Introduction: Tourism in Asia: region and context

Growth in Asian tourism since the early 1990s has been little short of astonishing in terms of levels of growth, the expansion of new markets, new destinations and the creation of the world’s most dynamic and growth-oriented inbound and outbound region for global tourism. Similarly, domestic tourism has mirrored this growth but evidence and data remain less clear in relation to the scale and extent of such growth (Singh 2009). In the case of international tourism, the UNWTO reported in 2015 that China had become the top source market and, as earlier commentators (e.g. Hall 1994) observed, this was a sleeping giant about to awaken. It has now not only awoken but become the trendsetter in terms of the pace of growth and change. In 2014-15 alone, it accelerated its expenditure abroad by 27% to US$165 billion. Whilst its contribution to Asian tourism as a whole is signicant, countries within the region received 263 million international arrivals, earned US$377 billion in receipts and accounted for 23% of worldwide receipts (UNWTO 2015).