Tourism and local people in the Asia-Pacific region

Even in the wake of 9/11 in 2001 tourism has experienced a global boom, a boom evident in the Asia-Pacific region (here east and southeast Asia and the island Pacific), as the fastest growing service sector in the world continues to expand. After the 1997 Asian economic crisis, especially as rural areas were places of economic stagnation, governments throughout the region placed new emphasis on tourism, which became 'the priority tool of rural planning orthodoxy' (Liu 2006:878; Briedenhann and Wickens 2004). Tourism is a valuable and growing source of foreign exchange, and some parts of the region, but certainly not all, have been seen as safe places, distanced from global troubles, and thus ideal destinations.