Chapter 1: Introduction: A Tapestry of ASEAN Hospitality and Tourism

Southeast Asia serves as a civilizational crossroads and a testing ground for 21st-century transformation. In the 11 countries that form the contemporary landscape of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste (observer), and Vietnam, ancient stone stupas have cast their shadows for a millennium. At the same time, modern LED skylines shine along new riverside promenades. Mountain villages, where gongs still call upon ancestral spirits, now sit just 40 minutes by drone from neon beach clubs playing Artificial Intelligence (AI)-curated playlists.

This remarkable duality, where cultural richness intertwines with technological advancement, creates the region’s allure for tourists and poses a significant governance challenge: leveraging tourism for development without compromising the heritage and ecology that attract all. Few developments illustrate ASEAN’s potential and challenges as vividly as tourism. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, international arrivals to the region surged from around 40 million at the start of the century to over 135 million by 2019, generating more than US$200 billion in revenue and supporting over 40 million jobs, both formal and informal. However, the pandemic revealed the industry’s vulnerability, with inbound numbers plummeting by over three-quarters in 2020; planes sat idle on tropical runways while millions lost their livelihoods overnight. As borders reopen, the industry faces a crucial question: will it revert to the precrisis, volume-driven model, or will it shift toward approaches that promote community empowerment, regenerative resilience, digitally enabled innovation, and inclusive human-capital development—the four themes that run through every chapter of this book?