Update on Asian Trails from CEO Laurent Kuenzle

Dear Pulse Reader,

The year is flying by, and is proving a very fruitful one for Asian Trails! Our destinations are also thriving once more, and developments in domestic infrastructure are also accelerating, especially in transportation and particularly the rail networks which have expanded rapidly in between Thailand and Laos, and also new connections in Laos bridging the gap to China. Within Vietnam we’ve also seen the introduction of a new luxury service from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh.

Speaking of “flying by”, a new range of air routes into Asia is also encouraging interest in our destinations, with AirAsia opening Bangkok-Hyderabad and Phuket-Siem Reap routes; a new China-Italy route with China Eastern; new flights on Laos-Myanmar route; direct flights from Madrid to Bangkok; and new charter service linking Indonesia and Vietnam.

Visa news has also been frequent and welcome, allowing more and more travellers to visit visa-free. Here’s a collection of the updates for quick reference:

We also welcomed news that Thailand chose to scrap a proposed additional tourism fee in June.

In product terms, our teams have also been very active and we have many exciting new options for our clients. I personally had the privilege of spending a week in Sumba, which I documented in a recent article here. We’ve also introduced a new range of Digital Trails in Kuala Lumpur, expanding on our range already working successfully in Bangkok and Hanoi.

Our Explore brochure series has expanded since our last Pulse update, with new editions covering Malaysia, Laos and Indonesia to complement the Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam. Explore China was released in August with Hong Kong and Singapore to follow in 2024. 

In terms of CSR, our teams have been actively contributing time and resources to supporting local initiatives, such as collecting waste in the Ma Da Forest area of Southern Vietnam, and providing access to clean water in Cambodia through our refillable water bottle initiative.

In other news, we celebrated the opening of our branch office in Kota Kinabalu, and our Vietnam team successfully relocated to larger quarters in Saigon.

In June, we held our AOGM in Bali, with all Asian Trails top management, and the TCIL  Group Chairman Madhavan Menon also in attendance.

Lastly, it’s my pleasure to welcome new additions to our top management. In Laos we welcome Francois Guillot as our new GM, while Emi Weir has also joined our Bangkok office as our new Sustainability Manager, replacing Ameer who we thank for helping us enhance our efforts in the sustainability area over the last 18 months.

To stay up-to-date with all news from our Asian destinations, please do sign up to our monthly Trailblazer email, or follow one (or all) of our social media channels:

Wishing all of our readers happy and sustainable trails!

Laurent Kuenzle
Chief Executive Officer, Asian Trails

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