Sustainable Tourism Development in Asia

Sustainable Tourism as a concept respects both local people, the traveler, cultural heritage and the environment. It should meet the needs of and opportunity for the future. But operationalizing sustainable tourism is problematic due to analytical weaknesses, conceptual criticisms and the need to redefine better perspectives. Asia faces many challenges in promoting sustainable tourism including political leadership, poor participation by all stakeholders, adverse environmental and social impacts. Another challenge is to ensure social sustainability and creating opportunities to transfer income to the poorer. The empirical study of island tourism in Malaysia shows that Marine Parks regulations are not adequately enforced and Malaysian coral reefs can suffer from increasing degradation. Water pollution, overfishing, beach erosion, coral bleaching and damage, fishing, snorkeling and poor recycling and sewage disposal all are still significant challenges to the Marine Park in in Tioman Island in Malaysia.

Mastering Sustainable Tourism and Rural Tourism in the Global Economy

This chapter explains the overviews of tourism, sustainable development, sustainable tourism, and rural tourism; the perspectives on rural tourism destination; rural tourism and entrepreneurship; the importance of sustainable tourism in the global economy; and the importance of rural tourism in the global economy. The fulfillment of sustainable tourism and rural tourism is necessary for modern tourism organizations that seek to serve suppliers and customers, increase business performance, strengthen competitiveness, and achieve continuous success in the global economy. Therefore, it is essential for modern tourism organizations to promote their sustainable tourism and rural tourism and develop a strategic plan to regularly check their practical advancements toward satisfying customer requirement. The chapter argues that promoting sustainable tourism and rural tourism has the potential to enhance organizational performance and gain sustainable competitive advantage in the global economy.

Implication of SASEC Tourism Initiatives on North Eastern States of India

India's North Eastern Region (NER) stretches from the foothills of the Himalayas in the eastern range and is surrounded by international borders with countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, China (Tibet Autonomous Region), Nepal, and Myanmar. The landlocked region is constrained by a brief spell of insurgency, and dismal unemployment has affected the region's progress since 1947. The advent of the Look East Policy coupled with a number of South Asia sub-regional arrangements with neighboring countries opened a “Pandora's Box” for this region. The SASEC initiatives of ADB helped to improve the status of tourism and infrastructure, including roads, air connectivity, and also opened cross-border land routes and roads within the North East (NE). The present study takes stock of tourism development from a sustainability perspective and examines the implementation of the SASEC tourism project in eight NE States of India with a view to suggest priority areas for action for promotion of tourism in this region.

Impact of Advertising and Public Relations on Tourism Development in Da Nang, Vietnam

An exploratory study was conducted to determine the impact of advertising and public relations on the visit intention of tourists in Da Nang, Vietnam. In 2015, Trip Advisor and New York Times selected Da Nang, Vietnam as one of the top Asia tourist destinations. This study sought to address the relationship between advertising or public relations and tourists' intention to visit based on the theory of planned behavior. Structure Equation Modeling was conducted to predict the impact of advertising and public relations on the visit intention of tourists in Da Nang. Findings indicate that an increased favorable attitude and control of advertising would increase tourist arrivals. Surprisingly, an increased positive attitude and control of public relations did not significantly affect tourists' intention to visit. Instead, the social norms of public relations were effective in driving the decision to visit but the social norms of advertising were not. The findings have contributed to destination brand through advertising and public relations. Implications are discussed.

The Relevance of the Tourism-Led Growth Hypothesis to Malaysia

This paper explored whether the tourism-led growth (TLG) hypothesis is empirically relevant to Malaysia based upon both full sample and rolling sample analyses. Data from January 1995 to December 2010 have been utilised for the purpose. Instead of relying upon aggregated data of tourist arrivals, disaggregated data of arrivals from 12 major tourism markets are relied upon for more insightful and accurate findings. The empirical results suggest that there was cointegration between Malaysia's economic growth and tourist arrivals from these tourism markets. However, the results of the full sample Granger causality test indicate that only 2 out of 12 tourism markets contributed to economic growth in the short-run. The TLG hypothesis is only supported in the long run by tourist arrivals from 10 out of the 12 tourism markets. The rolling-based Granger causality test shows that it is also these 10 markets situated mostly in developed countries that could provide a stable support for the TLG hypothesis.

The Life Cycles of Destination Life Cycle Models

Product Life Cycle (PLC) has always been a hot topic in the tourism literature. Butler's Tourism Area Lifecycle model and Plog's destination life cycle model have both been applied and analysed extensively in tourism destination development and lifecycle studies. This study attempts to offer a critical conversation on the similarities and differences as well as the strengths and weaknesses of these two widely referred generic models of destination life cycle. It also identifies some recent socio-political, economic, and technological developments that have changed the nature of tourism destination development in many parts of the world and in particular to Asia and the implications of these developments upon life cycles. Based on more recent research, the present authors suggest that the reality of destination development lies somewhere in between, as a resultant of interaction with the processes laid out by Plog and Butler.

Adequacy of Government Policy on Ecotourism

Sikkim is known as a natural and ideal destination for the tourists looking for exotic and varied experiences. The study explores the adequacy of the policy in the context of eco-tourism principles espoused by eco-tourism society (TES) which are - minimize physical, social and psychological impact, Build environmental and cultural awareness, Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts, Produce direct financial benefits for conservation, and Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous People. Methodology used is case study for based on a structured questionnaire with 55 statements (on Likert scale) responded by the civil officers of the state government involved with eco-tourism policy and its implementation. To make it more meaningful one sample t-test has been conducted to test hypotheses. It concludes that the policy document has areas with distinct adequacies and inadequacies. The purpose of the study is to identify inadequacies that need to be addressed to make the policy document holistic and help in facilitating its proper implementation.

Actor Network Theory in Tourism

The purpose of this study is to use actor network theory to explore the short-term and long-term relationships between two Asian countries: Malaysia and China, the two most visited countries in Asia in 2012. The Actor Network theory explains the roles of two actors China and Malaysia in tourism as mobility and performativity, respectively. The tourism in China is composed of culture differences whereas the tourism in Malaysia focuses on business concentration. Vector Auto Regressive, Vector Error Correction, and Granger analysis were conducted to explore the time series data of tourism receipts. Findings indicate that both Malaysia and China do not have short-term influence of tourism development. Interestingly, the long-term tourism of Malaysia will depend on the disequilibrium of tourism receipts between China and Malaysia but not vice versa. The findings have contributed to supporting the Actor Network Theory in developing tourism of China and Malaysia.

UNESCO World Heritage Designation

The chapter analyzes the impacts of World Heritage List designation on the local economy, residents, and environment in the Vietnamese site of Hoi An Ancient Town. Findings from the study raise concerns about managing heritage tourism in developing countries. While Hoi An successfully attracts a large number of tourists and enjoys economic success from tourism, social and environmental sustainability are in question. This case study demonstrates that management of tourism at World Heritage-listed sites is facing challenges of land speculation, inflation, commodification of local culture, and environmental degradation.

Can Educational Tourism Spur Economic Growth in Malaysia?

This paper employs the neoclassical growth model to investigate empirically the role of educational tourism in Malaysia's economic growth during the period of 2002:Q1 to 2014:Q4. The present study finds that all determinants including educational tourism have a significant positive impact on economic growth in Malaysia, especially in the long-run. In terms of Granger causality, our results show that educational tourism and economic growth are Granger-cause each other in both the short- and long-run. In light of this, educational tourism can be an effective stimulator of Malaysia's economic growth. Moreover, the generalised variance decomposition analysis also affirms that educational tourism explained most of the long-run variation in economic growth compared to other determinants. Therefore, educational tourism is found to be a new and reliable source for Malaysia's economic growth. For the sake of brevity, any macroeconomic policies that heading toward promoting inbound educational tourism will probably spur the growth of the Malaysian economy, especially in the long-run.