ABSTRACT
This chapter examines changes in the tourism industry of Southeast Asia and especially the emergence of particular niches in the market. It explores the extent to which these trends have contributed to socio-economic development or have raised new specters of uneven development in a region where tourism is of enormous and still growing significance. Tourism is one of the most important sectors in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economies, and increasingly so. Convention centers and theme parks attract quite different tourist groups by family, age, nationality and socio-economic status, and other niches are as diverse. As Southeast Asia has become more urban and tourism more national, national parks, natural places and wildlife have acquired greater prominence, but that has yet to extend to any significant focus on ecotourism. A specialized tourism niche is medical tourism that began in Southeast Asia in the 1990s and has expanded rapidly.
