ISSN-L: 0798-1015 • eISSN: 2739-0071 (En línea)

https://www.revistaespacios.com

Pag. 66

Vol. 42 (18) 2021 • Art. 5

DOI: 10.48082/espacios-a21v42n18p05

The role of tourism in the economy. The formation of tourist

flows to the ASEAN countries

El papel del turismo en la economía. La generación de flujos turísticos a los países de la

Tourism is one of the most important and fast-growing sectors of the world economy. For many countries, it is

an industry of specialization and the main source of income. Despite the short-term downturns, this sector

continues to develop steadily, as well as demonstrate significant geographical expansion and diversification. The

indicator of international tourist arrivals in the world is growing rapidly from 438 million people in 2000 to 952

million people in 2010, and reached 1460 million people in 2019. (UNWTO, 2020) Global revenues in this industry

have steadily grown along with arrivals from 495 million dollars in 2000 to 980 million dollars in 2010 and reached

the highest level of 1481 billion dollars in 2019. (UNWTO, 2020)

With the growth of the transnationalization and globalization of the world economy, along with traditional

tourist destinations, such as Europe and North America, new ones have appeared. Southeast Asia is a promising

region, rapidly passing the stage of forming the tourist market and actively proving its competitiveness on the

world stage. Its states form an international organization called ASEAN. The countries under consideration have

a huge potential for the development of the sphere of tourist services. Every year, the subregion attracts an

increasing number of foreign tourists. As of 2019, the countries of Southeast Asia account for 9.8% of the world

tourist flow and 9.9% of all tourist receipts. (UNWTO, 2020) This is due to the fact that the economy of Southeast

Asia is growing rapidly, and the share of the tourism industry in the GDP of the region is one of the highest in the

decreased by 80%. (UNWTO, 2021) In this regard, the ministers of tourism of the states of the region convened

a meeting on this issue on 29.04.2020, where they adopted a special agreement on combating COVID-19.

(ASEAN, 2020) The experience of overcoming and solving this problem in ASEAN is very interesting, first of all,

for developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to identify the main trends and prospects for the development of the tourist market,

the formation of tourist flows to the countries of Southeast Asia. In order to fully achieve this goal, it is necessary

to perform the following tasks: to give a tourist and recreational characteristic of the countries under

consideration; to analyze the economic importance of the tourism sector in the region; to identify the tourist

demand of the ASEAN countries; to analyze the formation of tourist flows and income of the states; to

characterize the current situation in the field of tourism of the countries of the region.

tourism in the economy of countries were considered: the share of tourism in GDP (as a percentage of the

country's GDP), the share of the employed population in international tourism (as a percentage of the total

number of people employed in the country), the share of tourist services in the total volume of exports of the

country (as a percentage). The indicators of tourist supply and tourist demand are studied.

The study described in this paper was conducted based on official statistical information from the ASEAN

countries, various international organizations, as well as the work of scientists on this topic. The information base

was mainly used by foreign sources, such as the World Tourism and Travel Council, the World Tourism

SAFINA S.S. & TETERKINA, I.G. «The role of tourism in the economy. The formation of tourist flows to the

ASEAN countries»

the Eurasian continent. They occupy the Indochina Peninsula, the mountainous areas to the north of it and the

Malay Archipelago. The region under consideration attracts many tourists due to a large number of factors:

geographical location, namely, the location of the subregion at the crossroads of important sea routes from

Eurasia to Australia and from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean; the large length and strong indentation of the

coastline; a high number of beach destinations; a favorable climate, namely a small variability of high air

temperature throughout the year, a comfortable humidity level, weak winds; a variety of equatorial, sub-

equatorial and tropical landscapes with endemic flora and fauna, a high number of national parks; a large number

of cultural and historical sites, in particular those included in the UNESCO World Heritage List (41 in total in the

region).

The leading branches of tourism specialization of the ASEAN countries are: beach and cultural and educational

on tourism. This is due to such factors as the most developed infrastructure, a large number of business centers

and conference halls with modern high-tech equipment, state support for business and a low level of corruption,

as well as the presence of a huge number of representative offices of international companies. In addition to

developing rapidly.

The tourism sector makes a significant contribution to the economy of Southeast Asia. It affects it in a positive

way in the following aspects: a source of income for the population; stimulation of the development of industries

related to the production of consumer goods for tourists; the growth of entrepreneurial activity; infrastructure

development; an increase in the inflow of funds in foreign currency to the country. Thus, tourism has both direct

e

2. The average importance of tourism (the share of tourism in the economy from 11 to 15%): Malaysia, Singapore.

SAFINA S.S. & TETERKINA, I.G. «The role of tourism in the economy. The formation of tourist flows to the

ASEAN countries»

3. Low tourism importance (the share of tourism in the economy from 0 to 10%): Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei,

Indonesia, Laos.

of the ASEAN countries, 2019

According to the presented typology, it can be seen that in Southeast Asia there is a wide variation in the overall

contribution of tourism to GDP. The economies of Cambodia, Philippines and Thailand depend to a greater extent

of foreign visitors, investment of foreign capital, etc. The importing states spend money on the purchase of

tourist goods and services, transportation of visitors and investment in the foreign tourism sector. The tourism

balance for the ASEAN countries for 2019 is presented in Table 1.

ASEAN countries, 2019

Thus, according to the indicator of the tourism balance, the states of Southeast Asia can be divided into 3 groups:

by the Asia-Pacific region, the average growth rate of the number of arrivals of which was nine times higher than

the global average over the past decades. (Alexandrova A. Y., 2016) That is why in the XXI century, the Asia-

growth in this direction over the past ten years. The growth of tourism is caused by accelerated socio-economic

development, the deepening of integration processes, and the improvement of the geopolitical situation. This

tourist region is young, due to which its development is taking place at a faster pace than in traditional

destinations such as Europe and North America. The number of tourist arrivals to Southeast Asia in 2019

increased by 6%, and tourism revenues – by 4%. (UNWTO, 2020) Thus, the number of tourists to ASEAN has

increased almost 2 times since 2012, which is significant for such a relatively small region. In 2019, the countries

received 143 million foreign tourists, and the share of global arrivals was 9.8%. (ASEAN, 2020) The dynamics of

tourist arrivals in the region is shown in Chart 2.

SAFINA S.S. & TETERKINA, I.G. «The role of tourism in the economy. The formation of tourist flows to the

ASEAN countries»

As for international tourist arrivals to certain countries of the region, most of them were recorded in Thailand in

2019 – 39.7 million people, and the least in Brunei Darussalam – 333 thousand (Chart 3). (ASEAN, 2020)

Number of tourist arrivals to the ASEAN countries, 2019

To assess the intensity of tourist migration, an indicator such as the arrival coefficient is used, acting as a measure

suitable for temporal and spatial comparisons. It is calculated as the ratio of the number of foreign tourists

arriving in the state per year and the average annual number of its population, expressed in per mill and

characterizes the level of the phenomenon per 1000 people. (Alexandrova A. Y., 2016) The calculated indicator

According to the indicator of the arrival coefficient, the states of Southeast Asia can be divided into 3 groups:

1. The most visited countries (arrival coefficient above 1000‰): Singapore.

In 2019, the number of tourists in Singapore was 3 times higher than its average annual population, which

indicates a high degree of attractiveness of this destination.

SAFINA S.S. & TETERKINA, I.G. «The role of tourism in the economy. The formation of tourist flows to the

ASEAN countries»

2. Frequently visited countries (arrival coefficient from 100 to 1000‰): Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Laos,

Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In

dicators above 100 shows that the number of tourists is less than the average annual population. However,

this group of countries differs in that the indicators do not vary much, which shows a good attractiveness for

their level. Among them there are both countries with a developed tourism sector (Malaysia, Thailand and

The Asia-Pacific region is a constant leader in the formation of the tourist flow to the countries of Southeast Asia.

In 2019, the ASEAN countries received 62.9 million people from the Asia-Pacific region. (ASEAN, 2020) The

countries of the Asia-Pacific region and the number of tourists arriving from them are presented in Table 3. To

the greatest extent, the leadership of the Asia-Pacific region in the formation of tourist flows to the ASEAN

countries is justified by its geographical location. In this case, there is a tendency to strengthen the exchange of

tourists between neighboring countries. The South-East Asia subregion is part of the Asia-Pacific region,

therefore, the distances between the countries are small, and with the development of transport infrastructure,

it becomes easier and cheaper to move between them. At the same time, most of the states that form tourist

flows to the ASEAN countries have common borders with them. Another important factor is the cultural

characteristics of the region. Cultural and historical homogeneity and kinship of languages make it easier for

issue visas. This factor, as well as the growing desire of Chinese residents to travel abroad, led to an increase in

the number of Chinese arrivals to the ASEAN countries from 5.4 million in 2010 to 32.2 in 2019. (ASEAN, 2020)

SAFINA S.S. & TETERKINA, I.G. «The role of tourism in the economy. The formation of tourist flows to the

ASEAN countries»

The European region ranks second in terms of the formation of tourist flows to the ASEAN countries. In 2019

colonies. Traditional cultural and economic ties and the absence of a language barrier are important prerequisites

for the development of tourist exchange. The countries that form the largest flow of tourists to Southeast Asia

had their colonies there, and their residents have been accustomed to resting on their territory since the last

century. For example, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei are former colonies of Great Britain, as a result of which

the largest number of tourist arrivals is recorded from this state. The same can be said about Laos and Cambodia,

which are visited by the largest number of French people. In frequent cases, Europeans are attracted by the

interest in the past and present of the former colonies.

Also of great importance in the formation of tourist flows from the European region is the tendency to contrast

when choosing a destination, which is often manifested in the fact that residents of northern countries prefer to

choose a beach holiday.