'Configuring new tourism space': exploring Singapore's regional tourism forays

The concept of 'regional tourism' has gained salience in Asia since the 199 0s. The traditional practice of single-country tourism development is incre asingly complemented by cross-border collaborations in planning and promoti on. Through these transnational practices, new tourism spaces are being con figured with region-states emerging alongside nation-states. In this paper I explore the concept of Asian regional tourism from the perspective of Sin gapore. As a city-state with scarce land resources, Singapore has turned to regionalism (or 'regionalisation') to overcome its spatial constraints, an d to stimulate its tourism industry. I have two main aims in this paper. Co nceptually, I argue that regional tourism takes a number of distinct spatia l configurations, as exemplified by the case of Singapore. Empirically, I r eveal that tourism regionalisation brings manifold opportunities to a small country like Singapore, but that it also generates many challenges hithert o never experienced. Political sensitivites within Asia, incompatible worki ng styles between societies, and cultural differences emerge when countries interact with each other.