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Tourism and Development in Southeast Asia

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DOI: 10.14764/10.ASEAS-2015.2-1

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 Editorial

Tourism and Development in Southeast Asia

Claudia Dolezal & Alexander Trupp

► Dolezal, C., & Trupp, A. (2015). Tourism and development in Southeast Asia. ASEAS – Austrian Journal of
South-East Asian Studies, 8(2), 117-124.

Over the last decades, Southeast Asia has experienced a rapid growth in interna-
tional tourist arrivals from 21.2 million in 1990 to 96.7 million in 2014 (UNWTO,
2015a, p. 4). Tourism is no longer only regarded as a mere income generator,
creator of jobs, or socio-cultural phenomenon, but also serves as a tool to fos-
ter beneficial and locally driven development in all its dimensions (Scheyvens,
2002). Recent years have shown a steady increase in tourism being used as a tool
for development and poverty alleviation in the world’s less developed countries
(Darma Putra & Hitchcock, 2012; Holden, 2013; Novelli, 2015). Organizations
such as the World Bank, UN agencies, NGOs, and governments put tourism high
up on the agenda to achieve objectives of livelihood diversification, community
empowerment, poverty alleviation, and development (Christie et al., 2013; Spen-
celey & Meyer, 2012; UNWTO, 2013). Understandings of development have sig-
doi 10. 10.14764/10.ASEAS-2015.2-1

nificantly changed over the years, moving beyond ideas of economic growth to-
wards the inclusion of social and environmental aspects. As part of the post-2015
agenda, development focuses on the eradication of poverty and hunger as well
as on health, education, gender equality, sanitation, clean energy, and economic
growth (UN, 2015). It further includes action against climate change, responsible
consumption and production, the reduction of inequalities, and the conserva-
tion of the environment (UN, 2015). The UN includes tourism as a key activity
to contribute to the achievement of its former Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) and the newly implemented Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
www.seas.at

thus contributing to tourism being “firmly positioned in the post-2015 develop-

ment agenda” (UNWTO, 2015b, p. 2).
With broader shifts in development paradigms from top-down and external-
ly-driven development to alternative, participatory, and ‘homegrown’ develop-
ment (Potter et al., 2008), tourism in the developing world has equally experi-
enced significant changes (Telfer & Sharpley, 2008). The alternative development
paradigm prevalent in the 1980s, putting emphasis on local participation, peo-
ple, and bottom-up development (Chambers, 1983), created the grounds for the
emergence of alternative forms of tourism including ecotourism, sustainable
tourism, pro-poor tourism, and community-based tourism (CBT) – all of which
ultimately aim at generating more beneficial development for local populations
(Reid, 2003).
The rise of small-scale participatory tourism initiatives – with the larger aim
of increasing developmental benefits from tourism – was also fostered through
negative socioeconomic and ecological impacts of mass tourism in Southeast
Asia. These include the unequal distribution of economic benefits from tourism
118 Claudia Dolezal & Alexander Trupp  ASEAS 8(2)

or the overexploitation of natural resources for uncontrolled tourism resorts such as

in Pattaya, Thailand, or Kuta in Bali, Indonesia. While Harrison (2015) recently stated
that “alternative tourism will never replace mass tourism” (p. 53), one can at the same
time observe a growing interest in sustainable forms of tourism in Southeast Asia. In
countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, for instance, CBT is used as an
alternative tourism strategy to mass tourism, making room for local ownership and
fostering sustainability and cross-cultural understanding (Boonratana, 2010; Dolezal,
2014; REST, 2013). In the Lao PDR, ecotourism and CBT have officially played an
important role in national tourism planning as the local government announced its
plan to become a “world renowned destination specializing in forms of sustainable
tourism” (Lao National Tourism Administration, 2004, p. 6).
There appears to be an increasing awareness in Southeast Asian tourism that the
once ‘toured’ need to experience greater levels of decision-making and power in or-
der for tourism to work as an effective catalyst for development. As a consequence,
tourism in Southeast Asia has experienced a stronger focus on development aspects,
both within academia and in practice. Researching tourism in the developing world
is no longer limited to understanding its impacts as well as local responses and miti-
gation strategies, but actually focuses on finding practical ways for how tourism can
serve as an engine for development.
Nevertheless, tourism for development experiences regular criticism. One of
these criticisms is that alternative or sustainable forms of tourism are often vaguely
defined, referring “to anything which is not mass tourism” (Harrison, 2015, p. 64). In
fact, alternative forms of tourism are often condemned for being too small-scale, for
leading to tokenistic rather than real participation, and for increasing local inequali-
ties (Goodwin, 2009; Tosun, 2005). In addition, tourism often increases pressure on
natural resources in localities characterized by scarcity. For example, Cole (2012) il-
lustrated this issue in regards to water equity and tourism in Bali, Indonesia. For
ecotourism in Indonesia more generally, Erb (2001) has demonstrated that the envi-
ronment is perceived as a resource to be exploited, even though the kind of tourism
under study was aimed at sustainable development. In addition to environmental
impacts that compromise sustainability in Southeast Asia (Parnwell, 2009), tourism
leads to changing socio-cultural dynamics, including transformations in gender rela-
tions (Chan, 2009), cultural commodification (Cole, 2008; Trupp, 2011), and the use
of heritage for economic and political ends (Hitchcock, King, & Parnwell, 2010).
Despite these negative consequences, residents’ agency in tourism and develop-
ment is increasingly acknowledged, leading to a shift from simplistic binary divisions
of power relations between tourists and residents, towards more nuanced analyses of
tourism. Picard’s (1990, 1996) work on tourism in Bali, for instance, has demonstrated
that instead of destroying Balinese culture, tourism became a part of it and created
a “touristic culture” (Picard, 1990, p. 42), which, in turn, reinforced Balinese cultural
identity. Dolezal’s research on CBT in Bali further reveals that residents empower
themselves by playing with notions of authenticity to attract tourists and eventually
be part of the global tourism market. Trupp (2015) shows how ethnic minority street
vendors in Thailand’s urban tourist areas mobilize their social and cultural capital
and become successful micro entrepreneurs. These examples lead us to think of tour-
ism not as an external force impacting upon societies but as an internal dynamic,
with residents constituting agents rather than taking passive roles in the tourism en-
Tourism and Development in Southeast Asia 119

counter. It is therefore key to acknowledge and understand residents’ agency as well

as local factors that constitute structural constraints in those places where tourism
serves as an engine for development.
An increasing number of studies put local political contexts into the center of
their analysis, investigating how tourism can and must be in line with wider national
policies in order to ensure developmental success (Muangasame & McKercher, 2015).
Policy makers and tourism developers in Southeast Asia (and elsewhere) view tourism
as a way of increasing foreign investment and economic growth (Harrison, 2015). At
the same time, Richter (2009) suggests that “governments can and must do more to
make opportunities for their own people to travel and have recreation” (p. 145). Fos-
tering domestic and cross-border tourism in Southeast Asia is one of the strategies to
increase the local benefits from tourism, particularly when taking into consideration
the increasing spending power of some Southeast Asian economies (King, 2015; Win-
ter, 2009). Domestic tourism not only stimulates local economies through increased
tax revenue but also avoids the use of long-haul flights, ultimately enabling tourism
to follow principles of sustainability. Between 2003 and 2011, the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) provided USD 58.7 million in the form of loans and grant assistance for
the development of the tourism industry in the Greater Mekong Sub Region (ADB,
2012, p. 11). However, the positive impacts of such investments for local people also
need to be questioned, as the ADB’s program in the region features “a strong favour of
neoliberalism”, a focus on a mere increase of tourist numbers through cross-border
travel, integration of national markets, and development of the private sector (Har-
rison, 2015, p. 62).
Despite the positive impacts of tourism on residents and their livelihoods, it re-
mains questionable to what extent tourism can really contribute to development in
all its dimensions. A study by Novelli and Hellwig (2011) on the perceived contribu-
tion of tourism to the MDGs shows that tourism largely neglects health issues, such
as prevalent diseases (e.g. HIV and malaria), child mortality, and women’s health.
More effort therefore needs to come from those agents who specifically aim to tackle
these aspects of development, as well as from the tourism industry itself, in order for
tourism to cast wider health benefits. Partnerships with development agencies and
NGOs not directly related to tourism are a way forward for tourism to yield wider
developmental benefits (Saarinen, Rogerson, & Manwa, 2013). This proves crucial not
only in practice but also in academia, where multi- and interdisciplinary studies are
increasingly supported (Hitchcock et al., 2009).
By bringing together experts from a variety of backgrounds, this special issue con-
tributes to the understanding of tourism’s dynamics in Southeast Asia. It addresses a
range of concerns connected to tourism as a tool for development by drawing on case
studies from Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
V. Dao Truong and Michael Hall start the discussion on tourism and development
by focusing on social marketing and its potential for poverty alleviation. By drawing
on a case study of Sapa town in the northern highlands of Vietnam, their article dis-
cusses residents’ perception of poverty and its causes to subsequently explore wheth-
er social marketing could be a potential solution. The authors argue for an increased
use of social marketing as a tool that could potentially empower residents and bring
their oftentimes marginalized voices to the attention of decision-makers.
Maribeth Erb contributes with an ethnographic study of tourism in Nusa Teng-
120 Claudia Dolezal & Alexander Trupp  ASEAS 8(2)

gara Timur province by investigating ‘Sail Komodo’ – a marine tourism event aimed
at boosting tourist numbers and raising local standards of living in eastern Indonesia.
The author reveals the contradictory nature of tourism as a tool for development,
illustrated by examples such as the displacement of tourists at the event through gov-
ernment officials’ attendance and the lacking positive local impact that was initially
promised. By analyzing tourism through the lens of a local event, Erb ultimately illus-
trates how tourism is conceptualized as “the reason to offer development programs,
instead of seeing tourism itself as a pathway to development” (Erb, 2015, p. 159)
Claudia Dolezal shifts the discussion in another direction by offering an analysis
of CBT in Northern Thailand, moving away from the oftentimes problematic na-
ture of CBT and towards investigating the tourism encounter as a potential space for
change. By drawing on MacCannell’s work on the tourism encounter and Said’s Ori-
entalism in relation to tourism, her contribution questions the theoretical grounding
that has long influenced investigations of social interactions in tourism. She argues
that new forms of tourism such as CBT can make room for more beneficial resident-
tourist relationships. As a consequence, some of the theories that have influenced
our thinking of the tourism encounter need to be adapted or reconsidered in light
of newer, more beneficial forms of tourism. CBT therefore is not only a tool for resi-
dents to empower themselves in inventing and managing their own tourism product
in order to reap the economic benefits of tourism, but at the same time can lead to
deeper and more meaningful relationships between residents and tourists.
Huong T. Bui and Timothy J. Lee’s case study of the Imperial Citadel of Thang
Long in Hanoi, Vietnam, investigates the processes of turning heritage resources into
tourism products. The authors pay particular attention to the relationship between
heritage, identity, and tourism by investigating the process of commodification and
politicization of UNESCO World Heritage in Vietnam. Rather than being demand-
driven in its nature, Bui and Lee argue that the interpretation and presentation of
heritage at the Citadel is governed by an ideological doctrine. Based on the generated
insights, the authors ultimately offer recommendations for the management of heri-
tage in Vietnam’s tourism industry.
In the section ‘Research Workshop’, Felix M. Bergmeister offers insights into his
ongoing PhD project, investigating the construction and negotiation of “tourism
imaginaries” (Salazar, 2012) in popular guidebooks and independent travel-blogs. In
doing so, he analyses power relations as part of cultural representation in Southeast
Asian tourism, thereby unraveling dominant Western discourses. At the same time,
his research reveals insights into the possibilities that new media offers for repre-
sentation, being more experience-based and forming ideas about Southeast Asian
countries in new and very particular ways.
‘In Dialogue’ features an interview by Christina Vogler with Nancy Lindley, head
of the Chiang Mai Expats Club and coordinator of Lanna Care Net, a network provid-
ing assistance for elderly foreigners settling down in Thailand. The interview offers
insights into the expats community, the challenges that retirees from abroad are fac-
ing in Chiang Mai, and the system of care for elderly foreigners. The contribution
thus blurs the boundaries between tourism and migration and discusses what hap-
pens when tourists become residents in the places they visit.
This special issue of the Austrian Journal for South-East Asian Studies therefore
Tourism and Development in Southeast Asia 121

constitutes a contribution to the wider debate on tourism and development by re-

vealing new insights into the dynamics of tourism in Southeast Asia. Based on case
studies conducted in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, this collection of papers
highlights the importance of a local voice in development intervention to ensure
developmental success. It elaborates some of the positive impacts that tourism can
create in rural areas, while also uncovering a number of local paradoxes. At the same
time, this issue revealed the need for further research that specifically focuses on best
practice examples and draws on local expertise in order to maximize the benefits of
tourism in the post-2015 era.


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Tourism and Development in Southeast Asia 123

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Claudia Dolezal is lecturer in tourism at the University of Westminster, London, UK. She spe-
cializes in tourism for development and the anthropology of tourism, in community-based
tourism, empowerment, and the tourism encounter in rural Thailand and Bali. Claudia is also
editorial board member of ASEAS and contributes to the work of the Society for South-East
Asian Studies (SEAS).
► Contact: c.dolezal@westminster.ac.uk

Alexander Trupp is lecturer at the Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR) at Mahi-
dol University, Thailand, and editor in chief of ASEAS. He worked at the Department of Geog-
raphy and Regional Research, University of Vienna, and the Research Institute for Languages
and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University. His research interests include tourism and migra-
tion, tourism and development, ethnic minority tourism, Asian outbound tourism, street
vending, and social capital.

► Contact: alexander.tru@mahidol.ac.th
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