Asia’s travel and tourism sector has regained momentum four years after borders reopened, but rising geopolitical tensions, fuel costs, and structural industry changes are forcing operators to rethink long-term growth strategies.
Gary Bowerman, Founder and Director of Check-in Asia, said Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia have staged a strong rebound since most countries lifted quarantine restrictions in 2022, although the sector now faces mounting operational and economic pressure.
“We've seen a recovery of travel and tourism, business travel, leisure travel,” Bowerman said. “We've seen a lot of shifts. We've seen a lot of change.”
According to Bowerman, airports across Asia remain busy and travel demand continues growing, but hotels still face pricing pressure as operators compete for market share whilst managing higher costs.
The discussion highlighted that tourism operators are balancing short-term instability against long-term expansion plans.
“I think at the moment we have the challenges of war, economics, and what's happening in the Middle East and how that's impacting particularly the aviation sector,” Bowerman said.
Despite near-term pressure from jet fuel costs and weaker travel volume growth, Bowerman argued the region remains central to global tourism expansion. “This is the engine of global travel, and will continue to be so for the next decade and into the future,” he said.
The discussion identified several post-pandemic changes that now appear permanent across Asia’s tourism sector, particularly digital airport automation and changing traveller expectations.
“We've seen proliferation of e-gates at airports,” Bowerman said, referring to online check-ins, digital entry systems, and automated processing that now reduce congestion and speed passenger movement.
Visa-free travel has also become increasingly important as governments compete for tourism spending and airlines push for smoother cross-border movement.
“Travelers expect it in most countries in Asia now,” Bowerman said.
Artificial intelligence is also emerging as one of the industry’s biggest structural changes. “Before the pandemic, we didn't have AI,” Bowerman said. “AI is going to have such a huge impact on travel distribution, the way people think and book and plan their travels in future.”
According to Bowerman, airlines, hotels, and online travel agencies are still assessing how generative AI and agentic AI will reshape pricing, customer engagement, and travel planning.
The discussion also highlighted major infrastructure investments across Asia, including Singapore’s Terminal 5, Hong Kong’s airport city development, Long Thanh Airport in Vietnam, and new airports in Cambodia.
Bowerman said the industry must now shift from recovery planning towards long-term tourism expansion into the 2030s and 2040s.
