ourism sector has not fully explored the huge potential of its economy and tourism resources for itsfaster and sustainable growth.
clearly shown Vietnam’s tourism development is still lagged behind our neighboring countries. The question raising here which is a level of, what factors determine Vietnam’s tourism development and how does Vietnam improve its tourism industry? This study takes these questions for the empirical examination in order to explore such a understudied area and draw some policy implications for improving Vietnam’s tourism development situation.LITERATURE REVIEWTheoretically, the study is based on recent empirical studies on factors influencing tourism development. There are a number of studies on factors affecting tourism development and look at this issue from different perspectives and different levels of specific. For example, at the micro level, Brannes and Jonas (2002) look at only one specific factor, that is, tourist accommodation effects of festivals and found this factor has the strongly positive effect on tourism demand. The study of Effendi (2009) focuses on price competitiveness and natural resources and suggest that these two factors are the most important variables influencing on tourism development.
At the macro level and country-based case study, Mok ; Lam (1998) study on Vietnam’s tourism development and assert that factors shaping the Vietnamese tourism industry include the environment, politics, and government involvement. All of three factors are jointly influencing the success of Vietnam’s tourism development, crucially. By looking at a negative side, Sinclair (1999) ; Dubarry (2000) have modeled the impact of factors on tourism development including political instability, social dispute, terrorism, movement limitation, exchange rate limitation, and change in free duty terms, economy recession, international fairs, sport events, oil crisis and national day celebration on tourism demand.Regarding a case of Vietnam’s tourism industry, the study of Nguyen Van Dinh & Tran Thi Minh Hoa (2008) has clearly presented three groups of conditions for Vietnam’s tourism development, that is, (1) Group 1: The necessary conditions to develop tourism activities; (2) Group 2: The necessary conditions to develop tourism business activities for a region in general; and (3) Group 3: The necessary conditions to develop any particular tourism type for a region. In addition, they have also pointed out a set of five groups of factors affecting tourism development in the Figure 1.
Special events and other factors affecting tourism (5) Good preparation to serve tourists (4)VIETNAMTOURISM DEVELOPMENTTourism resources (3)The general components for the development of traveling activities (1)External components (2) Figure 1: Theoretical Framework2By synthesizing the relevant literature and empirical observations, this wok would empirically examine three groups of factors that are supposed to have significant influence on Vietnam’s tourism development: (1) Group 1: Internal components of tourism industry including tourism management system, tourism infrastructure, social infrastructure, economic insurance for hospitality, technology application in tourism; (2) Group 2: External components affecting tourism industry including political environment, cultural environment, competitive environment; and (3) Group 3: Tourism resources including the good sense of environment protection and natural resources.RESEARCH METHOD Data collection? Secondary dataThe secondary data was collected and used in this research including academic books, research monographs, government statistical reports and legal documents, journal and newspaper articles that are more specifically focused on Vietnam’s tourism.
