British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Tourism in South East Asia: heritage, identity and political change
Professor Michael Hitchcock (London Metropolitan University) on behalf of the Association for South-East Asian Studies (UK)
The Association for South-East Asian Studies (UK) started supporting research on the growing importance of tourism in the ASEAN REGION in the 1990s. The first multi-disciplinary book on tourism in the region arose out of an ASEASUK Conference in Hull. The papers became the basis of an edited book entitled Tourism in South-East Asia (eds. M Hitchcock, V T King and M J G. Parnwell, 1993).
For further information, visit: www.londonmet.ac.uk/iictd; www.britac.ac.uk/institutes/cseas/index.html
Summary
Since the 1990s tourism has been one of the most important industries of the Southeast Asian region and is a major engine of growth. Across the region it is often in
the top three sources of foreign income and some Southeast Asia countries (e.g. Thailand) have ambitions to be counted among the top ten tourism destinations.
Tourists were initially drawn from Western countries in Europe, the Antipodes and North America, but in recent years there has been strong growth in Asian arrivals, both foreign and domestic. Much of the region’s industry comprises beach-based mass tourism, but cultural attractions have long been important, whether as ‘cultural heritage’ or living cultures. Such is the importance of tourism that it is now very difficult to analyse Southeast Asian societies that are either involved or have access to
tourism without considering the impacts of this industry. Minorities for example often use the fact that they are engaged in something economically lucrative that depends on their cultural resources as a kind of rhetorical devise when dealing with economically and politically dominant majorities. Archaeological excavations may be undertaken not simply out of scholarly interest but because of what they can potentially yield in terms of attracting tourists. Conservation projects often raise questions about who is the intended audience and whether or not the character of that audience has an influence on how conservation is carried out.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the British Council and DFID, as well as the European Commission, for supporting my research and am grateful to the National Museum, Jakarta, Universitas Udayana and Gajah Mada University for their collaboration in research.