60 countries and territories, including the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada and Australia, move to a 30-day exemption. Seychelles and Mauritius passport holders get 15 days. Visa on Arrival eligibility, previously open to 31 nationalities, narrows to just three: Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia. Land-border entries under the new 30-day exemption are capped at two per calendar year for most nationalities, though Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore are exempt from that limit, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Anyone who enters Thailand before 15 September keeps their full 60-day stay regardless of when it ends. Travellers arriving on or after that date fall under the new rules from day one, so it’s worth checking exactly which side of the cutoff a booked flight lands on before finalising onward plans.
We first flagged this change back in May, when it had cleared only Cabinet approval; it’s taken until now to actually reach the statute books. Book extensions through a registered Thai immigration office, or online via the Immigration Bureau’s e-extension system, well before any 30-day window closes, since overstay penalties in Thailand remain strict.
New EU Rules Will Police ‘Sustainable’ Claims From Late September
From 27 September, hotels and tour operators marketing to European travellers can no longer get away with vague sustainability claims. The EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EmpCo) starts applying that day, and it hits Southeast Asian operators just as hard as anyone based in the EU itself, provided they market to EU or UK consumers.
Generic claims like “eco-friendly,” “green” or “climate neutral” become illegal in consumer-facing marketing unless backed by a recognised, independently audited certification, such as the EU Ecolabel or an equivalent ISO Type I scheme, for instance. Offset-based “carbon neutral” claims are banned outright. Fines run up to 4% of annual revenue, and regulators can confiscate all profit generated from a non-compliant campaign. There’s no grace period: every website, brochure and social post live on 27 September falls under the rule from that date, according to a guide published by the Sustainable Travel Association.
For a Southeast Asian hotel or DMC marketing to European guests, that means auditing every “sustainable,” “responsible” or “eco” claim on a website or booking platform before month’s end, and either backing it with real certification or dropping the word.
For readers, it cuts the other way too: a property that survives EmpCo scrutiny after 27 September is making a claim regulators have effectively forced it to prove. That’s a genuinely useful shortcut when weighing one “sustainable resort” against another.
Naga’s ₱350 Million Plan to Save Mt Isarog Balances Both Sides
Naga City’s answer to tourism pressure on Mt Isarog isn’t to restrict access, it’s to rebuild the infrastructure properly. The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) has approved ₱350 million to rehabilitate ageing facilities and develop a forest park at Mt Isarog Natural Park, an active stratovolcano that also serves as Naga’s primary watershed.
Naga City has secured ₱350 million to rehabilitate facilities at Mt Isarog Natural Park, home to Malabsay Falls.
TIEZA chief operating officer Mark Lapid confirmed the funding to Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo in late August, with the project explicitly framed around her stated priority: preservation alongside tourism development. The plan repairs facilities originally built by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, many deteriorated after years of underuse, and adds a proper forest park administration office, as reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Mt Isarog Natural Park is roughly a 30-minute ride from downtown Naga, with Malabsay Falls, a 13-metre waterfall dropping into a lagoon, the most accessible highlight for visitors not attempting the full summit trek. The park is also home to the Isarog shrew rat and rare endemic orchids found nowhere else, alongside hornbills and other montane wildlife.
Climbing permits and a local guide are compulsory for the full ascent, arranged through the MyNaga app or Naga City’s tourism office before setting off. For a shorter visit, Malabsay Falls needs no permit and makes a straightforward half-day trip from the city.
Banned Cambodian Sand Is Reaching Singapore Again, Trackers Show
Cambodia banned sand exports permanently in 2017. Vessel-tracking data now shows the trade never really stopped, and it’s happening inside two protected areas that sit alongside some of the country’s best-known ecotourism lodges.
Sand dredging has been documented inside Tatai Wildlife Sanctuary and Botum Sakor National Park, part of the Cardamom Mountains.
Using AIS ship-tracking data, investigative outlet Mongabay identified four vessels, flagged in Malta, Liberia, Panama and the Marshall Islands, making repeated runs between Koh Kong province and a state-backed land reclamation site at Singapore’s Tuas Port between June and July 2026. The dredging is taking place in a stretch of river falling within the boundaries of both Tatai Wildlife Sanctuary and Botum Sakor National Park, part of the Cardamom Mountains, one of the region’s most significant remaining rainforest blocks, according to Mongabay’s investigation. Activist group Mother Nature Cambodia first documented dredgers in the area in July, tying the barges to Catalyst Marine and Resources, a Singaporean-linked company registered in Cambodia since December 2024.
The story lands awkwardly for Singapore too. The island has built roughly a fifth of its current landmass through imported sand, and markets itself internationally on green-city credentials that sit uneasily alongside a reclamation project reportedly fed by an illegal trade in a neighbouring country’s protected waters.
None of this means avoid the Cardamom Mountains. If anything, it’s a reason to choose an operator with more care, not less. Lodges like Cardamom Tented Camp fund ranger patrols and forest protection directly through guest stays, putting tourism revenue on the opposite side of this fight from the dredgers. Cambodia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has not yet responded publicly to Mongabay’s findings; we’ll follow this if that changes.
What’s On
This Week
POR TOR HUNGRY GHOST FESTIVAL: Phuket, Thailand | 19 August to 6 September 2026
A month-long Hokkien Chinese observance drawing to a close, with merit-making ceremonies and street processions honouring ancestors across Phuket Old Town.
BORNEO CULTURAL FESTIVAL “ECHOES OF BORNEO”: Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia | 3 to 12 September 2026
Free nightly programming celebrating Sarawak’s Dayak, Chinese, Malay and Melanau communities through music, dance and food in the heart of Sibu.
HANOI AUTUMN FESTIVAL: Hanoi, Vietnam | 1 to 30 September 2026
A month of heritage-space performances and traditional cuisine marking Hanoi’s shift into autumn, spread across the city’s historic quarters.
Coming Up
MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL (TẾT TRUNG THU): Vietnam-wide | 25 September 2026
Hội An’s Old Town runs a four-day lantern celebration from 23 to 26 September, while Đà Nẵng, Huế, Nha Trang and Saigon’s Chợ Lớn district each stage their own version of the country’s biggest lantern festival.
5TH INDONESIA INTERNATIONAL CULTURE FESTIVAL: Jakarta, Indonesia | 10 to 16 September 2026
A week-long showcase of Indonesian and international performing arts and craft traditions in the capital.
BUN DUEAN SIP LONG BOAT RACE & LAI RUEA FAI FESTIVAL: Sakon Nakhon, Thailand | 20 to 26 September 2026
Seven days of traditional long boat racing and illuminated boat processions on the Nam Kam River, well off the well-trodden northern Thailand festival circuit.
Worth Reading
This week’s Marriott Bonvoy campaign channels guest spending directly into wildlife conservation: a model we explored in depth when we first looked at how tourist money funds wildlife protection on Borneo: Borneo: The Greatest Island Wildlife Sanctuary Where Your Money Funds Conservation Efforts.
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