International Tourism in South East Asia from 1975 to 2009 A Political Perspective

The paper reviews international tourism in South East Asia in the years 1975 to 2009 with particular reference to the effects of politics on destination development. Tourist arrivals are shown to have expanded considerably across the region, although different countries have distinctive profiles and emergent patterns are explained by the operation of key determinants. Factors and forces related to politics are revealed to be critical in the accounts of evolving tourism policies which are discussed within the context of wider political circumstances. The period is seen to be one of both political change and some continuity which have generally facilitated the growth of tourism, but impediments originating in politics still exist and the future is one of some uncertainty.