A Comparative Study of Tourism Policies in South East Asian Nations

This report provides a comparative analysis of tourism policies in South East Asia, focusing on Malaysia, Singapore, and Myanmar. It explores the role of government in tourism development, examining policy instruments and strategic guidelines. The report delves into tourism planning approaches, highlighting the Malaysia Five Year Plan, Singapore's strategic approach to enhance destination attractiveness, and Myanmar's zonal planning and community-based approach. It assesses the positive and negative impacts of different tourism strategies, including economic-oriented and community-oriented approaches, and discusses the importance of sustainability and stakeholder coordination. The report emphasizes the evolving nature of tourism planning, influenced by technology and socio-economic changes, and the need for innovative tourism development to meet industry needs. It references various academic sources to support its findings.

Running head: TOURISM POLICY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA
Tourism Policy in South East Asia
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1TOURISM POLICY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA
Topic 1
Role played by the government is a significant aspect pertaining to tourism that involves
the policies along with the political philosophies. The intervention of the state in tourism can be
said to be a recent practice in relation to the central government (Mowforth & Munt, 2015). The
participation of the state increased in the event of tourism becoming a mass phenomenon after
the onslaught of Second World War. Regional co-operation for promoting tourism is receiving a
great amount of economic attention pertaining to context of the globalization. Tourism
development has become a priority in the countries of South East Asia.
The tourism industry has become significant for the south-east Asian country of Malaysia
after the 1980. Investments are made in the new facilities along with capital equipments in
relation to tourism related business. The tourism resources of Malaysia are unique in terms of
characteristic and the strategic location of Malaysia compels the national government in
Malaysia to invest heavily in the sector of tourism (Amir et al., 2015). The government invests
in the arena of tourism in Malaysia as it is located at the centre of South East Asia that makes it
price effective.
The national government supports tourism in Singapore because the scenic beauty of the
place helps in drawing a large number of tourists that can pave the path for the economic
development of Singapore (Smith, 2015). The middle class people in the developing countries
wants to go to foreign trips and Singapore helps in offering best value in terms of money for
middle class tourist. The national government invests in tourism in Singapore as the climate of
the place being de facto equatorial can help people in travelling throughout the year. Singapore is
perceived as an international destination that has been witness to steady rise pertaining to arrivals

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after it became an independent republic in the year 1965. Tourism development can be said to be
a portion of broader program pertaining to economic centralized planning that has helped in
transforming island (Mason, 2015).
The policy instrument encourages the equitable economic along with social development
by promoting rural enterprise and accelerating the urban-rural integration. National Tourism
Policy in Malaysia encourages the participation of the ethnic communities and helps in the
development of environment-friendly tourism products. Eco-tourism can be stated to be fastest
growing component in relation to tourism in the present age. Central government with the help of
MOCAT has stated that World Wide Fund for Nature should commission tourism plan that can
help in exploring respective resources within Malaysia. Malaysia has got the Agenda 21 local
plan that considers Malaysia to be a mega-driver country within the world that wants to preserve
the cultural wealth heritage of the country (Pascoe et al., 2014). The National Tourism
Development Strategy helps in bringing together and channeling the investment that can help in
generating the tourism growth. It can help in increasing the employment opportunities that can
help in promoting tourism in the local and in the international arena.
Singapore has attracted a large number of international tourists that has caused the
government to initiate different policies. The beginning of the 21st century made the government
to introduce Tourism 21 that has strategic guidelines that helps in reflection of global tourism
development trend. Tourism 21 policy recommends the aspect of regionalization that helps in
promoting Singapore as that of a regional tourist hub (Henderson, 2015). Regionalism can help
in promoting regional tourism investment that can help in developing local enterprises. It can
strengthen the link to that of the major tourism destination.

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The government plays a great role by implementing the policies that helps in the
development of the Malaysian Economy. The natural beauty of the place helps in attracting a
large number of tourists that leads to the developing of Malaysia. The tourism resources of the
place are of unique quality and strategic location pertaining to Malaysia causes the national
government within Malaysia to spend on the aspect of tourism in the country. The tourism
policies in Malaysia are planned with the help of Five Year plan (Boniface, Cooper & Cooper,
2016). Singapore is seen as an international destination and a large number of people visit the
place since the year 1965. The government of Singapore introduced Tourism 21 that has
guidelines pertaining to global tourism trend. Regionalism can promote that of tourism
investment that can improve the prospect of Singapore in relation to tourism.
Topic 2
Tourism planning is indicative of the setting of goals and selection of the alternate course
of the action that can help in achieving these goals. Planning can become the key for the success
of an activity. Success can neither be guaranteed nor permanent within the sector of tourism.
Tourism Planning can help in setting the goals pertaining to tourism that can ensure the
sustainability of tourism. Responsible planning can play a great role in the aspect of tourism
planning. The approach to tourism keeps on changing on the basis of the demands of the time
(Mason, 2015). The tourism approach of a country is dependent on the governmental policies
along with the socio-economic environment prevailing in a particular country. This essay
discusses the distinct approaches to tourism planning in Malaysia, Singapore and Myanmar.
The policies of the Tourism Development are planned by taking recourse to Malaysia
Five Year Plan that helps in the promotion of the tourism industry within Malaysia. It acts as an

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important source of national income for the country and the governmental policies in Malaysia
ensure the fact that all the tourism plans are reached. The National Tourism Policy in Malaysia
provides long-term direction in relation to planning and development in relation to tourism
industry of Malaysia. In the beginning, there emerged the marketing concepts in relation to sea
and the sand but then emerged a new era of tourism where the focus was laid on riverine tourism,
agro-toursim and eco-tourism. National Tourism Policy was announced in that of the Sixth
Malaysia Plan (1991-1995) and it was subsequently revised in the Seventh along with the Eighth
Policy Plan (Cohen & Cohen, 2015). Economic Transformation Programme focuses on the
aspect of service-based economy that can help in creating job opportunities which can spread to
the rural areas. The primary purpose of Economic Transformation Programme is increasing
contribution of that of Gross National Income of the RM67 billion so that it can reach RM104
billion by the end of the year 2020 (King, 2015). This helps in bringing out thae fact that the
tourism sector should improve the GNI by three times from the starting position in the year 2009.
The approach to tourism planning in Malaysia is based on sustainability. Malaysia has got a
competitive sustainable tourism plan that has linkage with the public and NGO goal pertaining to
socio-economic development. The sustainable tourism approach of Malaysia does not exploit the
natural and the tourism resources from that of the current generation but preserves it for future
generations.
The tourism landscape in Singapore is undergoing changes owing to the influence of
technology and the media. Singapore is a mature tourism city that has limited land and its
approach has been strategic pertaining to the enhancing of the destination attractiveness.
Singapore should invest in the aspect of innovative tourism development for catering to the
needs of industries like MICE and the cruise. The managing of tourism within Singapore has

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gone through various kinds of changes. The adopting of different strategies helps in the
championing of tourism and it is subject to the socio-economic change within the global front.
Singapore pursues an approach of quality tourism so that it can navigate forces pertaining to
change (Jorgensen-Dahl, 2016). The tourism approach of Singapore to enhance the destination
attractiveness is highly strategic and it invests in innovative tourism development like that of
Mandai precinct. It invests in the aspect of infrastructure that can help in catering to the needs of
growth of the industries. The approach of tourism planning in Singapore is economic oriented
and great amount of emphasis is placed on the economic contribution pertaining to tourism
(Friess et al., 2016). The economic oriented approach that is prevalent in Singapore promotes the
economic growth of Singapore by making use of marketing for attracting the visitors. This
tourism approach creates income for regions and the countries and the method used is tourism
development.
Republic of Union of the Myanmar is experiencing rapid growth in relation to tourism
demand. Myanmar is evolving to become an emerging tourism destination within South East
Asia. Myanmar has risks of unsustainable tourism growth that will have a negative impact on the
environment and the society. Myanmar has flagship cities like Bagan and Inle that is suffering
from the threat of environmental along with social pressure. Myanmar has developed the “hotel
zones” in which the land is acquired by various hotels at the sites that are environmentally
sensitive. The tourism approach in Myanmar is ‘zonal planning’ that highlights on the aspect of
dispersal of the visitors that can prove to be of great help pertaining to physical carrying
capacity. The tourism planning approach is community approach that involves the local
community in the decision-making process. The community based approach to tourism involves
local residents in managing the tourism projects for the alleviation of poverty. It provides

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alternative source of income for the members of a community. The methods used in case of
community-oriented approach is education along with social impact assessment.
For pursuing the sustainable tourism approach, it is necessary that to get the coordinated
support of all the stakeholders and this creates barrier in the path of sustainable tourism
approach. The sustainable approach in Malaysia can help in preventing the occurrence of global
problems. The positive impact of economic oriented tourism approach that exists in Malaysia is
that it can help in developing the economy of Singapore (Lee et al., 2016). On the other hand,
the marketing is used for attracting the visitor and this is more advantageous from the point of
view of the industry. The positive impact of the community approach that exists in Myanmar is
that local community will get the chance of demonstrating the traditional culture along with
ethnic values to the visitors (Moe & Tan, 2016). The negative impact of community oriented
approach is that inadequate planning can have grave consequences on the social dimension.
Tourism planning helps in the process of setting goals and it helps in selecting alternate
course that can help people in achieving goals. Malaysia Five Year Plan helps in promoting
tourism industry of Malaysia. Economic Transformation Programme can transform Malaysia so
that it becomes a high income country by 2020. Tourism approach in Singapore is strategic and it
makes investments in the aspect of innovative tourism. It can be useful from the perspective of
physical carrying capacity.

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