Sustainable Cruise Tourism Development Strategies – Tackling the Challenges in Itinerary Design in South-East Asia

Cruise tourism is characterized by bringing large numbers of people to concentrated areas of destinations for brief periods, thus multiplying and concentrating the impacts. Cruise development may lead to loss of precious biodiversity and destruction of cultural heritage if infrastructure and itinerary development outpace monitoring and evaluation of environmental and cultural resources and fragility. The impact, challenges and implications of cruise tourism development are representative of our planet’s overall challenges in approaching economic development. This report presents a call to action at a critical juncture in South-East Asian development and seeks to spread awareness of sustainable development in cruise tourism, catalyze collaboration across the region and stimulate the strategic implementation of best practices and innovations.