Abstract | This book is aimed at understanding the contested role that tourism plays in achieving development in Southeast Asia. In this context, Southeast Asia represents a diverse region with different historical, political, and socioeconomic developments and a broad range of natural and cultural tourist attractions. These assets, along with favourable tourism policies, have meant that over the last three decades, international tourist arrivals in the region skyrocketed from 21.2 million in 1990 to 129 million in 2018 (UNWTO, 2019). While Southeast Asian countries feature diverse socioeconomic and political developments, all have – to different extents – embraced tourism as a vehicle for income generation and job creation (Trupp, 2018). Simultaneously, however, different forms of (mass) tourism development have led to unequal distribution of economic benefits, overexploitation of resources, and uncontrolled tourism development. |
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