Tourism

The ASEAN Economic Community(AEC) was falls under the  umbrella of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations ) which was established in Bangkok on 8th August in 1967 (Gates and Than, 2001).The members of this association include  Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Lao , Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Myannar. The AEC aims at deepening economic integration within the member countries by encouraging growth in all sectors of development. In addition, the ASEAN member states share the core responsibility of strengthening social and economic stability in South East Asia region by ensuring there is progressive national development and regional stability (ASEAN, 2010).  The tourism industry contributes greatly to the regions economic growth. This has made tourism development is a priority in the ASEAN agenda. The tourism development strategy promotes the preservation of cultural and environmental resources, sustainable tourism development, human resources development, provision of good transport means and infrastructure and the simplification of immigration procedures. During the Eleventh meeting of ASEAN Tourism Ministers in Bangkok on 21st January 2008, the tourism sector was confirmed to be driving force of the AEC.  Since the ASEAN Tourism Ministers consider the sector be a key indicator of economic success within the community, supporting human resource development in tourism development is considered to be a key factor. This paper will provide a critical analysis of this issue.

Discussion
The ASEAN Economic Community promotes and supports efforts that aim at ensuring that the ASEAN region becomes a regional tourism link by creating a regional tourism development strategy as well as having the common interests of regional tourism and those of the member countries harmonized. The three major pillars upon which the ASEAN was established (economic cooperation, political and security cooperation and socio-cultural cooperation) guide the EAC in developing tourism development plans. Preliminary reports indicated that in 2007, the ASEAN member states attracted more than 60 million tourists.  This was an 8 per cent increase from the total number of visitors recorded in 2006. The need to encourage growth in the tourism sector in efforts to increase economic growth has demanded that the ASEAN member states invest greatly in efforts that promote tourism development.  Although the community faces several challenges in the management of the tourism sector, the leaders have been optimistic that growth in tourism will be witnessed in future. Human resource development within the AEC in tourism development focuses on offering   proper training and education to the employees and professionals in the industry (Hew, 2005).In all the ASEAN countries, the tourism industry has been engaged in efforts that upgrade the skills of the employees in order to meet the increasing demand for professionalism and improved service quality within the tourism and travel industry.  As a result, the ASEAN tourism industry sustains competitive advantage over other tourist destinations in the world. For instance, in order to support tourism development efforts in the region, the ASEAN community has adopted an ASEAN Tourism Joint Promotion mandated to ensure that the regions major international source markets are expanded.

Apart from the government, the private sector is involved in tourism development in the region. Some of the facilities used by tourists such as hotels and lodgings are privately owned. This has made it necessary for the private sector to be involved in tourism development efforts (Var, 1999).The hospitality industry ensures that education and training offered to the personnel improves the quality of services offered to the visitors. Development of effective marketing strategies to attract tourists in the region has been on top gear. For example, a case study on the promotion of tourism in Japan which is a member of ASEAN3 through the Visit ASEAN campaign activities indicate that good marketing by well trained personnel has been beneficial to the sector . In the human resource development, the social learning theory allows the managers to identify the needs of all workers. As a result, the management is able to develop good training and education programs for the workers. For example, in the tourism industry, training should address areas that require workers to apply new skills and knowledge.

The AEC aims at creating a highly competitive ASEAN economic region where tourism becomes a major player in the economy (Wong, Keyuan and Huagun, 2006).The AEC has emphasized that the enhancement and development of human resource should be a key strategy in all sectors of economic development, especially the tourism sector( King, 2008). To make the tourism sector in the region competitive, tourism development efforts focus on establishing education and training institutions which are engaged in offering basic and higher education in tourism-related courses. Institutions of higher learning such as colleges and universities in ASEAN countries train graduates on tourism management .These graduates are absorbed as professionals in the tourism sector. Organizations and companies in the tourism industry are also expected to offer training to the workers. The human resource development theory encourages learning participation in organizations and advocates for maturity of human resource development as a discipline. Within the ASEAN, the National Tourism organizations (NTO) play a vital role in tourism development by ensuring that organizations conduct training of employees to improve their knowledge and skills. As a result, proper training has increased growth in the tourism industry in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore.However, cultural and environmental degradation which have resulted from mass tourism witnessed in these countries has become a major challenge. In order to address this problem, the tourism industry in these countries has intensified efforts to prevent mass tourism by incorporating environmental management professionals in the decision making processes that intend to achieve sustainable tourism development. For instance, sustainable tourism development has made tourism standards for ASEAN industries in ASEAN to be established. These standards promote sustainable tourism development through preservation and conservation of the environment .A case study on sustainable tourism development in ASEAN shows that the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) recently held in Bandar Seri Begawan in January 2010 has had a positive impact on ASEAN tourism industry.  The slogan of the forum was the The Heart of Green -10 to destinations, one conservation vision.  The annual forum is a cooperative regional effort that aims at promoting ASEAN region as a single tourist destination. The forum focused on green or eco-tourism.  The speakers emphasized on the need for the region to embrace the principles of sustainable development through the conservation bio-diversity and the environment while at the same time increasing development (Seng, 2005). This perspective of tourism development has made it necessary for courses on tourism development and sustainable development to be integrated in training of workers or young professionals in organizations and training institutions.

Cooperation between the member states in tourism management, training and education is intensified through the sharing of skills, resources and training facilities (Ghimire, 2001).This is facilitated by the tourism training institutions in the region through professional and technical assistance. The ASEAN Tourism Investment Zone (ATIZ) is a cornerstone of regional tourism which focuses on formulating strategies that promote ASEAN as a single tourism investment destination, develop joint action programs to attract investors and identify tourism areas that are attractive for investment in tourism.  The liberalization of tourism services in the ASEAN regional has demanded for the development of new skills in the human resource to meet the new demands of service provision.  In addition, the ASEAN Tourism Investment Task Force (ATIT) deals with the emanating from the liberalization of tourism services by developing human resource skills. New changes experienced in the tourism sector demands for specialist personnel to operate in new business environments hence developing skills in the new fields of service provision strengthen the productive capacity of the workers. Tourism Departments in respective countries support skills training and higher education by putting into place institutional frameworks and developing policy that encourages measures that increase productivity in the tourism sector. A good example is Thailands National Tourism Development Plan which advocates for effective human resource development, environmental sustainability and conservation of protected areas. The plan demands that tour guides and rangers are well trained. In addition, the Tourism Authority of Thailand ensures that workers within protected areas are equipped with knowledge and skills on how to collaborate with the local communities living around protected areas.

Information oriented activities have been integrated in the tourism industry as a means of equipping the tourism industry personnel with effective skills and equipment to  improve the quality of services provided to  tourists (Hitchock, King and Parnwell, 2009).The ASEAN economic community strives to enhance competitiveness of the tourism sector so that ASEAN is promoted as one single tourism destination.The use of modern equipment and  development of websites has made it easy for employees to serve customers much faster and to increase productivity. The workers are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to meet demands that are technologically driven.  For instance, harmonization of procedures that relate to the issuance of visas to international tourists has demanded that workers within the tourism sector improve their skills and knowledge through workshops, trainings, development and upgrading of skills and capacity building.  To empower the employees with the ability to improve marketing efforts and to build up deeper knowledge on markets of common interests has made human resource development critical (Hall and Page, 2000). Employees actively participate in the organization of international tourism fairs where ASEAN is promoted as a single tourism destination and tourism projects implementation is facilitated by human resource within the tourism departments.  After proper training, workers are able to participate in the studies that identify tourism areas that can be attractive to both the tourists and the investors (Vuthy, 2002).  Because countries such as Philippines and Thailand have become major tourism destinations for sex tourism, human resources development in these countries has aimed at addressing the issue of involvement of children in sex tourism.

After the negative effects of the global crisis on the tourism sector in ASEAN, things are beginning to improve.  This has become a perfect opportunity for the ASEAN economic community to capitalize on the available platforms for developing and igniting growth in business (Sim, 2008). Political instability in some ASEAN member states and the 2008 global financial crisis have been major challenges for regions growth in the tourism.  Human resource development has aimed at overcoming these challenges (Gates and Than, 2001). For example, the implementation of Road map for Integration of Tourism Sector (RITS) 2004-2010 has encouraged human resource development to aim at embracing joint tourism integration.  Under the ASEAN Multilateral Agreement on Air Services, the ASEAN economic community supports the recruitment and training of staff who should handle the expansion opportunities in air travel within the tourism sector. Furthermore, the adoption of a Mutual Recognition Arrangement in the ASEAN region aims at increasing equality in human resources and facilitation of professionals mobility within the region.  The ASEAN Tourism Ministers have agreed to ensure supporting resources that promote training in the educational institutions and the work place is available.  A study on the Training of Tourism Heritages held between 2nd and 5th November 2008 in Melaka (Malaysia) and 14-16 October, 2008 in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) confirmed that the trainings were successful in offering skills and knowledge important in tourism development. In Phillipines, the Tourism Master Plan outlines policies that maximize the use of local human and financial resources in the growth of tourism industry. The plan establishes a tourism industry training board which coordinates training centers in various regions and sets standards for tourism educators and professionals. Workshops that engage professionals in the tourism industry in tourism-related issues are conducted with the assistance of the Philippines Council on Sustainable Development.

The ASEAN countries have become major tourist destinations which attract a large number of visitors annually. Therefore, tourism development through human resource development plays a very critical role in economic development of ASEAN countries .One challenge that the industry is facing is how to ensure tourism development goes hand in hand with sustainable development. In order to meet the demands of the growing tourism industry and to address problems in the sector, the ASEAN Economic Community has been established. The community ensures that effective human resources development is fully supported in the region. Although there have been challenges in the achievement of this objective, the AEC considers human resources development in tourism development to be critical for regional tourism growth.