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HUE UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS
LE THI NGOC ANH
A STUDY OF TOURIST DESTINATION
COMPETITIVENESS IN THUA THIEN HUE, VIET NAM
SUMMARY DOCTORAL DISSERTATION
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Code: 9340101
Supervisor 1: ASSOC. PROF. DR BUI THI TAM
Supervisor 2: ASSOC. PROF. DR NGUYEN DANG HAO
HUE - 2019
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This study was completed at:
Hue College of Economics, Hue University
Suppervisor 1: Associate Professor Dr. Bui Thi Tam
Suppervisor 2: Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Dang Hao
Reviewer 1: .......................................................
Reviewer 2: .......................................................
Reviewer 3: ........................................................
This dissertation will be defended in the Thesis Examination Council of
Hue University in: ..........................................
............................................................................
At………….am/pm on ………/…………/……..2019
This dissertation can be found in: The National Library and The library of
College of Economics, Hue University, 99 Ho Dac Di, Hue City, Thua
Thien Hue province.
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I. PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Reaons for selecting this topic
In the last few decades, there has been rapid development of tourism as the biggest
industry of the world’s economy. This contributes to foreign exchange, employment and
income, boosting other industries to enhance…According to the travel and tourism
competitiveness report 2015 of World Economic Forum, “…although the world is facing
geopolitical tensions from Middle East, Ukraine to South East Asia, terrorism is spreading
worldwide, the impact of these incidents on travel has not been clear”. While some nation
destinations suffer from decreasing international visitors, some others don’t. In recent years,
the international tourism and travel are still developing. Total international tourists reach the
record of 1.19 billion in 2015, increase by 52 million compared to 2014 (UNWTO, 2016).
As for World Travel and Tourism Council, current travel and tourism add to 10.2% GDP in
the world with revenue of 7,613.3 billionUSD, accounting for 6.6% turnover, adding to
9.6% global employment. This number can reach 12.1% in 2027 (WTTC, 2017).
When international tourism market improves, destination competitiveness is considered
the crucial issue to impact on tourism business. Pearce (1997:25) states that “When the
world’s tourism becomes competitive…, all the awareness of development, strength, and
weakness in the destination’s competitiveness would be extremely important” Also under this
view, Crouch và Ritchie (2000:6) emphasizes “competitiveness of the destination can impact
on industry’s internal categorization, then, it (competitiveness) is the matter of interest for
enterprises and policy makers”.
As for tourist destinations, competitive capability is regarded as motivation and
development objective of the destination, because competitiveness will increase
opportunities to attract tourist market, to boost tourism, as well as other supplementary
industries, to increase socio-economic development of the destination, for the sake of
poverty alleviation. The building and maintenance of competitive capability is a strategic
task on the daily basis of the destination. Prior to the deployment of strategy and solution to
develop destination and enhance competitive capability, some core issues need to be
resolved such as: which factor constitutes competitive capability of the destination? Method
to measure these factors? Can the inventory of variable be applied to analyse competitive
capability of a specific destination? These questions attract attention from researchers and
practictioners, but there has not been any answer. Even when the tourist destination
succeeds in market share, it is still difficult to apply the variable inventory to evaluate
competitive capability of a specific destination.
As for tourism, competitive capability is the scale to measure activities of the industry
in the interanational tourism. The sector’s contribution into the local and national
development depends a great deal on its competitiveness. As for enterprises, competitive
capability is the vital factor to define the existence and growth of enterprises. Each tourism
enterprise needs to locate factors contributing to competitive advantage and competitive
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capability of the destination, to assess and exploit competitive advantage in the most
beneficial way to enhance its competitiveness on the market. Therefore, destination’s
competitive capability is the interest of various stakeholders such as development and
management policy makers, researchers and enterprises.
In terms of study, althouth late, researches of destination’s competitive capability
attract lots of attention from experts and other practitioners such as Crouch & Ritchie, 1993,
1999; Dwyer, Forsyth, & Rao, 2000; Vengesayi, 2003; EkinandAkbulut, 2015. Especially,
the study of Crouch & Richie (1999) is one of the efforts in generalizing variables to study
competitiveness in tourism and industry competitiveness to research competitive capability
of the destination (Enright & Newton, 2005). Previously, some studies focused on
competitive advantage of some resources or price such as Poon, 1993; Chon &Mayer, 1995.
Studies on destination’s competitive capability in recent time have focused on solving the
definition, approach and operationalize variables to measure tourist destination’s
competitive capability of the nation, territory or a specific local area.
Accordingly, evaluation model of competitive capability includes: 1) business factors;
2) factors of management, destination planning and development; 3) factors of tourism
resources and destination attraction.
However, international studies emphasized that there has not been any complete model
of tourist destination competitive capability because there was not any synthesic evaluation
framework towards various aspects related to destination’s competitiveness. This sets a
demand towards tourist destination competitive capability to improve theoretical model as
well as recommendations and policies to develop competitive capability in various scales.
As for Vietnam tourism, although there has been active transformation and growth,
Vietnam tourism in general and ThuaThien Hue tourism (Hue tourism) has not developed in
line with its potential. Tourism products are not attractive and not characterized. The
attraction and image of Hue tourist destination are still unclear to tourirts (BùiThịTám,
2010, TrầnThịNgọcLiên, 2013). Statistics of Department of Tourism showed that, staying
days on average at Thua Thien Hue during 2013-2017 declined from 2.01 day/pax(2013)
to1.8 day/ pax (2017), while nearby destinations like Da Nang and Hoi An had the growth.
This brings forward a big question of competitive capability ofThừaThiênHuếtourist
destination. As a prominent location of tourism resources and early developed in Vietnam
and Central Vietnam (BùiThị Támvà Mai Lệ Quyên, 2012; Lê Thị Ngọc Anh, 2018),
ThừaThiênHuế tourism has not seen any outstanding steps to define its pioneering
destination in the area.
So far, some studies focused on the capability of attracting, destination image and
competitive capability implemented in Central area such as stuties made byBùiThịTám,
2010; Thái Thanh Hà, 2010, NguyễnThịBíchThủy, 2013. However, these studies are
conducted along with specific approaches with exploratory study over detailed aspects of
competitive capability. Therefore, recommendations for further research focus on
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systematical research in terms of content, methodology and real-life application towards
evaluation model of destination’s competitive capability.
Theoretically, is it plausible to build a structural model to scientifically assess
contributing factors of competitive capability of a tourist destination and their interaction?
In terms of reality application, what is the level of Hue tourist destination’s competitive
capability? Contributing factors of competitive capability of Hue tourist destination and
their interactivity? Specific opportunities and solutions to improve competitive capability of
Hue tourist destination?
Decision no. 1622/QĐ-UBND dated 26/8/2013 by Thue Thien Hue Provincial
People’s Committee stated: “Develop Thua Thien Hue tourism in a fast, sustainable, quality
assurance way with competitiveness, conservation and mobilization of cultural heritage”.
This shows the interest and urgency of the assessment of competitive capability of Hue
tourism to achieve the target of “Focus on developing tourism into leading enonomy
industry, by 2020, to improve Thua Thien Hue to become the leading destination in the
region; by 2030, to build Thua Thien Hue into an equal destination with other international
city of cultural heritage”.
From those facts, the study of competitive capability of Hue tourist destination to
clarify the actual status of development and competitive capability, as well as factors
impacting on competitive capability, to recommend policies and solutions to improve
competitive capability of Hue tourist destination is essential. Therefore, the dissertation of
“A study of tourist destination competitiveness in Thua Thien Hue, Viet Nam”is
scientifically meaningful to contribute to the development of competitiveness of Thua Thien
Hue tourism, and the socio-economic development of the province, the tourism of the
Central in the coming time.
2. Research objective
2.1. General objective
On the basic of theoretical and methodolody study of tourist destination
competitiveness to build, accredit and propose theoretical model to evaluate competitiveness
of tourist destination, and to use in the analysis and evaluation of competitiveness of Thua
Thien Hue tourism.
2.2 Specific objective
- Systemize, clarify theoretical and methodology issues of tourist destination
competitiveness.
- Build theoretical framework and measured variable system to assess competitiveness of
tourist destination.
- Analyze, evaluate contributing factors of Thua Thien Hue tourist destination
competitiveness.
- Recommend directions, core solutions and policies to enhance competitiveness of Thua
Thien Hue tourist destination.
