ASEAN & South Asia: Hits, Misses, & Opportunities

South Asia and ASEAN regions are actively promoting tourism by leveraging mutual agreements and collaborative marketing efforts, including joint tourism forums and cross-regional promotional campaigns to enhance visibility and attract tourists to both regions. On one hand, initiatives like the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) are specific ally designed to promote ASEAN as a unified tourist destination. On the other side, according to UN Tourism records, South Asia demonstrates remarkable resilience by recovering 87% of 2019 tourism levels as of January this year, highlighting the region’s robust rebound. Talking about India in particular, the country accelerates its position as 39th in the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI) for 2024, emerging as the top performer in South Asia and among lower-middle-income economies. But World Economic Forum (WEF) also highlights that India boasts the largest travel and tourism (T&T) sector in South Asia. But the question is, what is the actual current state of tourism flow between these two regions and also India? This study delves into analysing the existence of a comprehensive approach to enhance bilateral tourism between two regions, identification of key barriers, the way forward, as well as retrospect the trends in inter-regional tourism involving both the sides of ASEAN and South-Asia region. Aligned with India’s look east and neighbourhood policies, the story will explore how can there be greater tourism interdependence between India and, ASEAN and South Asia regions.

Key takeaways from the article:

• ASEAN and South Asia are increasingly using joint tourism campaigns and regional cooperation to strengthen cross-border tourism growth.
  

• India ranked 39th in the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024, emerging as South Asia’s top performer.
  

• ASEAN received over 4.29 million Indian visitors in 2023, highlighting India’s growing role as a major outbound tourism market.
  

• Tourist arrivals from ASEAN to India remain comparatively low despite multiple bilateral tourism agreements and strategic partnerships.
  

• ASEAN destinations like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore are outperforming India in tourism marketing and visitor conversion.
  

• India continues to be a high-value source market for ASEAN nations across leisure, business, cruise and wedding tourism.
  

• Singapore recorded strong recovery from India, with over 1 million Indian visitors in 2023 and India emerging as its second-largest cruise source market.
  

• Buddhist tourism is emerging as one of the strongest opportunities to deepen tourism ties between India, ASEAN and South Asia. India’s Buddhist circuits remains underutilised despite holding immense spiritual and heritage significance.
  

• Infrastructure gaps, limited connectivity, high domestic travel costs and weaker overseas marketing are major barriers affecting inbound tourism to India.
  

• Countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are seen adopting more aggressive, tourism-friendly and result-oriented promotional strategies.
  

• Bhutan and Nepal are increasingly targeting ASEAN travellers through Buddhist tourism, cultural exchanges and destination promotion campaigns.
  

• Flight connectivity, visa complexities and limited awareness continue to hinder tourism growth between ASEAN and South Asia.
  

• Digital marketing, influencer collaborations and targeted destination branding are central to regional tourism promotion strategies.
  

• Sustainable tourism and cultural preservation are increasingly shaping tourism policies across both ASEAN and South Asia.
  

• India’s “Look East” and neighbourhood policies present strong potential for deeper tourism integration with ASEAN nations.
  

• Cruise tourism, MICE, weddings and spiritual tourism are identified as high-growth sectors for regional tourism cooperation.
  

• Regional tourism bodies believe collaborative promotion and easier mobility can significantly improve two-way tourist flows.
  

• The future of ASEAN–South Asia tourism growth lies in stronger connectivity, policy alignment, infrastructure development and collaborative marketing.
  

In conversation with:

• Rajan Sehgal, Co-Chair – Tourism & Hospitality Committee, PHDCCI

• Ahmad Johanif Mohd Ali, Director, Tourism Malaysia, New Delhi

• Markus Tan, Regional Director for India, Middle East, South Asia, and Africa (IMESA), Singapore Tourism Board

•  Srijana Nepali, Officer, Tourism Marketing and Promotion Department, Nepal Tourism Board

• Carissa Nimah, Chief Marketing Officer at Department of Tourism – Bhutan