Tourism planning in a presently developing country: The case of Malaysia

Increasingly sophisticated economic studies of tourism have been undertaken in developed countries, (DCs); in presently developing countries, (PDCs), however, the paucity of reliable data often precludes such studies. However, in some PDCs there is already a relatively strong economic and industrial base, and tourism is not viewed as the motor of development, but rather as a sector of economic diversification within the development process. The planning and management of tourism in Malaysia provides an apposite case-study of what contribution tourism can make to the economies of PDCs, and how tourism may be stimulated in such cases.