Monarchy matters in tourism development in many countries, but little research attention has been given in this regard to Southeast Asian monarchies. For scholars interested in cultural and heritage tourism, this volume of examples is welcomed.

This collection has 12 chapters, offering a diverse range of cases, covering all the ASEAN countries except Cambodia. The chapters fit roughly into two types. The first type focuses on monarchy-related tourist attractions. The second focuses on historical travels, such as by royals in Thailand (chapters 4 and 5 by Prasit Leepreecha and Ploysri Porananond respectively) and by elites during the Dutch colonial era in Java (chap. 10 by Janianton Damanik and Destha T. Raharjana). Both approaches complement and offer interesting contrasts when put together. They also point to different ways of reading the interplay between tourism and monarchy.

This book also affirms that many cultural and heritage products in the region are intricately linked to their respective monarchies. The case studies remind us that the celebration of culture and heritage in tourism is very often a celebration of the elite. Monarchs are often guardians of their national religions, and religious cultural symbols are closely linked to the monarchy. This point is well made by Victor T. King on Brunei (chap. 2), and Nor Hafizah Selamat and Hasanuddin Othman on Kuala Kangsar, Malaysia (chap. 3). In these cases, it is difficult to separate the sultans and related tourist attractions such as royal mosques and museums. In fact, these cultural institutions are incorporated into tourism development strategies that are also tacitly supporting nation-building programmes.

In a more historical approach, Ploysri Porananond presents the insightful case of how the elephant became the symbol of Chiang Mai and Thailand in chapter 5. A hundred elephants were used to parade the King and Queen of Siam in 1926 in Chiang Mai, and that procession elevated the animal to royal status — from being a means of long-distance transportation to royal carriers. Since then, elephants have been treated with greater respect, and their images are now used to depict royalty and the nation, and are ubiquitous in tourist souvenirs. This example alludes to how an old royal spectacle can become a symbol for nation building and for national branding.

In bringing the past and present together, there are inevitable contradictions. Communism and monarchy do not sit well together. Chapter 7 on Vietnam by Nguyen Pham Hung explains how ‘feudal’ Vietnam (before communist rule) built the foundation for monarchy-related tourism today. With tourism growing in importance, the chapter does not discuss how the current political regime skirts around or reconciles the country's much-maligned feudal past in relation to the present political ideology. Similar contradictions are found in Myanmar, and Simon Duncan points to the uncomfortable tension between a deposed monarchy and the military regime (chap. 9).

If modern societies are said to be built on democracy, capitalism and science, then monarchies are anachronistic. Monarchies change, including those in Southeast Asia, and their relevance is maintained and updated through various social, cultural, economic and political functions they play in society (Roger Kershaw, Monarchy in South-East Asia: The faces of tradition in transition, 2001). Serving the tourism market is one such function. This book shows that there are different ways the monarchy can serve modern society and the visitor economy. Contexts and circumstances shape those different ways. There are at least three ways in which tourism and monarchy work with and through each other. First, tourism development has become an engine of economic growth, and the monarchy has been able to stay relevant by providing cultural assets or attractions. Second, monarchy and tourism complement each other in the business of building up the country's brand and soft power. Third, tourists are taught to appreciate and to be sensitive towards the monarchy, which inevitably also communicates and suggests global recognition of and reverence for the local monarchy by foreigners. In other words, tourism inevitably affirms the international legitimacy of the local royal family.

This book could further situate tourism and monarchy in a wider economic, social, political context. The case of Singapore by Kailasam Thirumaran in chapter 12 gets closest to this task. He looks at the neutralisation of the monarchy in the city-state and how its sultanate-past has been appropriated for the country's modern development. From there, it is easy to see how the island's so-called sultanate-past is incorporated into modern Singapore's multicultural social engineering programmes (see Can-Seng Ooi, ‘Histories, tourism and museums: Re-making Singapore’, in Heritage tourism in Southeast Asia, 2010). The irreverence of a bygone monarchy in Singapore contrasts against the other chapters, and raises a question: to what extent were/are researchers compelled to be less confrontational in analysing ‘living’ monarchs in the region?

This book opens up a discussion on tourism and the monarchy in Southeast Asia. Many chapters identify the roles and functions of the monarchy in tourism development. There are, however, many more questions that deserve exploration, possibly in the next edition. In particular, a broader and more holistic understanding of how tourism and the monarchy function in a country's sociopolitical and economic environment would be appreciated. For instance, analysing the symbolic omnipresence of Buddhism and the Thai royalty, found also in seedy Thai tourist places, would reveal a particular political-cultural logic of monarchy and tourism in the Land of Smiles (for example, see K. Nuttavuthisit, ‘Branding Thailand: Correcting the negative image of sex tourism’, Place branding and public diplomacy, 2007). This volume throws up many questions — a sign of a book that inspires and challenges.