The East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC) was launched in 1998 as a flagship initiative of the Greater Mekong Subregion. EWEC has since achieved many of its infrastructure targets and must now be transformed from a transport corridor into an economic corridor. This report reviews and updates the Pre-Investment Study for EWEC conducted in 2001. It consolidates the interests and concerns of stakeholders into a revised and updated strategy and action plan to provide a vision and framework, improve coordination, and assist in mobilizing resources for EWEC development. Preparation of this revised and updated strategy and action plan for EWEC involved a series of consultations with government officials of EWEC countries and representatives of the private sector, nongovernment organizations, and development partners. These consultations culminated in a regional workshop held on 24 April 2009 in Khon Kaen, Thailand. The revised and updated strategy and action plan for EWEC was endorsed at the 15th GMS Ministerial Conference held in Cha-am, Petchburi Province, Thailand on 17–19 June 2009.

The North–South Economic Corridor (NSEC), one of the priority economic corridors under the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Economic Cooperation Program, was designated as a GMS flagship initiative in 2002. Efforts have been taken since then to develop NSEC but these were pursued mainly on a project-by-project basis. Consultations in NSEC countries were started in the last quarter of 2007 to initiate a holistic approach to the development of NSEC. The strategy and action plan for NSEC is the product of these and subsequent consultations with government officials, representatives of the private sector, and other stakeholders in these countries. Besides providing a vision and framework for developing NSEC, this strategy and action plan is aimed at improving coordination, ensuring effective implementation, and helping the mobilization of resources and the broadening of support for NSEC development. The strategy and action plan for NSEC was endorsed at the 15th GMS Ministerial Conference held in Cha-am, Petchburi Province, Thailand on 17–19 June 2009.

This report documents tourism sector investment priorities of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the governments of Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, and Viet Nam. It highlights sector performance, priority development constraints, government plans and strategies, past ADB support and experience, and other development partner support. The report provides sector background information for ADB's investment and technical assistance operations and will be updated as strategic developments and program changes are needed.

The second edition of the Greater Mekong Subregion Atlas of the Environment again champions the environment of this unique part of Asia, an area straddled by rivers great and small, with bountiful watersheds, wetlands, and forests. The Atlas celebrates the peoples of the subregion, and presents the environmental and development challenges they face and their responses. It reminds us that the subregion's peoples and communities are key to maintaining its environment. The Atlas captures in one volume maps, remote-sensing images, and essential information on one of the most culturally, ethnically, and biologically diverse regions in the world. The subregion is made up of Cambodia; Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province of the People's Republic of China; the Lao People's Democratic Republic; Myanmar; Thailand; and Viet Nam.

Timely and accessible, this Handbook offers a thorough account of the growth, development, and changes in the field of tourism planning over recent decades. With contributions from an interdisciplinary and international range of top scholars, it examines critical issues and challenges facing contemporary tourism planning. Covering research at local, national, and global levels, chapters unpack and frame planning strategies in various destinations, expanding the definition of tourism planning to encompass a range of successful case studies.

The Mekong River is a vital and valuable resource, with huge development potential for the six states through which it flows. Given the significant asymmetry of power between those states, however, there is a real risk that some might utilise it to the detriment of others. Without a sense of regional belonging, it is difficult to imagine that these states and their constituent communities will take regional imperatives to heart, participate in joint regulatory frameworks, or adopt behaviours for upstream-downstream and lateral cooperation over the appropriation and use of their shared resources. How effectively has closer interdependence of the Mekong countries accommodated the development of a political-social-cultural space conducive to the growth of a regional "we-ness" among not only political elites, but also the general public? The contributors to this volume approach this question from a range of directions, including the impacts of tourism, regional development programmes, the Mekong Power Grid, and Sino-US rivalry. This edited volume presents valuable insights for scholars of international relations, Asian studies, development studies, environment studies, policy studies, and human geography.

By January 2015 the world’s richest 80 people had as much wealth as the poorest 50 per cent of the world’s population. It is a global unevenness through which the barriers to in-migration of Third World migrants to wealthy First World nations go ever higher, while the barriers to travel in the reverse direction are all but extinct. So how exactly does tourism contribute to narrowing this glaring inequality between the rich and poor? Are ever-expanding tourism markets a smoke-free, socioculturally sensitive form of human industrialisation? Is alternative tourism really a credible lever for reducing global inequality and eliminating poverty? Tourism and Sustainability critically explores the most significant universal geopolitical norms of the last half century – development, globalisation and sustainability – and through the lens of new forms of tourism demonstrates how we can better get to grips with the rapidly changing new global order. The fourth edition has been extensively revised and updated, and benefits from the addition of new material on climate change and tourism. Drawing on a range of examples from across the Third World, Mowforth and Munt expertly illustrate the social, economic and environmental conditions that continue to affect the tourism industry. With the first edition hailed by Geoffrey Wall as ‘one of the most significant books produced on tourism [since the turn of the millennium]’, Tourism and Sustainability remains the essential resource for students of human geography, environmental sciences and studies, politics, development studies, anthropology and business studies as well as tourism itself.

This book explores river tourism from a range of perspectives including river uses, heritage, management, environmental concerns, and marketing. The book has 15 chapters and an index. The intended readership includes researchers and students of leisure and tourism.