ABSTRACT

Over the past decade (2000-2010), international tourist arrivals increased by 38 per cent from 686 million to 946 million. Much of that growth was contributed by the Asia Pacific region, which saw inbound arrivals climbing steadily from 141 million to 258 million (+83 per cent), outshining Europe (+18 per cent) and North America (7 per cent) (UN ESCAP, 2012). Within the Asia Pacific region, Southeast Asia has been the key driver for the tourism boom in recent years; inbound arrivals to this sub-region almost doubled from 36.6 million in 2000 to 69.9 million in 2010 (UN ESCAP, 2012; UNTWO, 2013a).