Publication
Covid-19 and Tourism in Southeast Asia
Abstracts views
3
Views & Download
0
Abstract:
During the past two decades the Southeast Asian region has experienced a range of major
crises. Its substantial tourism industry has often taken the brunt of these difficult and testing
events, from natural and environmental calamities, epidemics and pandemics, downturns and
financial slumps in the world economy, terrorism and political conflict. The latest peril, this
time on a global scale, is the ‘Novel Coronavirus’ (Covid-19/SARS-CoV-2) pandemic; it has
already had serious consequences for Southeast Asia and its tourism development and will
continue to do so. Since the SARS epidemic of 2002-2004 the Southeast Asian economies have
become increasingly integrated into those of East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,
Hong Kong). China’s contribution to tourism in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) has grown exponentially. This paper surveys some of the most significant literature
on crises, and specifically Covid-19, to gauge their consequences for tourism in Southeast Asia.
By comparing experiences across the region, we highlight the issues raised by the over
dependence of some countries on visitor arrivals from East Asia, the problems generated in
certain cases by multiple, sequential or coinciding crises, and some of the responses to these.
A common focus of crises research has been on dramatic and usually unpredictable natural
disasters and on human-generated global economic downturns but less attention has been given
to disease and contagion, which is both natural and socio-cultural in its origins and effects. In
the case of Covid-19, it is a situation that evokes a pre-crisis period of normality, a liminal
transition and a post-crisis ‘new normality’.
Description:
Date:
2020
Authors:
Jennifer Kim Lian Chan
Victor T. King
Publisher:
Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam
