Sydney’s half-hearted heritage tourism reopening

World Heritage listed Hyde Park Park Barracks (1819) in the centre of Sydney, is still only open 4 days each week, 6 months after the reopening of international borders. © Mark Bowyer

Six months after the reopening of international borders, many of Sydney’s heritage and historical museums are still struggling to resume normal opening hours. That puts them out of step with the rest of the country and out of reach for many international travellers.

Sydney opened borders to international tourism back in February. The city has hosted big events like Pride, VIVID and the Writers Festival. Big money is being spent by Destination NSW and Tourism Australia promoting Sydney to the world. There are more major events in the pipeline. But unlike other Australian cities and towns, many of Sydney’s heritage tourism sites are still operating to a limited closed-border era timetable. These restricted opening times mean many of our cultural tourism destinations are out of reach to international travellers and tour operators.

Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney’s main World Heritage Listed convict site opens just 4 days a week. Even with a prime city location, and after a recent $18 million upgrade, it’s open less to tourists than other smaller and more remote World Heritage listed sites around Australia.

Cadman's Cottage, the oldest residence in the centre of Sydney, sits closed and unused right by the harbour at Circular Quay. Not far away in The Rocks, the Susannah Place museum is open just 12 hours per week, in one of Sydney’s most famous historic precincts.

Even the iconic views from the Harbour Bridge's Pylon Lookout are only accessible 12 hours each week. 

Hyde Park Barracks is the only World Heritage Listed site we know in Australia, still operating a COVID lockdown era closed-border timetable - it’s located in Sydney’s tourism heart. © Mark Bowyer

In Parramatta, long Sydney’s heritage poor relation, Elizabeth Farm, the oldest colonial building in Australia and residence of coup-plotter and wool pioneer John Macarthur, opens just two days each week. 

Vaucluse House, the beautiful former residence of another complicated colonial, William Charles Wentworth, opens four days a week.

These small museums are fantastic Sydney assets. They add storytelling substance to the city beyond the glamour of the harbour, beaches, casinos, and major events. But they're effectively off the radar to all but the most highly motivated visitors. Their value to Sydney’s tourism economy is underestimated. They should be enriching the Sydney experience with insights about our history.

Australia’s oldest colonial residence (1793) and home to dubious coup plotting colonial, John Macarthur, only opens 2 days per week in Parramatta. © Mark Bowyer

Vaucluse House The residence of William Charles Wentworth © Mark Bowyer

This is a Sydney problem. 

Lesser heritage sites and small museums I checked are fully operational in other Australian cities and towns. They open six or seven days a week - normal opening times for major historical sites.

The Sydney sites in question are mostly run by Sydney Living Museums (SLM), a NSW state government body formed to operate historic buildings and smaller museums. I asked SLM when normal hours would resume and was told no decision had been made. I couldn’t get a clear answer as to why these assets are not more available to city visitors?

Sydney’s biggest cultural travel destinations, the NSW Art Gallery, the Australian Museum and others, are operating normally. 

It's the important small stuff that's languishing.

So what's Sydney’s problem with promoting and operating small museums and heritage locations? 

Is there a funding issue at Sydney Living Museums? We can only assume so.

National Trust managed Government House in Parramatta the oldest public building in the country, seems to be operating normally. But visiting Sydney’s historical sites is a hit and miss affair.
© Mark Bowyer

There’s no shortage of other investment in Sydney cultural institutions at the moment. The state government is putting $450 million into the Sydney Modern project, an expansion of the NSW Art Gallery. $500 million is going into a controversial renewal of the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo - a museum that was facing closure two years ago. $800 plus million has been earmarked for a massive ill-defined Parramatta Powerhouse Museum. 

That's more than $1.5 billion in the new cultural project pipeline. But the city doesn't seem to have the cash to market and operate the rich cultural assets it already has.

How much could it cost to open these small existing heritage assets to normal hours, enabling their inclusion in international tour plans? What’s the cost to the travel experience from their closure?

The lucrative heritage tourism market doesn’t seem to hold the sway it should in Sydney.

None of this bodes well for the future recurrent funding of the enormous new cultural projects in development. 

These are the observations of an interested outsider returned to Sydney with a long history in cultural tourism and tourism product in South East Asia and Asia. I’m now adding Sydney and Australia to my tourism focus. I'd be delighted to hear from those with an inside perspective (and anyone else).

Chef Tran Duc from Hoi An’s Mango Group chats about coming through two difficult years

Hoi An's dependence on international tourism made it especially vulnerable to Vietnam's two-year closure of international borders. We sit down with successful Hoi An chef and restaurateur Tran Duc at his home just outside the old town for a chat.

Tran Duc is one of Vietnam’s most successful chefs. He made his name in Hoi An, Vietnam’s heritage listed former trading town and his restaurants, Mango Rooms, Mango Mango and Mai Fish have brought a unique approach to Vietnamese cuisine to Hoi An since the opening of Mango Rooms, almost two decades ago.

Check the video - a chat with Hoi An chef Tran Duc

Duc is equally a creator of culinary wonder and a delightful host. I was very happy to have the opportunity to experience both at his home during my visit to Hoi An.

Duc told me Hoi An's tourism and hospitality industry was wiped out during the two pandemic years. Many international restaurants are gone for good.

Duc was forced to put his businesses on hold. But he didn’t sit still. He applied his boundless energy and creativity to the family home. Check out the video of one of our favourite chefs (and people) in Vietnam.

The good news is that Mango Mango, Mango Rooms and Mai Fish will all reopen later in 2022 as Hoi An reopens.

For the full Hoi An postcard, head over to our sister travel guide, Rusty Compass.

KOTO expands after Hanoi opens borders

One of the highlights of time spent back in Hanoi, was sitting down with Jimmy Pham, founder of KOTO, Vietnam's first social enterprise.

A lot has been written about the impact of the COVID pandemic on the global tourism and aviation industries. That impact has been amplified in developing countries like Vietnam and Cambodia. Less attention has been given to the experience of the many social enterprises in developing countries anchored in the tourism industry.

The first of these tourism-focused social enterprises in Vietnam was KOTO, founded by Jimmy Pham in Hanoi in 1999.

During my recent visit to Hanoi, I headed out to the West Lake area to hear how Jimmy and KOTO had survived the challenges of the two COVID years and closed borders. It was great meeting Jimmy again at the recently opened KOTO Villa. Ever the optimist, after two challenging years, he was looking forward to better times.

Check out the video.

Jimmy Pham talks about coming through the crisis for social entrerprises

A Vietnamese Australian, Jimmy Pham left the tourism industry to found KOTO (Know One Teach One) after seeing the plight of homeless young people on the streets of Hanoi and Saigon. His concept was to provide them with international standard hospitality training, education, housing and care and then help them find careers.

KOTO has enjoyed immense success and is recognised as one of the truly effective life-changing social enterprises in Vietnam. KOTO graduates hold positions in leading hospitality businesses across Vietnam.

Jimmy Pham’s good humoured teaching - KOTO Villa Hanoi

Despite extraordinary challenges, Jimmy told me KOTO has emerged in 2022, stronger than ever. During the pandemic, the training programme continued while the original KOTO restaurant closed. A new restaurant opened in Hanoi's West Lake area, reducing the dependence on tourism. The West Lake eatery is called KOTO Villa and it attracts clientele from the expat community and locals. More recently KOTO has reopened in the centre of Hanoi’s tourism precinct, right by the Temple of Literature - near the location of the original KOTO eatery.

Breakfast at KOTO Villa Hanoi

The video features Jimmy and Hao, a young ethnic Tay KOTO graduate.

Hao is a remarkable representative of the work of KOTO. Vietnam is home to 54 ethnic minority groups - people of distinct language and culture. These ethnic minorities face discrimination and economic disadvantage.

Hao is from the Tay ethnic minority. She was born and raised in difficult conditions near Lang Son, on Vietnam's northern border with China.

In addition to a permanent job at Hanoi's JW Marriott Hotel, Hao is studying for a bachelor of business at the Hanoi campus of Australia's RMIT University. It's an impressive story.

For more on KOTO, check their website at www.koto.com.au

After the pandemic - a better travel industry?

After two years, the international travel industry finally looks poised to begin the slow climb out of the COVID ruins. How should the industry be changed for a better post-COVID future?

It was way back in the middle of 2020 when we first started to think about the lessons that we might take away from the pandemic. Now, two devastating years later, the travel industry may finally be on the cusp of a return to business. It's likely to be a rocky road. But it's exciting for an industry that has had few good days in recent years.

Travel industry lessons from two pandemic years in Sydney Part I

Love thy Neighbourhood - Travel industry lessons

The resumption of international travel has prompted many to think about lessons the industry should take from the crisis. Over at our sister publication, the independent travel guide Rusty Compass, we've been thinking too. We've come up with a list of a few lessons we think could make our industry better, more sustainable, and a better force for the communities we operate in. The list resonates with progressive industry too - people who would like a different, better industry to emerge from the crisis.

Cycling Sydney Harbour Bridge ©Mark Bowyer

Travel on foot, by bicycle wherever you can

Billionaires may be telling us we need to to be looking to space for the next travel thrill. We beg to differ. We've discovered there's often travel gold lurking out the back gate. And two feet or a bicycle bring more joy and less global carnage than a spacecraft. We reckon our industry should be aspiring to great products that cover less ground, better. Quality over quantity. Experience over egofests.

Lake St Clair, Tasmania ©Mark Bowyer

Go slow. See more.

Lockdowns have given us a greater appreciation of simple things. The books on our bookshelves. The songs that lift our spirits. The mood shift of a spot of exercise or deep breathing. These things have implications for travel too.

We're hoping for a travel industry that better understands that less is more. That travel shouldn't be measured by cities conquered, room nights or flights. The privilege of travel can be used to better appreciate what's at our finger tips. Spend more time exploring a gallery. Stop more often to think and learn.

Streets of Glebe, Sydney ©Mark Bowyer

Love Thy Neighbourhood

Whether you're travelling or sitting at home, how well do you know the neighbourhood you're in? Give it a good look. You might be surprised by what you find. I was.

The travel industry needs to love neighbourhoods too

We've always loved the sweet spot where great travel experiences make great communities.

Blue Mountains, NSW ©Mark Bowyer

Travel more. Consume less.

I guess this whole blog can be encapsulated in those words - we should be building products so people can travel more and consume less. It's the opposite to the message being pushed by billionaires Branson, Bezos and Musk. The best things in life are free or small and local in travel. The best travel eco-systems are vibrant places of creative small businesses. Even the big guys derive the most benefit from these places.

Unsettled exhibition - Australian Museum ©Mark Bowyer

Challenge your assumptions

Travel is often considered a good way of challenging your physical limits - climb higher, walk further, run faster. A post-COVID world of travel should be a place where we also push our assumptions about the world we live in. We've always been in awe of the challenge of making sense of history and culture and that's always been a big driver for travel.

The best cultural will travel will challenge your view of the world too - history, culture, politics.

We'll be taking all these lessons with us into the post-COVID travel landscape and trying to live by them. I hope some of them resonate with you too.

Parramatta Powerhouse - an inauspicious start to Sydney’s big new museum

Parramatta heritage and breathing space destroyed for a new museum. Willow Grove before the demolition got under way. ©Mark Bowyer

Late in August, the commencement of the demolition of a quaint 1870s heritage building, Willow Grove, marked the ignominious beginning of the controversial Powerhouse Parramatta museum project. The state government hails the $800 million project as the biggest cultural investment since the Opera House. It has quite a job ahead to win over a sceptical community.

Willow Grove, an Italianate villa, has occupied a modest patch of Parramatta turf, not far off the Parramatta River, for at least 130 years. In late August, the dismantling of the charming heritage building commenced. The demolition marks the first serious construction work on the controversial $800million Powerhouse Parramatta project.

Check out the video on Rusty Compass.

Willow Grove’s demolition comes after years of protest by local community groups. They oppose both the demolition of the villa and the planned new museum. At one point, a sign was left on the front fence of Willow Grove that read, “museums should not destroy heritage.” It’s a sentiment that most advocates of cultural institutions would relate to.

An inauspicious start to a museum project - big crowds gathered at Willow Grove (shrouded in funereal black) in May to protest its demolition. Protestors were locked down when the demolition work began. ©Mark Bowyer

The Powerhouse Parramatta project was conceived in 2015 to provide cover for a property deal that would have seen the development of the site of the original Powerhouse, on prime real estate in Ultimo. A clever fix was concocted that would relocate the museum to culture-starved Parramatta, Sydney's second CBD and a major population centre. Willow Grove would need to go too.

Another public campaign was organised to save the Ultimo museum. The government faced a battle on two fronts.

In 2020, the government backed down on the closure of the Powerhouse in Ultimo - the original basis for the project. Somehow it was decided that the Parramatta project and the Willow Grove demolition would proceed anyway.

Sydney would end up with two Powerhouse museums, the original, in a superb old tram powerhouse, and a new unpopular Powerhouse on the Parramatta River. Hundreds of millions of extra dollars were provided to smooth the way for the changed plan.

How grafting a museum ageing badly in Ultimo onto the shores of the Parramatta River will suddenly transform Sydney’s west has not been explained? There has not been a case made as to why two Powerhouse museums will somehow be better than one?

Nor was a coherent case ever made for the original idea.

Money seems to pose no constraint in COVID-struck Sydney. A combined budget of $1.4billion has been allocated to the rejuvenation of the original Powerhouse in Ultimo and the creation of the new Parramatta Powerhouse.

That such a flimsily argued project could attract $1.4 billion of public money during the COVID crisis is breathtaking.

Parramatta has the heritage goods to underwrite unique museums and cultural spaces - that truly could transform Sydney’s west. The Powerhouse, oblivious to Parramatta's heritage, is not the right project.

Australia’s oldest public is among Parramatta heritage assets in need of a landmark institution with a Parramatta connection. ©Mark Bowyer Rusty Compass

The Female Factory site - Australia’s least-known heritage landmark, should be the location for Parramatta’s transformational cultural institution. Property developers may have other ideas. ©Mark Bowyer Rusty Compass

Read more about Parramatta history and heritage here. Read more over at Rusty Compass here.

Hobart's MONA Museum takes a stand on mandatory vaccination

MONA Hobart, leading the way on staff vaccination @ Mark Bowyer Thinking Travel

In the absence of government leadership on mandatory vaccination for the tourism and hospitality industries, David Walsh, maverick founder of Hobart's incredible MONA museum, has taken a stand, dabbled in a persuasive piece of philosophy, and mandated vaccination for staff.

In a memo, since shared on the MONA blog, Walsh reminds his staff that mandates and constraints on freedom for the public good, are everywhere. And that mandatory vaccination is no different.

Walsh’s arguments are refreshingly clear and straightforward and they’re resonating with a battered travel industry anxious about vaccine hesitancy among staff and looking for precedents for mandating vaccination.

He leads his piece with a quote from dissident author Alexander Solzhenitsyn "A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity."

The memo goes on to say, "What happens when we want to undertake a journey, but a government-mandated intervention delays it, because, they say, it serves the greater good? Is that an infringement on our rights?

I’m talking about traffic lights. Today, while taking the kids to school, I had to wait for a total of six minutes while cars went somewhere else."

And concludes, "A few staff might think we are trampling on their rights, but the one right they think we are restricting doesn’t exist. Our staff don’t have the right to trample on the rights of their colleagues."

MONA’s David Walsh is leading the vaccination conversation @ Mark Bowyer Thinking Travel

Australia has been dancing around the issue of mandatory vaccination for workers and customers. Some countries have openly embraced vaccine passports - making life more straightforward for business.

With COVID outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne continuing to grow, there isn't a day when the Prime Minister and state premiers don’t implore Australians to get vaccinated. The word “mandate” is the problem. The PM, who has deftly perfected the art of vacating thorny pandemic questions, from quarantine to vaccine procurement, has now expressed a reluctance to make a call on government cover for companies mandating vaccination.

This is especially difficult for tourism and hospitality businesses - the smaller the business, the bigger the issues with legal implications. What is the local cafe supposed to do?

It’s easier for the big guys and first to buy in was Qantas, announcing that vaccination would be mandated for staff and passengers. Qantas followed up with its beautiful Fly Away ad.

Qantas Fly Away vaccination ad

Other major businesses in travel and tourism have bought in with decisions to mandate vaccination.

Running one of the coolest tourism venues in Australia gives Walsh special authority.

As vaccination rates rise, and the day of a national opening draws nearer, the mandate questions (and vaccination passports) will become more pressing. Walsh has taken us a little step closer but a lack of clarity for small business remains.

Qantas throws its brand behind Australia's troubled vaccination rollout

A new Qantas ad uses some of the airline's best-loved brand qualities and travel incentives to push Australians to vaccinate.

Qantas has taken the lead for Australia's battered travel and tourism industry, in the country's troubled vaccination campaign. The launch this week of a powerful new ad and travel incentives, make vaccination the ticket to future travel.

Australia’s national carrier has already announced that all staff must be vaccinated by 2022 with front-line staff to be vaccinated sooner.

Watch the new Qantas vaccination ad

Back in 2020 CEO Alan Joyce said he believed vaccination would ultimately become mandatory for travel, as it now is in some jurisdictions.

The Fly Away ad picks up nicely some of the visual themes from the carrier's moving Home Again campaign from 2015. It’s proving especially resonant in a country that hasn’t enjoyed international travel for 18 months. Australia has some of the world’s strictest COVID border controls restricting inbound and outbound travel.

With a population of 25 million, Australia has recorded fewer than 1000 deaths, making it one of the most successful countries in containing the pandemic to date.

Past success is now in question following a bungled vaccine rollout and a growing outbreak of the Delta variant in Sydney and Melbourne. Some areas are experiencing the worst outbreaks and tightest lockdowns of the entire pandemic. The nation is scrambling to lift its vaccination game.

Many have noted that the Qantas ad is likely to be more effective than the government’s official vaccination campaign messaging.

The new ad uses the music and vocals of local sensation Toni Watson from Tones and I. It was created by Sydney agency Brand + Story and is part of a wider campaign of travel rewards for the vaccinated from the airline.

Australia's success in fighting COVID with harsh lockdowns and closed borders, has hit Qantas and international travel businesses hard. As borders open around the world, Qantas will be hoping Australia's hermit kingdom status can be reversed and heavy losses can be stemmed.

Australia’s tourism industry faces a fractured post-lockdown outlook

© Mark Bowyer - Sydney’s COVID crisis is deepening - Australia’s borders are hardening

Australian tourism businesses may face fragmented borders as the COVID crisis moves towards its second anniversary and tensions rise between COVID-zero States, NSW and the Commonwealth.

As the COVID pandemic charges towards its grim second anniversary, and tourism tentatively reopens in many parts of the world, the outlook for most of Australia's tourism industry is uncertain.

Australia’s federation is fragmenting. Contrast Western Australia and New South Wales. Business is booming in zero-COVID and quick-to-lockdown WA. Tourism businesses are being smashed in slow-to-lockdown New South Wales as we head in to the 9th week of lockdown, with soaring case numbers and tightening restrictions.

Check our video on Australia’s complicated tourism future.

There is a real risk that New South Wales’ policy failure will take down New Zealand, Victoria and the ACT. Other states will battle to keep the Delta variant at bay as the New South Wales outbreak spreads.

The long nightmare of tourism businesses - especially those focused on international markets, drags on.

The Prime Minister is pushing states to agree to the plan to open when vaccination rates reach 80% nationally. Western Australia and others say the situation in New South Wales may change previous commitments.

Last week, WA Premier Mark McGowan, announced the harshest restrictions of the entire pandemic on travellers from New South Wales. It will likely be a long time before normal travel resumes between these states.

The impact of COVID in four of Australia's six states has been wildly different to the impact in New South Wales and Victoria - our two biggest states.

Some tourism businesses in the zero-COVID states, especially WA, have enjoyed record turnover.

The Project gives some deeper background

Western Australian Museum - gonna be a while before Perth’s new museum sees big crowds from Sydney. © Mark Bowyer

New South Wales and Victoria have been less fortunate. Victoria's prospects of containing its NSW-inspired outbreak are looking doubtful.

Meanwhile, New South Wales has surrendered to the idea that COVID will not be eliminated. Premier Berejiklian, with the support of the Prime Minister and Treasurer, seems to be demanding other states follow her dubious lead. This will put other states in a tricky position.

Mark McGowan is not leaving much doubt about the direction he will take WA. When New South Wales feels ready to open up, WA (assuming it's still Delta-free) will be balancing the upside of opening against the lost lives, sickness, hospital strain and economic harm an opening will entail - even with high rates of vaccination. WA's large and vulnerable Indigenous population will further complicate McGowan's decision. Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia will end up juggling similar issues.

It's possible to conceive of a scenario where residents of COVID-normalised NSW (and possibly Victoria) are closed out of zero-COVID states for a protracted period.

Should New South Wales surrender to the current outbreak when vaccination targets are met, and relax restrictions, it may be positioned to tentatively open to some other COVID normalised countries (and states if there are any), while zero-COVID states remain closed to the world and NSW.

It’s a nightmare scenario for the tourism industry - a secession in reverse where NSW (and possibly Victoria thanks to NSW) is isolated from the rest of the Commonwealth.

It’s too early to speculate on that divided scenario. But tensions between zero-COVID premiers, the PM and Gladys Berejiklian are growing.

The New South Wales Premier, who, along with the PM, owns this carnage, insists that there is no such thing as zero COVID. That may be true in a global sense. But the evidence is in. States or countries that can hold the line against COVID until vaccination rates are high and treatments improve, will be saving lives and economies. The longer you hold out, the better the health of your people and your economy.

China has again reminded us of this as it looks to have vanquished a recent Delta outbreak across multiple cities.

Until the recent New South Wales debacle, all Australian states accepted this idea. There are thousands of Australians alive today because the first COVID wave in 2020 was contained.

The NSW outbreak has claimed more than 70 lives to date, will leave thousands with “long COVID” and is causing terrible stress in the hospital system. The delayed lockdown is having wider impacts on community health and well-being.

The experience around the world confirms that high vaccination rates significantly reduce death and serious illness. But vaccination does not stop transmission, deaths and illness - especially among the unvaccinated. COVID will still be a killer when Australia belatedly achieves its vaccination targets. The UK has a high vaccination rate and is still recording more than 100 deaths per day.

© Mark Bowyer New South Wales opted out of an unofficial lockdown orthodoxy adopted by other states. Now borders are hardening.

With most of his economy firing on all cylinders, and few days lost to lockdown since the start of the pandemic, WA's Mark McGowan won't be easily persuaded by team Berjiklian and Morrison that he should risk opening up his state to COVID.

Tourism businesses, especially those in long-suffering NSW and Victoria, will need to think about a complicated situation across the country - no matter how successful NSW and Victoria are in reversing the current crisis.

Australia may even be divided between COVID and zero-COVID bubbles - domestically and internationally.

Our sluggish vaccination rollout means that we are able to learn from a world that is well ahead of us in dealing with post-vaccination COVID issues. If the coming weeks bring good news from abroad in jurisdictions with high vaccination rates, our zero-COVID states may be more ready to open up.

Otherwise the tourism industry may face the nightmare of a nation fragmented well in to 2022.

Australia’s misdirected COVID tourism relief package

The Australian government's $1.2 billion tourism recovery package looks more like a gift to airlines than a support package for a smashed tourism industry.

COVID ravaged Sydney tourism business? Scomo’s got nothing for you….
© Mark Bowyer Six Degrees Asia

Australia’s tourism relief package, announced in early March, provided $1.2 billion in Federal Government support. The centrepiece of the announcement was the provision of 800,000 half-price airfares to a list of destinations handpicked by the government. The rest of the industry was expected to sit back and hope that the travel induced by the discounted flights would benefit them - assuming they were in a destination blessed by the government’s selection process. It was a big hope.

To be effective, a package of government relief for the tourism industry needs to be targeted at the most severely impacted businesses and destinations. And it needs to contain protections to ensure minimal waste and rorting.

The Morrison government's $1.2 billion tourism and aviation recovery package missed these objectives. Like other government cash splashes, political priorities have trumped economic and national priorities. Big business - in this case the airlines - seem to be the only sure winners. Crumbs might fall to some small tourism businesses.

Qantas and the airlines are not the travel industry. They have overlapping and divergent interests. If the airlines were deserving of a cash injection, that should have been a policy discussion in its own right.

Hotels, travel companies, restaurants and other tourism-dependent businesses - mostly small businesses and big local employers - need their own rescue package, designed with their targeted needs in mind. Forcing them onto the back of an airline package was always going to be messy and leave out deserving businesses.

For a government that endlessly rails against top-down government intervention, this government has proven very partial to central planning. This package is further evidence of the problem.

Why not give a special tourism credit to be spent with any eligible business - like a beefed up version of the NSW government’s tourism and hospitality vouchers - with a separate programme for disadvantaged regions?

50% off what? What’s an airfare?

There are many other silly things in the design of the package.

Its key offering, 50% off airfares, implies there is such a thing as a set airfare. 50% off what? How much is an airfare?

Airlines use demand-driven dynamic pricing to determine fares. Published fares are long gone. That means that there is no objective "fare" on any given route. I have searched for evidence of airline compliance requirements to minimise airline waste or abuse in the package, and have found nothing.

It means that once again, COVID stimulus is likely to miss the most disadvantaged tourism businesses while being unaccountably lavished on the airline big end of town.

Then there is the bad idea of putting airlines at the centre of tourism.

One of the positives of the COVID crisis has been that we have supported and celebrated our local businesses - including tourism businesses. This is an idea worth holding on to post-COVID. It has many enduring benefits - including making us care more about cultivating the places we live.

It makes tourism more aware and protective of the immediate environment. And it can help us to transition to a less environmentally harmful and carbon intensive tourism economy. These are lessons the government missed.

The scheme should give special attention to some destinations, like Cairns and the Northern Territory, that have been inordinately impacted by the collapse of international tourism. But many remote destinations to benefit from the package have experienced normal or better trading through the pandemic - most notably in Western Australia.

The notion that a downtown tourism business or hotel is less deserving of COVID support than those in some remote destinations handpicked by team Scomo, is incomprehensibly stupid.

At the end of this particular misdirected dose of stimulus, airlines will be pleased - especially by the seeming lack of governance in the package. Some tourism businesses will derive a secondary benefit from airlines. Many tourism businesses will remain teetering on the edge. And Australia's bungled vaccine rollout looks set to further prolong the wait for better times.

Parramatta - Australia’s great heritage tourism failure

Parramatta was at the centre of the development of the British penal colony of New South Wales from its beginnings in 1788. Right now it’s at the centre of a property development boom that includes the controversial $800 million Powerhouse Museum project. Despite the bucketloads of cash pouring into Parramatta, the rich heritage tourism opportunities of Sydney's second CBD have never been properly recognised or realised.

A few years ago I was working on a heritage tourism project about Parramatta in Sydney's western suburbs and I asked the concierge at a local international hotel if there were any local historical sites I should visit? She politely advised that there was nothing of historical interest in Parramatta but The Rocks in the city was a great place for history and heritage seekers.

A few days later, I asked one of the staff in the tourism information centre in The Rocks whether there was anything to see in Parramatta. I got the same answer. In The Rocks, I was told, I had Sydney's history at my fingertips. No reason to travel to Parramatta.

These answers were unsurprising. There's a good chance this is what most Sydney residents would say - including a good many Parramatta residents.

When Australians think convict history and heritage, they think The Rocks, Hyde Park Barracks, Port Arthur, Macquarie Harbour, Fremantle Western Australia and other destinations. The international tourism industry thinks the same way.

All of these places have built tourism visitation and a tourism economy around their heritage sites.

Parramatta rarely makes the cut.

Yet Parramatta is equally significant, and has equal or better heritage assets.

Most Australians are unaware of Parramatta’s penal colony history and the remnants of that time, and even less so, Parramatta’s important role in the frontier wars as the British took their colony deeper into First Nations territory.

Missed opportunity - part of the Female Factory precinct © Mark Bowyer

One of Australia’s most impressive heritage sites lies unknown in Parramatta - The Female Factory © Mark Bowyer

Parramatta's failure to establish its deserved position as a heritage tourism destination has many causes. But as record amounts of money flood into the booming city, a fresh and focused effort needs to be made to ensure that heritage opportunities are a fixture in Parramatta's future.

I've visited and photographed all of Parramatta's major heritage properties many times. They include Old Government House, the oldest standing public building in Australia, and Elizabeth Farm, the oldest standing residential dwelling in Australia and the former residence of the Macarthur family.

They’re the best known destinations in Parramatta, well managed and well presented. But I’ve seen few indications that they receive the visitor numbers they should - during or before the pandemic.

Old Government House Parramatta © Mark Bowyer

The Macarthur Family residence, Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta © Mark Bowyer

Recently I've taken an interest in two Parramatta heritage locations that are begging for proper recognition - St John's Cemetery (1790) and the Female Factory (1821).

They should be among Australia's best known convict history sites. But they're virtually unknown. In any other place in Australia they'd be well managed and resourced heritage tourism destinations. But not in Parramatta.

St John's Cemetery is the oldest European Cemetery in Australia (1790), home to the oldest original European grave (1791). It’s the resting place of more than 50 First Fleeters, and other notable figures in the early penal colony. But it's neglected, and doesn't even have the most token signage and presentation, to match its obvious significance (the bit of paper hanging from the noticeboard doesn’t count). It's no different to any abandoned, neglected cemetery anywhere in Australia. But this place is important. And most Australians know nothing of it.

St John’s Cemetery Parramatta - a picture of heritage neglect. ©Mark Bowyer

The oldest original European grave on Australian soil - you’d never know…. St John’s Cemetery Parramatta. ©Mark Bowyer

The lost opportunity at the Female Factory precinct in North Parramatta is more serious. This is the largest and oldest female convict site in Australia with many original structures. What makes this site different is its potential to become a multi-use landmark in Sydney - events, exhibitions, markets - a real community heritage asset. Yet it remains neglected, undeveloped and mostly unknown. It is one of the most impressive and wasted heritage sites in Australia.

The neglect of the Female Factory is a major economic loss to Parramatta and New South Wales.

In Hobart, a later, less significant Female Factory, has few structures on the site. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage listed convict site and a major tourism destination in the city.

Hobart created a World Heritage site out of a lesser remnant. Cascades Female Factory. © Mark Bowyer

Why not Parramatta?

The new Parramatta metro will link the Female Factory site to Parramatta station and the public transport network - a perfect opportunity to finally bring this site and its stories to the world.

Parramatta's heritage assets have long been undervalued and lacking a coherent management and tourism strategy. The creative development of The Female Factory precinct as a community and tourism site would create an anchor heritage destination that would bring benefit all of Parramatta. This should be a priority.

There’s been enough excitement about shiny skyscrapers in Parramatta and enough built. It’s time to put some serious energy into community spaces and Parramatta’s long unrealised tourism potential.

The State Government seems hellbent on its curious $800 million Powerhouse Museum plans. The Female Factory should take precedence.

Too much tech - a visit to Sydney’s upgraded Hyde Park Barracks museum

Sydney's Hyde Park Barracks (1819) is one of the city's most important heritage buildings. In 2019, the World Heritage listed former convict barracks closed for an $18 million bicentennial renovation. It’s open again and we recently headed back for a look at the upgrade.

World Heritage listed Hyde Park Barracks in the heart of Sydney, is a striking piece of early 19th century architecture connecting with the city's early convict past, women in the colony across the 19th century, and the dispossession of the city’s indigenous people.

I've visited Hyde Park Barracks numerous times in the past and was excited to see what $18 million would look like as an investment in a museum upgrade - especially in one of Sydney's most precious heritage assets.

Sydney Living Museums, the people who run Hyde Park Barracks and other historical sites across Sydney, brought in exhibition and media designer, Local Projects, to design the new experience. The New York based firm was commissioned to bring "contemporary interpretative techniques, immersive installations and unconventional interactive elements."

Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Sydney

Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Sydney - superb original features.

I came away from my recent visit a tad underwhelmed by the upgrade.

At the heart of the new “experience” is a high-tech audio guide that tracks you through the museum. Sensors detect your movement and automatically trigger audio presentations in each location.

The first rule of fancy tech is that it must work. In my case, the audio presentation kept jumping from one exhibit to another if I took a step back or forward. And the devices, that looked like iPhones, had no manual controls. So I couldn't manually return to a particular segment in a presentation, or repeat something of special interest. It felt a little too clever and not as functional or flexible as I would like. I mentioned this to staff as I left and their reaction seemed to indicate that other visitors had encountered the same issues.

Had the technology worked smoothly, I would still have been frustrated by the rigidity of the experience. There are almost no written words in the museum. This was a design decision of big consequence. Visitors follow a course set by the audio guide and the visual experience - minus text.

Author and Sydney historian Ian Hoskins told me, "The first thing that struck me was the absence of text, whether in the form of interpretative panels or object labels. With little or no context the objects - tools, clothing, clay pipes - become props in a narrated 'experience' rather than centrepieces in themselves."

The best museum experiences allow for both superficial skimming and deep dives, depending on the interests of the visitor. Museums can't hope to be able to adequately cover the range of visitor expectations from school groups to educated history buffs, in a single narrative. But that's what the new barracks fitout seems to be attempting.

Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Sydney

Nothing in my decades of visiting museums across the world has convinced me that it is time to remove text from the museum experience. While I don't doubt that the appetite for text may be decreasing in many traveller segments, I still see museum visitors of all ages devouring text panels. Text enables museums to broaden their outreach to different traveller interests.

I'm reminded of a developing world museum that recounts a traumatic story, the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. Tuol Sleng operates on a modest budget, but the core buildings and displays are impactful. It's not uncommon at Tuol Sleng to see tourists of all ages engaging for long periods with text-intensive panels. My experience is that when the story is compelling, there will be an appetite for text and depth. Text provides a better means of retention of information - assuming that is a priority. Like Hyde Park Barracks, Tuol Sleng is a deeply atmospheric setting that provokes engagement. Unlike Hyde Park Barracks, a lot less than $18 million was spent on creating the visitor experience.

Reading panels of text - Tuol Sleng Museum, Phnom Penh

Reading panels of text - Tuol Sleng Museum, Phnom Penh

The languages of Australia’s key international tourism markets are overlooked in the audio tour as well, negating the obvious advantage that audio tours provide for multilingual presentation. How can Australia in 2020 be producing big-budget museum upgrades that are not multilingual? (Sydney Living Museums advises that a Mandarin version of the audio tour is in the pipeline).

The thematic emphasis taken in the new presentations - convict life, indigenous dispossession and women, all work well. The presentations are fine too - as far as they go. The display installations in some rooms felt heavy handed and unaware of the untreated quality of Hyde Park Barracks as a setting.

I don't want to be too negative. I enjoyed my visit and love the Hyde Park Barracks structure and setting. The $18 million price tag created an expectation that I felt went unmet. I recommend you check out Hyde Park Barracks for yourself. Tickets are $24 with a discount for residents of New South Wales.

Talking travel scams with Google CEO Sundar Pichai - an imaginary meeting Part 1

Providing users with high quality, accurate and trusted information is sacrosanct to us.
Sundar Pichai, CEO Google
US Congress 11 December 2018

By some analysis, Google is the biggest travel company in the world. Its pervasiveness across so many areas of commercial activity can blur efforts to make sense of its impact on a specific industry like travel.

I've been aware of Google’s enormous impact on the travel and tourism industry since I started publishing Rusty Compass more than a decade ago. I've had to reluctantly accept the company at the centre of my professional world since then. I use a bewildering array of Google services in my businesses - Google Analytics, Google Adsense, Google DFP, Google Search Console, Google Documents, Google Cloud, YouTube, Google My Business, Google G Suite, Google Maps, Google Reviews, Google AMP, Google Pagespeed - there may be more.

All of these products contribute in diverse ways to Google’s expansive market power. The list of Google impacts on the travel space is long and I intend to explore these in future pieces here at thinkingtravel.com. I’ll also be looking at other big tech players like Facebook, TripAdvisor and the big OTAs.

Travel is an especially revealing place to explore Google’s character and impact. It’s an area of high profitability for the company - at least it was pre-COVID - and it crosses into so many areas of the company’s activity - as my list above shows.

Google has been in the news a lot lately. CEO Sundar Pichai’s recent appearance at US Congressional hearing alongside other tech heavies, Bezos, Cook and Zuckerberg, represented a rare foray into the public domain from one of the world’s most secretive companies. At Google, different standards apply to corporate secrecy and the privacy rights of the users of the company’s products.

As I watched Mr Pichai facing questions from congressmen and women, I wondered which travel issue I might raise with him - given the opportunity. There are so many issues, but Pichai is a busy man so if I was to meet him, I’d need to keep my questions brief. I would start with a single Google failure and source of consumer harm that is emblematic of some of the biggest failings of Google and big tech - the culture that privileges scale and profit above accountability, in a way that is not available to most corporations.

Most of my insights about big tech and travel come from my other other home, Vietnam, where I’ve worked in travel for almost 3 decades. Vietnam’s arrival on the global tourism stage in the 1990s coincided with the arrival of big tech. You could say they’ve grown up together.

In my short hearing, I would ask Sundar about widespread scamming that is enabled on Google’s ad network, specifically the prominence of fake airline scammers in Google’s paid search results in Vietnam. Variations of these scams occur elsewhere in Google’s ad network all around the world so I suspect Sundar is aware of them.

The scam works like this. Criminals create fake websites copying key elements from airline websites, and then buy up ad space on Google to promote the scam sites. The more lucrative the scam, the more money the scammer has to buy up ads on Google. Google’s interests are aligned with the scammer’s. These scams have been bringing profits to Google (and the scammers) at the expense of travellers for years. I have no idea what happens when travellers click on these Google's ads and find themselves on the fake airline websites. But I doubt it’s good.

Vietnam's successful budget airline, Vietjet, is widely scammed by third parties copying its website with URL's like vietjets.com.vn, vietjetonlines.vn and promoting their fake sites with Google ads that put their links at the top of Google search results. The fake websites look like the real Vietjet website and would be especially effective in Vietnamese, where English language airline names are likely to cause confusion. Like most scams, this one would be most effective on the elderly and the vulnerable.

A Vietnam search for the Vietjet website. Good luck finding it in this lot.

One of the fakes.

And the real thing

Vietnam's national carrier, Vietnam Airlines, finds itself scammed too. Vietnamairslines.com (note the stray "s") is a Google ads partner scamming travellers and enriching the burghers at Google.

Vietnam Airslines

And the real thing

Google is more than a passive enabler of these scams. The company presents the ads at the top of its search results, which are barely distinguishable from the real "organic" search results. It's very easy for consumers to be snared.

If Google can’t keep scams out of the advertising network from which is derives its profits, and where it has a direct relationship with scammers or their agents, what hope that it can protect consumers from scammers in its search results, reviews, YouTube and other Google products? What hope that Google can shield us from COVID misinformation, political extremism, trolling and malicious lies? What hope that Sundar can make good on his promise of providing “high quality, accurate and trusted information”.

The negligence of governments when it comes to protecting consumers from these scams is even more egregious than Google's complicity.

If web giants like Google and Facebook were subject to the same commonsense regulation and accountability that governs most businesses, these scams would quickly disappear. Their stubborn persistence over years proves the unaccountability at the heart of Google's ad business and the principles upon which the company is founded. It also proves that it will take a lot of effort to persuade Google to uphold Mr Pichai’s aspiration.

Google's capacity to maintain its reputation and its grubby business model in spite of the harm caused by these and other scams are feats more impressive than any of its technological accomplishments.

Hoi An's Mango Group launches a new brand in challenging times

While restaurants around the globe have been pondering an uncertain coronavirus future, Hoi An's Mango Group took the bold step of launching a new delivery-based brand and cafe. Urban Fresh began delivering gastro-cafe cuisine in March during lockdown . With Vietnam easing coronavirus restrictions this week, founders Tran Duc and Ben Attwater have added their new cafe space.

Urban Fresh Hoi An - photo - Urban Fresh

During the days of lockdowns and social distancing, the pivot to delivery was a necessity for restaurants around the world. Delivery’s been the best hope owners have had for keeping some cashflow on the books, kitchens active and brands in the public eye.

Tran Duc and Ben Attwater from Hoi An's Mango restaurant group, took a step further. While they were forced to temporarily close the doors on some of the heritage town’s best loved and most established eateries, like Mango Mango and Mango Rooms, they decided to launch Urban Fresh, a new brand and food concept.

Thinking Travel spoke with Australian co-founder Ben Attwater, last week.

He told us the Urban Fresh concept has been brewing for some time.

"As the coronavirus became more serious and we could see that Hoi An's restaurants would soon be forced to close, we decided to go out with something new, with strong delivery, that seemed like a good fit for people stuck at home. It worked well, and now things are opening up again in Vietnam, we’ve opened the cafe space too”, he said.

"We've temporarily repurposed the kitchen at ThirtySeven Woodfired Grill + Bar and Chef Alonso Zarate and his team are now preparing a menu of elevated gastro cafe food. It's fresh, local and organic where possible. You can also be naughty, have a burger and a local craft beer, and feel good afterwards. Super food's on the menu too".

"The menu's concise but the range is broad - something new in Hoi An. There are salads, wraps, burgers, pastas and daily specials."

“Hoi An’s heading into summer, things are opening up, and we’re expecting a strong bounce from the domestic and expat markets. The beaches and the food scene in Hoi An will be a popular escape with shutdown-weary locals and residents. Hoi An has a special vibe right now and there are great deals too. “

Ben emphasised the effort that's gone into getting the Urban Fresh delivery process right. He said, "The packaging is plastic-free and a specialised Urban Fresh delivery team has been recruited to ensure extra hygiene standards are followed from the kitchen to the customer's door."

Urban Fresh has been open 4 weeks in what must be one of the most competitive delivery markets in Vietnam. 70 of Hoi An's restaurants have been offering take-away to keep the doors open during the coronavirus shutdown.

Urban Fresh is now operational for delivery and from its heritage space in Hoi An’s old town.

Urban Fresh
37 Phan Boi Chau St
Hoi An
https://www.urbanfreshhoian.com/

Vietnam eases coronavirus restrictions and the tourism industry tentatively reopens

As Vietnam tentatively relaxes coronavirus restrictions, tourism and hospitality businesses across the country will be hoping for a surge in domestic travel to compensate for the absence of international visitors.

Vietnam has been ahead of the coronavirus fight since first reports from Wuhan hit in January. School and border closures, contact tracing, quarantines, public education and a culture that rises to national challenges, meant the country was able to begin relaxing coronavirus restrictions last Friday - ahead of most in the region and the developed world. The major cities, Hanoi and Saigon, and provincial areas, have taken small steps towards resuming a semblance of normal life, but what's next for the travel industry?

© Mark Bowyer - Ho Chi Minh City is reopening

Vietnam's achievements in fighting the coronavirus have not received much international attention, but with under 300 cases diagnosed, no deaths and a carefully executed national campaign, last Friday the country began to tentatively reopen.

While nobody would predict Vietnam or any country is is out of the pandemic woods, it's an impressive milestone.

While Vietnamese are set to enjoy a return to some mobility and many tourism sites have announced plans to reopen in the coming days, the rewards of the country's early progress in battling the coronavirus will not be realised in the international tourism space for some time. There are no plans to resume regular international flights yet and arrivals will continue to be subject to 14 day quarantine.

So while Vietnam has avoided the worst scenarios of the coronavirus crisis, the international tourism industry faces a grim wait. And while many may have weathered the first storm, a protracted closure of international arrivals will cause more tourism and hospitality businesses to fail.

Most tourism companies haven't seen revenue for 6 weeks and many have been struggling all year. Airlines, with their massive overheads, have seen their operations and revenue slashed. Hotels have been near empty for months and many have closed. Smaller businesses like cafes and restaurants have pivoted to delivery to survive the crisis.

Even if Vietnam builds on its successes to date, there seems to be little prospect of any resumption of international tourism arrivals for months. That leaves an industry built for both large and fast-growing domestic and inbound tourism in recent years, squabbling over the domestic market.

Vietnam's domestic market has been an impressive driver of tourism growth in recent years. It dwarfs the International market in numbers, though not average spend. In 2019, Vietnam received 18 million international guests while domestic travellers racked up an enormous 80 million journeys - just under one journey for everybody in the country of 90-plus million. Summer destinations for the domestic market like Hoi An, Nha Trang, Quy Nhon, Phu Quoc, Da Nang and Ha Long Bay will be hoping the 2020 season can bring some relief from the year’s challenges. A strong domestic tourism rebound combined with the simultaneous closure of outbound tourism, will provide some buffer for local tourism businesses during the global slowdown of the coming months.

The domestic market will face its own challenges as the coronavirus economic slowdown dampens domestic demand. And some tourism businesses and destinations are better tailored to the tastes of the domestic market than others. Some will struggle to make the transition.

Vietnam has proven itself a world leader in the competent management of the coronavirus so far. But as those who work in the tourism industry consider heading back to the office, new challenges lie ahead.

Don't forget the inspirational small tourism businesses struggling through the coronavirus crisis

Mu Cang Chai - Yen Bai, Vietnam © Mark Bowyer

The tourism industry tragedies being served up by the coronavirus crisis are too numerous to get your head around. Much of the media attention has been focused on the big players - airlines, cruise lines and major tourism corporations. But the heart and soul of the tourism industry, and its most valuable economic development work, happens in disadvantaged remote areas across the globe.

As I've been looking through images and video from my 2019 travels, I've been especially alarmed to consider the impact the crisis must be having on the most fragile communities I visited last year in Vietnam's far north.

VIetnam’s far north is the most unique and dramatic part of the country. And like remote places all around the world that have built a dependence on tourism, some of Vietnam's most fragile communities will be hit hard by the coronavirus shutdowns.

At its best, tourism brings benefits to remote communities © 2020 Mark Bowyer

There's plenty of cause for cynicism about the way tourism plays out in remote communities with limited economic power. Sapa in Vietnam's far north is a study in overtourism and the destructive power of tourism. But many of the businesses in these regions are not part of the mass-tourism juggernaut. Many of them have been built around respect and support for local communities. Many of them have put the protection of these communities and the breathtaking settings where they live, at the centre of what they do. The impact of the coronavirus crisis on these important businesses is heartbreaking.

So, as a little reminder, here's a video I made about the coolest place I stayed in 2019. Mu Cang Chai ecolodge is a blissfully simple place in Yen Bai province. It neatly encompasses many of the best values of travel - it's low-impact in all senses, it complements its setting, it employs local people and it puts the simple beauty of its location at the heart of its operation.

Enjoy this video and let's keep thinking about inspirational people and places during these times of travel restrictions. If you run a business in these parts, be sure we're thinking of you and we hope you're doing OK. As soon as we can travel again, we’ll be heading out to spread the word about the great work you do.

You can check out Rusty Compass's guide to Yen Bai province here.

2020 is a catastrophe for the travel industry - what’s next?

When will the cruise industry recover? Princess Cruises ship at Sydney’s White Bay Photo ©Mark Bowyer

The new decade got off to a bad start for the travel industry - then it got worse. It’s only April but it seems reasonable to write-off 2020 as a catastrophe to be survived, and consider what lies ahead for our industry. Mark Bowyer, thinks aloud about the crisis and beyond.

As New Year's Eve 2020 approached, Sydney's city government was faced with an unprecedented dilemma. Should the city proceed with annual fireworks over its iconic harbour, while large parts of the country burned? The city’s reputation as an international tourism destination would have weighed on officials when they took the decision to go ahead with the celebrations.

The fires didn't stop for the celebrations or the new decade. They ravaged homes and beach towns, destroyed National Parks and native habitat. Sydney, Melbourne and the capital Canberra were smothered in smoke. Australia's travel industry was shaken by a sense of vulnerability.

While the fires raged in Australia, a new threat to the global travel industry began to spread, faster than a raging fire, from Wuhan, China. By late January, the novel coronavirus had demolished outbound tourism from the world's biggest source market. The global travel industry scrambled to manage the idea of a year without Chinese tourists.

By late February, the epicentre of the coronavirus shifted from China to Europe and then to the US.

With this shift came the unthinkable - the closure of much of global tourism and aviation.

Nobody in our industry could have imagined, less prepared, for a disaster of this scale. And there are so many unimaginable things happening globally right now that, like me, you're probably wondering about the future of your business, your job, your industry and the people and the values that make it happen?

It may seem early, but we all need to start thinking seriously about the travel industry that will follow this crisis. Will it snap back to December 2019? Has it changed forever? How quick will the recovery be? Is there a future in it for us?

I think we should assume that the travel industry as we have known it has gone forever. Whenever global tourism makes its tentative return, and that may still be more than six months away (and I did say tentative), many businesses large and small will no longer exist. And travellers as we understood them in 2019 will be changed forever too. There will be fewer of them. And their interests and preferences will be different.

Nobody in our industry has any experience of a crisis like this. When SARS hit in 2003, I was running an inbound operation in Vietnam, Travel Indochina. Like most travel businesses at the time, we were wiped out for a few months. But the recovery was swift and durable. This is different. SARS was a limited crisis. It was quickly contained, it only impacted a handful of countries. It barely touched the global economy. In 2003, the world was a far less globalised place and global tourism was far smaller in scale than it was before COVID 19.

Consider for a moment some of the massive changes that lie ahead.

How will the budget airlines survive the crisis? Photo © Mark Bowyer

Aviation

It seems likely that some, perhaps many airlines will collapse in the coming months. No day passes without talk of a bail-out. Governments are already big players in aviation. They will become bigger players as they step in to support what they believe to be essential transport infrastructure.

Available capacity will shrink and when demand slowly ramps back up, with less capacity and less competition, seats will likely be more expensive. Of particular interest will be how budget airlines will survive the crisis and what position they'll hold in a post-coronavirus aviation market? They are less likely to be viewed as essential infrastructure.

The only positive thing on the aviation horizon is the low oil price. But you need revenue to realise that benefit.

How will consumer preferences look in the aviation space post-coronavirus? Will the appetite for long haul travel bounce back? Will travellers look closer to home? Will they be more or less inclined to favour budget options?


The cruise industry

The future of cruising looks even more tenuous. The major cruise companies first have to get through the immediate crisis. It has already stretched many to breaking point. Then they have to consider the likelihood that the appetite for cruising as it has boomed during the past decade, may never return.

Even if the wider travel industry can begin to reopen in some modest fashion in the coming months, the coronavirus risks will remain real across the globe until a vaccine or an effective treatment is found. That may take years. The now well-earned reputation of cruise ships as hyper-incubators of viruses and other bugs will be hard to change.

The cruise industry has earned many critics - especially the operators of monstrous, polluting ships that disgorge their human cargo for brief high-impact raids on the world's great tourism sites before moving on.

Some will welcome a forced rethink of this industry.

Sihanoukville Cambodia - overtourism excess without the tourists. Photo: © Mark Bowyer

A smaller industry and the end of overtourism - for now

The relentless growth of the budget airline and cruise businesses has been a big driver of another tourism industry malady over the past decade - overtourism. The cruise industry has been a special target for those concerned about tourism excesses. But there have been others. Budget Airlines and Airbnb have also received special attention in conversations about how too much tourism can wreck destinations and the lives of the local people who live in them.

“The key criticism has been that huge corporations with their high-impact tourism models treat places, people and culture like fast food for rapid consumption and disposal, maximising environmental and social harm and leaving little for local communities.”

The key criticism has been that huge corporations with their high-impact tourism models treat places, people and culture like fast food for rapid consumption and disposal, maximising environmental and social harm and leaving little for local communities.

Overtourism is not likely to be a concern for some time. Undertourism will become a thing in places with big tourist infrastructure, an economy dependent on tourism, and no tourists. The inclination to travel will be blunted while the risks of virus remain. The capacity to travel will be reduced by global economic uncertainty , unemployment and economic insecurity.

Traveller tastes will change on the back of the crisis too.

A travel industry built for the scale and preferences of 2019, will need shrink and adapt. That will be a challenge for all of us in the industry, as well as governments and travellers.

There is likely to be a drift to quality in the short term as travel becomes a privilege again - rather than a commodity.

If we're lucky, the industry that emerges from the crisis might be more aware of its environmental, economic, community and cultural responsibilities.

A smaller industry means fewer tourism jobs

The first defence of any industry in crisis is to point out the number of jobs it supports. The tourism industry has a better case to make here than most. We've heard a lot about aviation jobs and cruise industry jobs in recent weeks.

They're a small part of the story.

Millions of small businesses are the real heart of the tourism industry. They've had less attention in discussions about tourism job losses.

The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that tourism produces more than 1 in 10 jobs globally. That's a staggering number of lives, families and micro economies. I can't think of an industry that supports so many small businesses.

Just as important as the global network of small tourism businesses is how they are distributed across the globe, delivering economic benefits to some of the most disadvantaged and remote communities in the developing world. Those millions of small businesses will already be facing disaster.

When you hear about airlines and cruise ships lining up for government money, spare a thought for the family owned restaurants, homestays, tour operators and guides, stallholders and drivers in some of the most beautiful, remote and disadvantaged places you've visited. And how every cent spent in those communities makes a measurable difference to some of the most disadvantaged people on the planet.

Our industry does a lot of good worldwide. And there's plenty we can do better. It's gonna be tough for at least 12 months for most of us working in travel and tourism. Let's work towards a better, more accountable, more sustainable industry on the other side.

Parks and green spaces of Saigon

A timely reminder from Rusty Compass of green spaces in Saigon’s central area for travellers looking for a place to walk and breathe.

Air pollution in Hanoi and Saigon is getting ever more media attention. The difficulty and safety risk of sharing sidewalks with increasingly brazen motorcycle riders in Saigon can make walking in the city hazardous and unpleasant. Neither are good for tourism. And they make a city's green spaces all the more important.

In an effort ti accentuate the positive, we’ve created a travel guide to Saigon’s downtown parks and green spaces over at Rusty Compass. They're interesting places to get away from the frenzied activity of the city. And you'll find some tasty tidbits of history too.

Check out our guide to Saigon green spaces here.

Sihanoukville Cambodia - a tourism development binge like few others

Otres beach - don’t turn around….

In June 2019, a building collapse in Sihanoukville, on Cambodia’s southern coast, killed 28 local workers. It was a tragedy that shone a light on the scale and speed of change in the once sleepy beachside town. Sihanoukville is in the messy mid-stages of one of the most all-consuming processes of tourism development ever seen in the region. Cranes fill the sky, construction dust fills the air. Chinese mass tourism, especially gambling tourism, is the focus.

As I wandered Sihanoukville’s deserted Otres Beach recently, I remembered writing just five years ago that this was the most appealing stretch of a mediocre selection of beaches in the area. The beaches weren’t the problem. It was what was around the beaches. But Otres Beach was slightly less overwhelmed by backpacker and other tourism excess than other nearby beach spots.

Five years later, almost everything that was on Otres back then has been demolished. The same applies to most of the places I remember from visits to Sihanoukville over the past 20 years. Sihanoukville has experienced one of the fastest tourism development binges ever seen in South East Asia. And it continues.

The new unfinished Sihanoukville

One of the fastest mass tourism development binges Asia has seen

Tuk Tuks sidelined - Sihanoukville

A skyline transformed - Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville's reputation for showcasing the worst of tourism goes back a long way. The problems have never been about the natural appeal of the area. The setting is beautiful and the beaches are too. It’s what tourists and the tourism industry have done to the place - like so many other places around the world.

Sadly for Sihanoukville, things have gone from bad to worse.

If you visited this city, formerly known as Kampong Som, in the late 90s, you would have found a mostly mellow town with a large amount of sleaze left over from the UNTAC United Nations military presence in Cambodia in the early 90s. There were still ruined villas lining the beach road, reminders of the city’s popularity as an escape for wealthy Cambodians before the Khmer Rouge genocide ravaged the country in the 1970s.

By 2010, the sleaze was overwhelmed by a backpacker party scene drawn to all night binges, 50 cent beers and other excesses that flourished in the absence of the restraints young backpackers were accustomed to at home.

Now, the backpackers have mostly gone. They’ve moved their attention elsewhere, including the islands off Sihanoukville - Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem - where the party rolls on.

The latest phase in Sihanouville’s tourism evolution has followed the arrival of Chinese casino developers. They’ve landed with such force that there is little space left for anything else - including decades-old local businesses and other tourism market segments.

Anyone coming back to Sihanoukville after a few years will likely struggle to find the hotels, restaurants and the bars of earlier visits.

Media reports after the tragic June construction accident said there are now more than 80 casinos in Sihanoukville - most Chinese owned. During my brief visit, I saw a staggering number of cranes and construction sites. Progress on construction sites looked uneven - reflecting a rumoured slowdown.

Word around town is that the recent ban on online gambling operations has caused a big fall in the number of Chinese nationals living in the city and a downturn in economic activity.

Sihanoukville - old businesses trying to survive in a new tourism economy

Sihanoukville and Cambodia tourism

The decision to tie Sihanoukville’s future to casino tourism has had a wider impact on tourism in Cambodia too.

Tour operators I spoke with working in Cambodia's heritage tourism segment, told me the bad international press that has accompanied Sihanoukville’s casino tourism development has hurt Cambodia as a destination in other market segments.

It makes sense that Angkor Wat, one of the world’s greatest cultural icons, might not be a good brand fit with low-quality gambling tourism.

Other industry professionals mentioned that by tying Sihanoukville’s future to one core market (Chinese gamblers), the country had lost an opportunity to build a diverse beach tourism profile - an important offering for any destination.

The beaches of the south coast promised to provide an add-on for high-end tourists to Angkor. Those ambitions have been dampened by Sihanoukville’s development decisions.

High-end resorts like the newly opened Six Senses Krabey Island and the Song Saa private island, will be hoping to distance themselves from the reputation of their gateway city.

Operators and locals also complained that many Chinese mass market operators in Sihanoukville run a closed shop, privileging other Chinese businesses and products at the expense of local businesses, reducing benefit to the local economy.

Sihanoukville’s story is still unfolding. It’s safe to say that it will be off the radar for people seeking a quiet beach escape for a while.

You can read more about Sihanoukville's tourism situation in this Guardian piece from 2018.

Angkor set to get even better for cyclists

Angkor is already one of the great cycling destinatons

Cambodia’s Apsara Authority is building 23 kilometres of cycling paths around the temples of Angkor. It’ll make a superb cycling destination even better.

I rate Angkor as one of the best casual cycling destinations in Asia - and that’s before the creation of a 23 kilometre cycling trail, recently announced by the Apsara Authority.

Cyclists around Angkor already enjoy cycling lanes along the main roads. But those are shared with traffic - which can be busy at certain times of day. The new paths will separate cyclists from other traffic improving safety and the cycling experience.

Family cycling at Angkor set to get even better

Angkor is already leading the way in cycling tourism - and it’s about to get better. We hope other destinations take note. In Vietnam, the travel experience in Hoi An and Hue would be greatly improved with dedicated cycling paths.

For more on cycling Angkor, head over to Rusty Compass and this guide.

Saigon's Caravelle Hotel takes the lead in eliminating single-use plastic

Saigon’s Caravelle Hotel

Saigon’s historic Caravelle Hotel has recently come back online after a major renovation. The newly appointed rooms bring a new policy on plastic waste that will massively reduce the 5 star property's plastic waste output.

The Caravelle Hotel is one of a handful of historic hotels in Saigon’s heart. And the team there like to draw attention to a long history of groundbreaking innovation. The 1950s modernist design was the work of Vietnamese architect Nguyen Van Hoa - representing the fresh optimism of those early post-colonial years.

Stylish reusable glass bottles and pure water dispensers on every floor - simple but effective.

Getting rid of plastic at Saigon’s Caravelle Hotel

In 2019 The Caravelle is celebrating its 60th anniversary. It's taking the lead once again with a new single-use plastic policy that will achieve massive reductions in the hotel’s plastic waste output.

The new guest rooms use refillable, resealable glass water bottles in place of plastic bottles, each floor is now fitted with a pure cold water dispensing machine, and toiletries are dispensed from reusable containers.

According to the hotel, these simple steps will cut an estimated 200,000 plastic water bottles, or seven tons of plastic, from the environment.

Those numbers, reflecting the plastic waste output of one hotel, give a sense of the scale of the plastic waste produced across our entire industry of hotels, restaurants and bars.

Michael Robinson, the Caravelle’s General Manager issued a challenge to the city’s other five star properties, saying, “We’re the most environmentally friendly hotel in the city by far. It’s definitely possible, and it’s definitely possible now. Waiting is unacceptable.”

Congratulations to the Caravelle, and may their initiative produce a contest with other luxury properties and hotels across all categories, to reduce plastic waste and lift the environmental standards of the industry across the board.

If you're aware of important new environmental initiatives in the travel industry - plastic, renewable energy, water treatment or anything else, let us know at info@rustycompass.com