This paper investigates the demand of Asian major tourists from China, Malaysia, Korea and Japan in the Mekong countries i.e. Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam by adding the political instability of Thailand in the model. Using semi-annual panel data set from 2000-2014 which is estimated by panel dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) procedure. The study concludes that the demand of Asian tourist arrivals in Mekong countries has a positive relationship with income in the entire region, and has a negative relationship with tourism price for Malaysian, Korean and Japanese tourists. In addition, the political instability of Thailand negatively affects Chinese and Japanese tourist arrivals. This study suggests that all GMS countries should control the price level of tourism products and focus on the higher-income group for major countries. Additionally, they should recognize the risks of political instability for managing sustainable tourism demand in the Asian tourism market.

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