One explanation of the rise of tourism development in Southeast Asian countries is importantly lies on the
cultural proximity as well as economic cooperation that exist in most of its associated countries. As a
number of countries were successful in attracting FDI, thus, the presence of these foreign firms became a
source in booming the tourism industry. Britton (1982) pointed out that a country’s tourism industry
would extend and gain more from tourism development if there is a presence of foreign enterprises. This
also explains why some countries of Southeast Asia are, in tourism terms, given ample opportunities to
foreign firms of tourism industry through different measures of incentives (i.e. tax exemption, tax holidays
etc.). Therefore, the amount of FDI in the Southeast Asian tourism industry is increasing in recent years.
This FDI inflow represents new dynamics to the tourism industry of this bloc which is posing some
challenges for its development. To meet these challenges, there is a need to put emphasis on some
policies; 1) to train qualified tourism workforce in the technical field, 2) to support innovation, 3) to
venture capital, and 4) to design infrastructure in order to witness positive impact on competitiveness
(Caballera, 2012).