There are certain travel trends you can feel before you see them in the numbers. This year the message from our Readers’ Choice Awards is remarkably clear: Asia is more enticing than ever.
Japan, of course, has been booming since the pandemic. I traveled there for the first time only last year and was lucky enough to be in Osaka and Kyoto the week the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. I rode an e-bike early in the mornings as the first rays of the sun started to illuminate Kyoto, and I’d stop every so often just to take in the beauty of the flowers up close, in complete solitude before the crowds arrived. It remains one of my most enchanting travel memories.
The Tremendous Revival of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya Waterfront
Tony Perrottet visits the banks of the Chao Phraya River, where old-school noodle stalls now share space with Michelin-starred restaurants and gilded temples soar over former warehouses turned art galleries.
Thailand, meanwhile, continues to pull us back for entirely different reasons. I have returned dozens of times over the years for wellness at Chiva-Som, destination weddings in Hua Hin, Bangkok’s intoxicating nights of street food and brilliant cocktail bars, and lazy beach-villa holidays in Koh Samui and Koh Yao Noi. This year Bangkok seems particularly alive. In this issue we look at the new energy gathering around the Chao Phraya, where old neighborhoods, contemporary art, excellent restaurants, and some of the world’s most iconic hotels are giving the river a new lease on life.
Perhaps what connects these places is not simply beauty, food, or hotels but exquisite hospitality. In India we have a saying: Atithi devo bhava (the guest is akin to God). Japan has omotenashi, the instinct to anticipate a guest’s needs and care for them wholeheartedly. In Thailand, nam jai speaks to generosity and kindness—the pleasure of giving without expectation. Different words, different cultures but an unmistakable common thread: Hospitality here is not a transaction. It is an innate part of the culture.
And I suspect this is why Asia’s appeal is only going to grow. In a world where tech is quickly chipping away at everything familiar, these places offer us encounters and experiences that allow us to reconnect with ourselves and with our humanity. Japan is no longer a discovery; it is a pilgrimage. Thailand is as fresh as ever. India demands and conjures a multitude of emotions. And China is poised to be one of the great travel stories of 2027.
