The tourism industry is a key contributor to the global economy. Numerous studies have shown that English plays a significant role in the success of international tourism. This study aimed to synthesize existing literature and document the roles of English-oriented language policies in reinforcing the development of the tourism industry within both macro (national) and micro (stakeholders) social domains following Spolsky’s language policy framework and Thomas and Harden’s modified thematic synthesis. This paper employed a descriptive qualitative research design, guided by a modified thematic synthesis, to analyze 20 research articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2020 and 2025. The analysis identified four key themes for the roles of English language policies at the macro level: a predictor of economic growth, the global language of tourism, a tool for portraying a destination’s image, and a means of enhancing service quality and tourist attractions. Conversely, five themes emerged at the micro level: cross-cultural communication, impact on tourists’ destination choice, tourist satisfaction and travel experience, convenience in navigating a tourist destination, and an increase in revisit probability. Furthermore, the macro level domain operationalizes English language policies for economic growth while the micro level domain highlights how these language policies are implemented for communicative convenience. As such, these findings can serve as a reference for various countries in refining their language policies for national tourism. Future researchers could expand this review to other fields where English language policies are utilized, and that additional databases and search engines beyond Google Scholar be employed.