Formulating policies for the tourism industry is the usual and conventional role of Southeast Asian government. This traditional focuses need a change because of changing priorities or the materialization of niche consumer interests to facilitate international tourism. Therefore, the task of national governments is to be integrated by not limiting it only by formulating policies for the tourism sector but also providing deliberate facilities to the local enterprises as well as enforcing policies to develop infrastructure in order to assist tourism development. All of these efforts are to be taken for the benefit not just for tourism but for the whole economy. Financing tourism infrastructure through devising feasible and effective options is the last policy issue needed to be linked for greater interest of tourism. There are also some other aspects of policy needed to refocus covering length of stay and repeat visit intention of tourists to extending entrepreneurship development initiatives. Eventually, it is also inevitable to distinguish and devise the appropriate approaches so that the gains from tourism are spread more uniformly throughout the economy.
Essentially, tourism is now considered as an export-oriented international economic activity. The view of Ong Keng Yong, the Secretary-General of ASEAN, is instructive this regard. He emphasized that “Tourism is an important sector of our economies…tourism provides employment, helps to improve the quality of lives and promotes friendship, to create networking and widening of the perspectives among nations. This sector is important not only in generating valuable foreign exchange revenues but also in assisting to showcase the diversity and richness of the various cultures and peoples in Southeast Asia.” This paper thus identifies and analyses some factors of those strategies that are consistent to achieve the long-term sustainable tourism development in the context of Southeast Asian economies. Due diligence is to be paid to these facts due to their importance in organizing, and shaping tourism industry in Southeast Asia in order to realize a coordinated and supportive tourism development policy in practice.