Chinese Holidaymakers Jet Off, Multiple Muslim Tourism Initiatives & Fiscal Relief for Travel Workers: September + Golden Week in Review

After three weeks in Japan, Singapore and Italy, Gary and Hannah are back in KL to recap the top travel talking points from September and early October. China's Mid-Autumn Golden Week has just wrapped up, so we assess the current state of play in a diversifying Chinese outbound market. Elsewhere, we discuss a raft of new Muslim-friendly tourism initiatives being introduced across South East Asia, note a shift towards waterborne transport innovation and crunch the numbers of a tax relief scheme for travel industry workers in Indonesia. Plus, Thailand's THB300 Tourism Tax is being resuscitated (again), and the nation's tourism authority is turning to the diplomatic community as travel influencers. Plus, we delve deeper into AirAsia's potential purchase of COMAC planes, and take a quick layover in Brunei to reflect on the region's smallest visitor economy.