Southeast Asian nations has entered another cycle of the pandemic with the new variant, omicron and closing the 2021 with rising infection number. In Indonesia, as many as 50 thousand people were traveling internationally during Christmas and Year End holiday last year. And there were around 3 million travellers who were traveling domestic in the month of November 2021 only.

The situation in 2021 was not any better for the industry in comparison to 2020, especially within Southeast Asia. The Delta Variant overtook the spread and shook the healthcare systems in some countries between June – July 2021 while the end of the year, Omicron took over. There was little breathing space for the tourism industry in 2021. So, how will 2022 look like for the tourism industry in SEA region? How should nations within this region restart the industry? And how can countries should work together?

I am honoured to have a discussion with Bapak Eddy Soemawilaga, the President at Association of Southeast Asian Nation Tourism Association (ASEANTA) about Southeast Asia Tourism Outlook 2022.