Current Tourism Structures in Central Vietnam Need for a Destination Management Organisation?

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MASTER DISSERTATION

Anna Maria Tatjana Hildebrandt Tourism Destination Management NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences

Current Tourism Structures in Central Vietnam

Need for a Destination Management Organisation?

Master Dissertation by Anna Maria Tatjana Hildebrandt – 121280

Student at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences

Master Programme Tourism Destination Management

Date of Submission: 12 December 2013

Supervisor: Rami Khalil Isaac

Declaration of Authenticity

I hereby declare that this dissertation is wholly the work of Anna Maria Tatjana Hildebrandt. Any other contributors or sources have either been referenced in the prescribed manner or are listed in the acknowledgements together with the nature and the scope of their contribution.

Breda, December 2013

Acknowledgement

“The world of tomorrow belongs to the person who has the vision today.” Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

First of all I would very much like thank my parents Christine Huth- Hildebrandt and Winfried Hildebrandt who made my studies at NHTV possible, for their patience and their encouragement. Without you, I would never have made it.

Then I would very much like to thank Kai Partale for his support, who enabled me to absolve an internship at ESRT Environmentally & Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development Programme, Hanoi, and to write my master dissertation within the scope of ESRT. At the same time, I also would very much like to thank all colleagues at ESRT for their help. Cám Ơn.

At this point, I have to mention that the research for this dissertation was carried out under the sole responsibility of Tatjana Hildebrandt. ESRT is neither responsible nor accountable for the content of this dissertation.

Furthermore, I would very much like to thank all my interview partners who contributed to this dissertation by sharing their knowledge. Cám Ơn.

I am also very grateful to Hoang Mai Nguyen, who supported me by all available means, who helped me with translations, who provided me with contacts and who explained Vietnam to me. Thank you for everything Mai. Cám Ơn. Also, I would very much like to thank Thanh, who also provided me with valuable contacts in Central Vietnam. Cám Ơn.

Last but not least, I would very much like thank my supervisor Rami Isaac for his patient guidance, his always rapid and critical feedback and ideas as well as his positive support.

Executive Summary

Within the worldwide expanding tourism market, Vietnam adopts a strong position with its high tourism growth rates.

Central Vietnam, as one of the three most important tourism areas in Vietnam ought to enhance its competitiveness. Therefore, the research goal is to analyse the existing organisational tourism structures in Central Vietnam under the aspect of tourism stakeholder cooperation in order to find out which structures and types of cooperation appear as the most efficient ones in Central Vietnam and which structures and which organisation types would add most value to the region, with the aim to give recommendations for enhancing tourism management in Central Vietnam.

Consequently, the ensuing research questions have been formulated:

1. How is tourism developing in Central Vietnam? 2. What are the current tourism structures in Central Vietnam? 3. How does the supply side consider the performance of tourism structures in terms of cooperation? 4. What is destination management lacking in Central Vietnam? 5. Which structures would be most beneficial to enhance tourism in Central Vietnam?

To answer the above mentioned research question, literature in the field of destination management and marketing was reviewed, followed by the collection of data on Central Vietnam. Based on that, qualitative field research with public and private stakeholders in Central Vietnam was conducted in order to gather in-depth information about the current structures of cooperation between the three provinces.

The analysis of the research findings revealed that all stakeholders per- ceive Central Vietnam as one destination. At the moment, there are different types of DMO-like cooperations of public and private stakeholders in juxtaposition with each other, which do not achieve an effective target- oriented cooperation for enhancing the destination‘s competitiveness. iii

Therefore, it is recommended to establish one single “DMO Central Vietnam” as Public Private Partnership (PPP), which shall be responsible for the three destinations Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An, whose tasks include the sustainable development of tourism in order to position Central Vietnam as a strongly competitive destination on a national as well as an international level.

Because unrestricted consensus exists regarding necessity, functions and goal of such an organisation, the recommendation is to establish an independent, non-profit PPP, in which the public and private stakeholders shall be adequately represented, however, with a majority for the public side. Yet, various opinions occur regarding the adequate organisational structure.

The governance of PPPs, in fact, can take different legal forms ranging from rather loose types like working groups, committees, theme-based or activity-based cooperation, multi-stakeholder destination management boards to more strongly institutionalised forms like associations or agencies etc. through to business-oriented corporations like Limited Liability Com- panies (LLCs) or joint stock companies.

Since the goals of the recommended DMO Central Vietnam (DMO CV) are business and success oriented, the institutionalisation of this PPP requires a firm structure as it is usual in the business environment. In regard to this, the establishment in form of a business corporation seems to be most suitable.

In order to proof the validity of the recommendation for a business oriented implementation of the new DMO as LLC or joint stock company, it is advisable to evaluate the experiences of such DMOs with this type of legal structure in different countries with capitalist and centrally planned economies in order to find out the most suitable solution for Central Vietnam.

List of Abbreviations

bn. Billion DCST Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism DMO Destination Management Organisation DMO CCV Destination Marketing Organisation Central Coast DMO CV Destination Management Organisation Central Vietnam ESRT Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development Programme GDP Gross Domestic Product GNI Gross National Income HCMC Ho Chi Minh City HITT High Impact Tourism Training ITDR Institute for Tourism Development Research KEZ Key Economic Zone LLC Limited Liability Company MCST Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism mio. Million MSDMB Multi-Stakeholder Destination Management Boards NGO Non-Government Organization PPC Provincial People‘s Committee PPP Public Private Partnership UNWTO United Nations World Tourism Organization VBF Vietnam Business Forum VCP Vietnamese Communist Party VISTA Vietnam Society of Travel Agents VITA Vietnam Travel Association VNAT Vietnam National Administration of Tourism VTR Vietnam Tourism Review WTO World Trade Organization WTTC World Travel & Tourism Council

List of Tables and Figures

Tables

Table 1 Determinants of DMO success and destination success (Bornhorst et al., 2010)...... 11

Figures

Figure 1 Research Goal...... 2 Figure 2 Research Questions...... 3 Figure 3 Outline Desk Research...... 4 Figure 4 Structure of the Report...... 6 Figure 5 Destination according to Distance (Bieger, 2005, p. 58)...... 10 Figure 6 Vietnam (CIA, 2013)...... 20 Figure 7 Key Economic Zones in Vietnam (Asia Briefing, 2013)...... 24 Figure 8 GDP (Trading Economics, 2013b)...... 25 Figure 9 GNI per capita 2012 ...... 25 Figure 10 Poverty map Vietnam (HITT, 2011)...... 26 Figure 11 International Tourist Arrivals, in mio. (Mintel, 2013)...... 27 Figure 12 Main Source Markets, 2012 (VNAT, 2013b; GSO, 2013)...... 28 Figure 13 Domestic Tourism, in mio. (Mintel, 2013)...... 29 Figure 14 Tourism Structures Vietnam...... 31 Figure 15 Tourism Structures Central Vietnam...... 35 Figure 16 Outline Field Research ...... 37 Figure 17 The Three Provinces in Central Vietnam (DMO CCV, 2013)...... 38 Figure 18 Hue ...... 38 Figure 19 Da Nang City Centre and Beach Resort Area...... 39 Figure 20 Hoi An...... 39

Table of Content Acknowledgement ...... ii

Executive Summary ...... iii

List of Abbreviations ...... v

List of Tables and Figures ...... vi

Chapter 1. Introduction ...... 1

1.1 Problem Statement ...... 1

1.2 Research Goal...... 2

1.3 Research Questions ...... 3

1.4 Desk Research ...... 3

1.5 Dissertation Structure ...... 5

Chapter 2. Literature Review ...... 7

2.1 Introduction ...... 7

2.2 Destination ...... 8

2.3 Destination Competitiveness ...... 10

2.4 Destination Management Organisation ...... 12

2.5 Destination Management and Destination Governance ...... 15

2.6 Trans-Provincial Destination Management ...... 17

2.7 Conclusion ...... 19

Chapter 3. Context Analysis Vietnam ...... 20

3.1 Introduction ...... 20

3.2 General Information on Vietnam ...... 20

3.3 Historical Overview ...... 21

3.4 Vietnam‘s Government System ...... 22

3.5 Key Issues of Vietnam‘s Socialist Economy ...... 24

3.6 Tourism in Vietnam ...... 27

3.6.1 Key Figures of Vietnam Tourism ...... 27

3.6.2 Structure of the tourism sector ...... 29 vii

3.7 Key Issues Central Vietnam: The three Provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam ...... 32

3.8 Conclusion ...... 36

Chapter 4. Empirical Study ...... 37

4.1 Introduction ...... 37

4.2 Research Area ...... 38

4.3 Field Research Techniques ...... 40

4.4 Conclusion ...... 42

Chapter 5. Research Findings - Analysis and Discussion ...... 43

5.1 Introduction ...... 43

5.2 Perception of Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An as one Destination ...... 43

5.3 Cooperation in Public and Private Organisational Structures ...... 44

5.4 Basic Fields of Cooperation ...... 48

5.5 Perception on a Destination Management Organisation Central Vietnam ...... 54

5.6 Conclusion ...... 55

Chapter 6. Conclusion, Recommendation, Limitations and Further Research ...... 57

6.1 Introduction ...... 57

6.2 Conclusion ...... 57

6.3 Recommendation - The new DMO Central Vietnam ...... 58

6.4 Research Limitations ...... 61

6.5 Suggestions for further Research ...... 62

List of References ...... 64

Appendix ...... 75

Appendix A – Questionnaire ...... 75

Appendix B – List of Interview Partners ...... 78

viii

Chapter 1. Introduction

The first chapter provides the problem statement explaining why the focus lies on Central Vietnam. Subsequently, the research goal and the research objectives are formulated and the consequent research questions derived from the research goal. Additionally, it will be described how desk research was conducted.

1.1 Problem Statement

The three most important tourism areas in Vietnam are Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and the Mekong Delta as well as Central Vietnam with the three provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam.

The topic of this dissertation has been materialized within the researcher‘s cooperation with the Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Development Programme (ESRT), Hanoi, functioning as commissioner.

The ESRT project is aiming to build capacity in the tourism sector in Vietnam, by supporting the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), as well as provincial tourism administrators, associations, civil society organisations and also local communities. One of ESRT‘s activities is to facilitate multi-stakeholder destination management boards (MSDMB) at a regional level, for example the Tour- ism Working Group in the eight North-Western Provinces. As recorded in their terms of reference, one of ESRT‘s issues is the concept development of assisting to establish a MSDMB in the Central Coast.

Corresponding to the National Tourism Action Plan, the task is to ―develop higher levels of [sector] dialogue and the formation of public-private-partnerships of multi destination management boards, established at a regional level in priority provinces as vehicles for promoting enhanced ownership and local involvement in site and destination management‖ (ESRT, 2013).

Since 2012, those three provinces recorded high tourism increase, according to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT, n.d.). For example, in

Da Nang tourism revenues raised tremendously, ―earning the city the third high- est tourism revenue of all localities nationwide, only after the two biggest cities Hanoi and HCMC.‖ During the period from January till August, 2012, 1.87 mio. tourists arrived in Da Nang (VNAT, n.d.). In 2012, the Vietnam Chamber of Com- merce and Industry expects tourist arrivals in Da Nang of 2.58 mio (VCCI, 2013).

Therefore, this dissertation focuses on tourism and tourism structures in Central Vietnam.

1.2 Research Goal

Since the destination Central Vietnam consists of three ―independent‖ provinces, with their specific public and private tourism structures, emphasis will be put on type and effectiveness of cooperation1 between these structures and how they are evaluated from a supply side perspective.

The analysis of the current tourism structures will highlight cooperation structures of the public and private stakeholders as well as the possibilities for further improvement in the setting of the Vietnamese socialist-oriented market economy. Within the analysis, research will examine the present functional (strategic and executional) responsibilities of tourism related institutions, organisations and businesses on a regional, provincial as well as on a local level. Out of this, the ensuing research goal has been set:

Figure 1 Research Goal.

1 Although the terms cooperation and collaboration have slightly different meanings, in this dissertation they will be treated identically. 2

The suggested recommendation shall be useful for national, regional and local public as well as private tourism organisations.

1.3 Research Questions

Pursuant, according to the afore stated research goal, the following research questions have been formulated:

1. How is tourism developing in Central Vietnam?

2. What are the current tourism structures in Central Vietnam?

3. How does the supply side consider the performance of tourism structures in terms of cooperation?

4. What is destination management lacking in Central Vietnam?

5.Which structures would be most beneficial to enhance tourism in Central Vietnam?

Figure 2 Research Questions.

The ensuing chapter introduces the research methods being used for desk research, which represents an essential section of this dissertation as it forms the theoretical and contextual background.

1.4 Desk Research

Desk research was conducted to lay the informational background for this dissertation as well as to lay the foundation for answering the formulated research question, followed by field research in the three provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam, which will be further described in chapter four.

Within desk research a mixed-method approach has been undertaken. Desk research was based on qualitative as well as quantitative methods; whereas field research was based on qualitative research methods.

Existing tourism literature such as academic articles and books as well as valuable sources from the internet have been analysed regarding aspects and models of destination management, its characteristics and the importance for a destination‘s competitiveness. Needs and possibilities of destination management were regarded through the lens of different authors in the field of destination management, where the aspect of destination governance and cooperation are also vital.

Special emphasis was put on the implications of destination boundaries for inter- provincial cooperation, since Central Vietnam consists out of three destinations with different historical, geographical and administrative characteristics.

Secondly, desk research served to gather information on Vietnam in general as well as more specific information on the focused research area of Central Vietnam. For this purpose, data was collected from reports and other publications like newspaper articles. Moreover, online research was executed, especially for tourism-related statistics as well as for latest newspaper publications. There- fore, websites of national and provincial government institutions have been analysed, which gave a first insight into current tourism structures in Central Vietnam – Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An. Moreover, newspapers as well as other online publications on Central Vietnam have been reviewed.

Contextual Theoretical research Desk destination Vietnam and Research management Central Vietnam

Figure 3 Outline Desk Research.

The analysis of desk research gave crucial indications for the core topics and the question complexes for the field research.

Desk research faced limitations such as out-dated data which again hampered analysis. Especially concerning statistical data, contradicting figures were found from different sources and from different years, which made a direct analysis quite complicated or comparison even impossible. Moreover, language barriers made the research difficult. Some important documents like the Vietnam Tourism Master Plan, regional tourism strategies and websites of tourism associations were only available were only available in Vietnamese or as Google translations.

1.5 Dissertation Structure

This dissertation consists of six chapters. The first chapter, the introduction, provides the problem statement presenting why the focus is on Central Vietnam, followed by the research goal, the research objectives and the consequent research questions derived from the research goal. Finally, the methodology of desk research will be described.

The second chapter introduces the theoretical foundation for the dissertation, encompassing reviewed literature with regard to destinations and their competitiveness, destination management organisations, the management of destinations linked to destination governance, and finally trans-provincial destination management.

Chapter three consists out of a contextual analysis, comprising a brief historical overview of Vietnam and its government structures. Moreover, key issues of Vietnam‘s Socialist Economy, Vietnam Tourism, and finally, key issues of the three provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam are tackled.

In chapter four, the research methods being used for obtaining primary data will be introduced.

Subsequently, chapter five comprises research findings resulting from desk and field research on the three provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam. Addition- ally, this chapter covers the analysis as well as the discussion of research findings based on literature in terms of tourism structures in Central Vietnam.

In chapter six conclusions are drawn from the research findings and their analysis. Furthermore, this chapter includes possible recommendations and calls for action. Lastly, the limitations of this research are described herein.

With regard to the chapters introduced above, Figure 4 visualises the dissertation‘s structure:

Introduction

Literature Review

Context Analysis Empirical Study

Research Findings, Analysis & Discussion

Conclusion & Recommendation

Figure 4 Structure of the Report.

Chapter 2. Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

With regard to the dissertation‘s research goal –

Analysis of the existing organisational tourism structures in Central Vietnam under the aspect of tourism stakeholder cooperation in order to find out which structures and types of cooperation appear as the most efficient ones in Central Vietnam and which structures and which organisation types would add most value to the region, with the aim to give recommendations for enhancing tourism management in Central Vietnam. – destination management literature has been analysed according to relevant issues such as the definition of destinations, destination competitiveness, destination management organisations with their characteristics and the emphasis on cooperation. Moreover, literature related to destination governance and trans- provincial destination management has been considered in order to map key issues and fields of stakeholder activities in Central Vietnam. The literature review will not only form the theoretical background for answering the above formulated research questions but will also provide guiding principles for the analysis and discussion of status and performance of tourism structures in Central Vietnam. In addition, the theoretical base is vital for the research process and will shape further field research. Since existing literature does not deal with the specific political, socio-economic conditions of a socialist market economy, this research may gain some significance by placing it within previous, already existing literature.

2.2 Destination

According to United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2013a), the destination is ―the fundamental unit of analysis in tourism‖.

The analysis of literature shows that there are as many different definitions as there are authors writing about destinations. This leads Framke (n.d.) to raise the question ―[...] if it is at all meaningful to continue working with it, because the word spreads confusion rather than brings clearness because there seemingly is some systematically self-contradictions in the use of the word.―.

All the different definitions are legitimate for the respective research, but differ due to the fact that their authors are viewing destinations from different perspectives or different approaches to the topic: supply side or demand side; inside or outside; destination development or destination management or destination marketing.

Supply-side oriented definitions of destination:

 ―[...] a combination (or even a brand) of all products, services and ultimately experiences provided locally‖ (Saftić et al., 2010)  ―Destinations are amalgams of tourism products, offering an integrated experience to consumers.‖ (Buhalis, 2000)  Some authors conceptualise the destination by highlighting the stakeholders‘ function of building tourism packages as ―[...] complex networks that involve a large number of co-producing actors‖ (Gunn, 1994; Pearce, 1989; Hu & Ritchie, 1993; Ramirez, 1999; Buhalis, 2000; Murphy et al., 2000; Haugland et al., 2011)  According to Laesser and Beritelli (2013) ―Destinations can be understood as being geographic entities; a cluster or (latent) network of suppliers; or ad- additionally, as a network of suppliers activated by visitors‘ demands. In es- sence, they are productive social systems with specific business aims and non-business related goals.‖

Demand-side oriented definitions of destination:

 ―[...] both a system of attractions and the geographic area that encompasses them, identified on the basis of the range of needs of inter- mediate or final clients‖. (Bieger, 1997; Buhalis, 2000; Leiper,1979, 1990, 1995; Smith,1988; Sainaghi, 2006).  „[...] a set of products, services, natural and artificial attractions able to draw tourists to a specific place, where the geographical location is simply one of the factors that comprises a destination.― (Presenza, n.d.)  A continent, country, state, region, city or town or even a resort, which is marketed or markets itself as a place for tourists to visit (Bieger, 2005, p. 56)  Destination‘s basic components are the reasons why tourists are attracted to a destination, and also shape a destination experience (UNWTO, 2007). The basic components being the following:  Attractions: Categorised into natural, built or cultural attractions.  Public and private amenities: This refers to services and facilities supporting the destination experience, distinguished into indirect- (e.g. basic infrastructure in the place) and direct tourism-related (e.g. accommodation) services to tourism.  Accessibility: In terms of tourists being able to travel to a destination  Human resources: Refers to tourism-related workforce, but additionally also refers to local communities with which the tourist interacts.  Image and character: Closely related to marketing and promotions: people – the potential tourist – need to be aware of the destination and it‘s ideally unique assets and characteristics.  Price: Plays an important role in terms of competitiveness, related to all kinds of prices for services at the destination, but not of minor importance, the transportation costs to a destination. Pricing is an influencing factor for the tourist decision making process.

From the tourist‘s perspective, one striking characteristic of a destination is its geographical loose boundaries. In other words, when referring to a destination, the definition could mean one specific attraction (Ankor Wat or Kruger National Park), a hotel (The Legian, Bali), a city (New York or London), a region (Côte d‘Azur or Ha Long Bay) or a whole country (Holland or Vietnam) and

in the broadest term it can also mean a whole continent (Australia) (Bieger, 2005, p. 57, Sainaghi, 2006; Bornhorst et al., 2010). However, for a potential tourist, the perception of a destination is closely related to its distance, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 Destination according to Distance (Bieger, 2005, p. 58).

Moreover, these given conditions regarding a destination‘s geographical context causes the difficulty of destination governance (Sainaghi, 2006).

The following UNWTO (2013a) definition will be taken as the basis for this dissertation, because it has a broad, yet distinctive supply side oriented perspective, which covers the main components of the presented research questions:

"A local tourism destination is a physical space in which a visitor spends at least one overnight. It includes tourism products such as support services and attractions, and tourism resources within one day´s return travel time. It has physical and administrative boundaries defining its management, images and perceptions defining its market competitiveness. Local tourism destinations incorporate various stakeholders often including a host community, and can nest and network to form larger destinations."

2.3 Destination Competitiveness

Due to the fact that supply exceeds demand, destinations are competing with each other not only on a regional and national, but because of globalisation even on a continental and global level, a worldwide multi-optional choice has opened up for tourists. Therefore, it is even more important for a destination to stand out in competition in order to be successful (Go & Govers, 2000; Navickas & Malakauskaite, 2009). This is ideally achieved through USPs (Unique Selling

Propositions). These can include natural USPs or man-made USPs (built attractions, events or outstanding service quality etc.). Moreover, the destination is forced to be more pro-active and implement strategies to ―survive and maintain their position in the current competitive travel market.‖ (Formica & Kothari, 2008, Ghirelli, 2013; Haugland et al., 2010). In other words, they are forced to find their competitive advantage. As a function of this, the destination‘s overall attractiveness matching with tourist expectations are pre-conditions to ensure competitive advantages (Dwyer et al., 2004), which, in turn, arise from successful tourism structures within a destination.

According to Bornhorst et al. (2010), a destination‘s success ―must be addressed through an assessment of both input (e.g. effective marketing) and output variables (e.g. increase in visitation).‖ Successful individual actors and the overall success of the whole destination are based on ―efficient coordination and integration of individual companies‘ resources, products, and services‖ (Beritelli, Bieger, & Laesser, 2007; Rodríguez-Díaz & Espino-Rodríguez, 2008; Haugland et al., 2011). This view is also shared by Bornhorst et al. (2010), who state that tourism success is related to both, the destination and the destination management organisation (DMO).

Additionally, Bornhorst et al. (2010) identified overlaps in defining determinants of DMO success and destination success, indicating high interdependencies, which will also be considered for the analysis of professionalization of current tourism structures in Central Vietnam. Those determinants are the following:

Destination DMO Economic indicators Internal stakeholder relations Effective marketing initiatives Operational activities Product & service offerings Resources Quality of visitor experiences Performance measurement Internal stakeholder relations

Table 1 Determinants of DMO success and destination success (Bornhorst et al., 2010).

Dwyer & Kim (2003) state ―There is no single or unique set of competitiveness indicators that apply to all destinations at all times. For any given element of destination competitiveness, any number of indicators may be employed as measures.‖

Ritchie and Crouch (2003) explicitly add the element of profitability by naming ―its ability to increase tourism expenditure, to increasingly attract visitors while providing them with satisfying, memorable experiences, and to do so in a profit- able way, while enhancing the well-being of destination residents and preserving the natural capital of the destination for future generations‖ as indicators for tourism destination competitiveness‖.

This research study will concentrate on finding out which factors may be seen as successful tourism structures from the supply side perspective of Central Vietnam or which might need adaptation and/or modification in order to improve the sustainable competitiveness of Central Vietnam as a tourism destination. Often, not all but a substantial number of stakeholders are precondition for competitiveness of a specific destination on the international market, because their quantitative and qualitative weight must exceed the critical mass for international recognition.

The indicators of competitiveness found by Dwyer et al. (2004) facilitate the measurements of relative performance of the tourism industry. Key criteria therefore, are visitor numbers, expenditures, market share, foreign exchange, earn- ings, economic impacts on income, employment etc. (Dwyer et al., 2004).

According to Crouch & Ritchie (1999), to strengthen the destination‘s competitiveness requires ―[…] activities of destination management organisations, destination marketing management, destination policy, planning and development, human resource development and environmental management.‖ (Gomezelj & Mihalic, 2008).

2.4 Destination Management Organisation

Since destinations are characterised by loose boundaries and small or large geographical areas, the DMOs will have to adequately match all corresponding destination characteristics. This means, that the DMOs have to be as multifacet- ed in their organisation and structure as the corresponding destinations themselves. A rather practical and illustrative description of a DMO is that DMOs are ―not-for-profit bodies […] to represent companies in an industry sector‖ with

the goal of enabling an adequate environment in which businesses can flourish (Tourism Insights, n.d.).

DMOs can adopt different kinds of organisational forms, whereas in literature, authors widely discuss all types of issues related to the management of a DMO, while the topic of the legal organisation of a DMO is mostly neglected.

In general, DMOs are organised as governmental, national, provincial, local, municipal bodies, ministry departments, tourism boards or agencies etc. A common form among others is an association, in which the private and public stakeholders are members. The coordination of the multi-layered variety of influences from a set of private stakeholders with different ownership (Howie, 2003) as well as public stakeholders from different levels of administration requires an adequate operational and manageable structure for the DMO. Due to this complexity, a destination‘s organisational structure is regarded as a ―network [of] multiple stakeholders‖ interacting with each other and are dependent on each other as well (Cooper et al. 2009; d‘Angella & Go, 2009, Waligo et al., 2012). Murphy et al. (2000) even describe it as ―an amalgam of individual products and experience opportunities that combine to form a total experience of the area visited‖.

The cooperation within a DMO can be organised in different ways which vary between loose, non-organised cooperation or semi-organised cooperation such as non-government organisations (NGO), working groups, committees, boards etc. on the one hand and legally structured organisations such as registered associations or registered companies such as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) on the other hand. Concerning legal forms of DMOs on an international scale, research manifested that all legal forms can be found in reality. Regardless of their legal structure, one can say that DMOs are acting like business units which are placed above the public and private stakeholders. As a consequence, the DMO‘s functions correspond with those of business units. The legal form, however, determines the intensity of cooperation within the DMO and its business environment.

The fundamental goal of each DMO is profit maximisation for its members, which can be achieved by e.g. maximising tourist arrivals, tourist expenditures and/ or length-of-stay etc. In order to achieve these goals, the DMOs have to act within 13

the legal framework of their countries and also following the given governmental tourism strategies, meta-economic guidelines, which differ from country to country. Sustainability e.g. is meanwhile claimed in nearly each country worldwide, however, the understanding of sustainability as well as its implementation varies from country to country. An additional goal of each DMO is that cooperation and integration of all stakeholders is strengthened which creates mutual understanding for stakeholders of different sectors with conflicting goals (Sainaghi, 2006; De Carlo et al., 2008; Saftić et al., 2010).

In developing tourism destinations, it is necessary to mention the importance of meta-economic guidelines and goals. These are goals such as pro-poor tourism, where tourism contributes to the local community, to job creation and to poverty reduction, which are not confirm, respectively compete with profit maximisation. In conventional international DMO policies, which mainly cover countries with capitalist market economies, these meta-economic aspects have gained only minor attention. In Vietnam, these meta-economic aspects are not only just written into national and/ or regional tourism plans and strategies. In Vietnam‘s socialist market-economy they are precisely defined, implemented and super- vised (VNAT, 1995).

With regard to its members, a DMO can be differentiated between public organised DMOs, private organised DMOs and DMOs which are organised as a Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Public and private stakeholders take over different roles within a destination. Public authorities are setting the legal environment, they have the executive power and decisive budgeting function. However, changes in public power or opinion will immediately influence the DMO. In addition, they stand for social responsibility and sustainability. Private stakeholders are driven by their profit- oriented business functions which require quick and flexible adaptation to market changes. Moreover, private sector stakeholders play an important role because they are closer to the tourist. These different interests shall be adequately reflected within a DMO, which therefore should be based on the PPP model (Pechlaner et al., 2012). The legal forms of this model may vary (UNWTO, 2007).

All stakeholders of a DMO basically operate to achieve their own self-interest, their target-oriented cooperation and interaction will only take place if ―[…] their own self-interest rests with the interests of the destination itself‖, which means they are conform (Ritchie & Crouch, 2003). The skill of the DMO management is to convince all DMO stakeholders, even the competitive ones, to follow the common vision of the DMO (Ritchie & Crouch, 2003).

Strategic management with its characteristics of long term planning and future orientation requires necessarily the implementation of dynamic processes due to permanent internal as well as external changes of factors which influence the tourism market on a national and global level (Buhalis & Fletcher, 1995; Middleton, 1998; Sainaghi, 2006; Beritelli et al., 2007). Of utmost importance for successful destination management is the fact that planning is actually followed by the process of implementation of what has been planned (Go & Govers, 2000; Saftić et al., 2010).

In literature, authors widely discuss all types of issues related to the management of a DMO, while the most important aspect of the legal form of institutionalisation of a DMO is mostly neglected, although this aspect hast strong influence on both, the intensity of cooperation and the DMOs sustainable effectiveness.

This research study will concentrate on tourism structures and how they are evaluated from the supply-side perspective in Central Vietnam. Detailed field research on structures and cooperation between public and private sector stakeholders will help to analyse and evaluate the success chances of tourism structures in Central Vietnam.

2.5 Destination Management and Destination Governance

Destination management has to take into consideration more than just the activities and operational processes within the group of members and stakeholders which are directly related to tourism. This means that the stakeholder definition encompasses not only the members of the organisation but any person in the destination which is or might come into contact with the tourists. This means, that the entire population of the destination is concerned. Therefore, it has to be

considered that ideally each person within the destination ought to be aware of the chances and opportunities of tourism. Moreover, that they are part of the atmosphere in a destination which the tourist faces and the DMO‘s tasks is to create this awareness (Saftić et al., 2010; Fyall et al., 2012).

In fact, a DMO ought to be aware of all activities within the destination. Hence, not only tourism related management but also the management of all common issues in the sense of governance which concerns ―[the] ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs‖ (Commission on Global Governance, 1995, p. 4).

By introducing the concept of governance the DMO‘s scope of activities gets a bigger, yet a more or less undetermined radius within which the DMO acts with own activities and via taking over the role as inter-mediator between all stakeholders (Pechlaner et al., 2012). Wang and Xiang (2007) call this issue a ―social coordination‖ whereas Rodes (1996) names it ―network management‖ because it ―promotes the ‗common course‘―(Pechlaner et al., 2012). Within the destination network, DMOs take over a central role in coordinating and managing public and private stakeholders and their networks: ―DMOs are central figures in the governance of tourism destinations‖ (Pechlaner et al., 2012).

A well-managed DMO ought to create a mission statement for the destination. The major task is to convince and unite all stakeholders under the umbrella to support the common vision of the mission statement. Moreover, the task is also to encourage all stakeholders to actively contribute in achieving the commonly agreed goals, namely each stakeholder with its contribution out of his business operations (Saftić et al., 2010).

Whereas Raich (2006) states that ―destination governance is embedded into regional governance‖, the question may be raised whether public authorities will have to be pushed in their activities by the private stakeholders, because the latter are more flexible, decisive and success-oriented and closer to the market with its fast changing demands. This question will be of special interest for the Central Vietnam research.

In their concept of destination governance, Beritelli et al. (2007) also analyse the effectiveness of DMOs under the aspect of number of board members and their public or private origin. The question may be raised that much larger forces or constraints concerning success-oriented decision-making stem from the organisational structure itself. DMO managers of private company origin are able to decide very fast upon analysis of the documents in question whereas DMO managers of public authority origin have to get their approval from each layer of their administration. Since DMOs work in a business-oriented environment they should have the possibility to decide like business companies.

However, other authors mention the institutional weaknesses of the government by pointing out the obsolescence in public administration devoted to tourism (Hall, 1999).

The findings of Pechlaner et al. (2012) by introducing the governance concept to both, destinations and DMOs, show the interdependence and influence of the DMO and the destination, and that success of destinations and DMOs are congruent with each other to a large extent.

Dallen (1998) emphasises the aspect that in emerging countries, the public sector in form of national, regional and local government institution plays a more important role in terms of influencing tourism development in comparison to developed countries. This important role is also expressed by the extent of public tourism investment, as stated in the Vietnam Tourism Master Plan (VNAT, 1995).

2.6 Trans-Provincial Destination Management

Destination borders as seen by tourism stakeholders as well as especially by the demand-side – the tourist – do not necessarily correspond with administrative borders. Borders do not simplify cooperation and management activities for trans-border destinations, because tourism has to be ―[…] planned in con- junction with a region‘s broader development goals; tourism should be one element of broader regional development planning.‖ (Baud-Bovy, 1982; Inskeep, 1987, 1988; Marcouiller, 1997; Dallen, 1998).

Since Central Vietnam has currently no regional DMO, this research study seeks to analyse which influencing structures of cooperation in and between the three provinces can be identified within the local tourism stakeholders and their organisations. The necessity of trans-provincial destination management, respectively trans-provincial cooperation management also implicated the issue of ―inter-destination bridge ties‖ as defined by Haugland et al. (2010). The authors highlight the importance ―to be connected to the wider region and other destinations‖. They argue that these bridge-ties render ―valuable sources for exchange of information and knowledge‖, directly linking actors who operate in different destinations within Central Vietnam; or indirectly, through collective external agents such as e.g. a marketing firm, acting as information channel between detached destinations (Haugland et al., 2010). Further, ―Bridge ties thereby promote imitation and innovation at the destination‖, (Haugland et al., 2010) which can serve as best-practice examples.

In the following, the bridge tie concept will be further pursued, because it can be extended to foster best practice and innovation and it can be utilised to de- tect possibilities for improving organisational structures, e.g. through synergies, economy of scale effects and strategic task allocation etc. And how this improvement can lead to tourism structures which are most likely to better develop and promote tourism with the vision of one destination for the three provinces.

Re-inventing and re-arranging structures regarding ―collaboration, cooperation and leadership can add value to a destination in terms of growth […], innovation and competitiveness‖ and plays a substantial role in tourism destination development (Ghirelli, 2013).

In favour for a dynamic destination management model, Sainaghi (2006) points out that a ―[…] holistic viewpoint proves useful, one that can encompass both the perspective of supply as well as demand.― where not only ―a system of attractions is set up, and a set of client segments‖, in other words: it is necessary that a precisely defined supply-set is matching with a precisely defined demand-set (Sainaghi, 2006).

2.7 Conclusion

As mentioned before, the literature review will form the theoretical base for this dissertation. According to the dissertation theme, literature mainly from the supply side perspective of destination management was reviewed to figure out the determining aspects of an effective and successful destination in general. Further, these determining aspects will shape the theme-oriented desk and field research of this dissertation.

The literature review illustrates, that for enhancing and increasing destination competitiveness, the interdependencies between a successful destination and a successful DMO cannot be separated. In other words, that efficient integration and cooperation of all relevant tourism stakeholders through a DMO are vital for achieving the intended goals.

Furthermore, the integration and interdependency aspects have special significance due to the fact that three provinces with different administrative layers and already existing tourism structures are subject of investigation, and therefore issues of trans-provincial cooperation have to be evaluated.

In existing destination management literature, no authors could be identified who are tackling the topic from the perspective of a socialist market economy with its specific legitimacies and their consequences within a single-party political system like Vietnam. Therefore, the question may be raised whether the validity of the aspects found in literature is given in the context of Vietnam. In any case, new challenges are arising from continuous developments along two dimensions. On the one hand, from slow but steady liberalisation tendencies within socialist systems and on the other hand, from fast changing trends on international tourism markets.

For this research study, the validity of the findings in existing literature will be assumed.

Chapter 3. Context Analysis Vietnam

3.1 Introduction

In the following chapter, specific emphasis will be put on historical, political and economic aspects of Vietnam in order to understand the specific situation of tourism within a socialist society.

Firstly, a brief historical overview of Vietnam and its present government structures will be provided. Moreover, key issues regarding Vietnam‘s socialist economy and tourism in Vietnam will follow. Finally, the focus will be laid on key issues regarding administration, structures and tourism in the three provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam.

3.2 General Information on Vietnam

The official name of the country is Socialist Republic Vietnam. With a population of 92.5 mio, Vietnam is the 14th largest country in the world. It is stretching along the East of the South-East Asian peninsula, bordering the Chinese Sea in the East, the Gulf of Thailand in the South bordering with Cambodia and Laos in the West and China in the North. The country has a North-South length of 1.650 km and an East-West average of 200 km, with only 50 km at its narrowest point in Central Vietnam. The country is ethnically nearly homogeneous with about 86 % Vietnamese (Kinh) and small minorities like Tay, Thai, Muong, Khmer, Mong, Nung, Cham and others mainly in the Northern and Eastern mountainous areas. None of the minorities amount more than 1.9 % (CIA, 2013).

Figure 6 Vietnam (CIA, 2013).

3.3 Historical Overview

In the 10th century AD, after a millennium of Chinese domination, the independence of Vietnam was won and finally consolidated in the course of the 15th century by the Emperors of the Ly Dynasty. At that time, Thang Long (Hanoi) became the capital of Vietnam (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013). The time of independence lasted for about 900 years.

In the middle of the 19th century, France started occupying and colonising Vietnam with Saigon as capital. In the course of World War II, Japan invaded and occupied Vietnam. After 1945, the Communist Viet Minh troops expelled the Japanese and Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Viet Minh, declared Independ- ence for entire Vietnam in a speech ―[...] that invoked the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the French Revolution‘s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.‖ (Library of Congress, 2005). This act was the beginning of the French Indochina War (1946-1954) (interKnowledge Corp., 2010).

Also, in 1945 the Chinese characters of Vietnamese script were officially replaced by the present script Quoc ngu on basis of Latin characters, the result of a transcription which was initiated by Portuguese and then completed by French missionaries in the 17th century (SOAS – University of London, 2007).

After the defeat of French forces in the battle of Dien Bien Phu 1954, the country was divided at the Geneva Conference along the 17th parallel into liberated, communist ruled North Vietnam and French backed South Vietnam. The Central Vietnam provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam were situated in South Vietnam, south of the De-militarized Zone. In the following years, French support for South Vietnam was progressively replaced by the United States of America. Conflicts between North and South Vietnam were continuing and expanding. The so-called Gulf of Tonkin Incident was taken by the US in 1964 as pretext and reason for fighting ―the communist aggression‖ (Library of Congress, 2005). This was the beginning of the American Vietnam War, during which nearly 3 mio. Vietnamese were killed, more than 4 mio. were injured and the whole country severely destroyed by bombing and Agent Orange (Hirschman et al., 1995).

In 1975, after the defeat and subsequent withdrawal of American Forces, North and South Vietnam were reunited as Socialist Republic Vietnam, with Hanoi as capital (almost 3 mio. inhabitants), while Ho Chin Minh City, the former Saigon, remained a simple district in the South although it is the by far largest city of Vietnam with about 9 mio. inhabitants in the urban area by the end of 2012 (New Geography, 2013).

The following process of re-unification and integration process of the socialist and the capitalist societies of North and South Vietnam under an at that period very harsh socialist primacy did not pass off without immense obstacles and injuries for the society: emigration of more than one million people, re-location of more than one million people to ―new economic zones‖, etc. The consequence was the breakdown of the economic system in the 1980s (Library of Congress, 2005). In 1986, the Doi Moi (Renovation) Campaign for political and economic renewal was introduced, which prompted in a long-lasting period of inner-societal appeasement, economic growth (see following chapter) and development of improving relations to other nations and cooperation in as well as with international organisations (VNAT, 2013a).

3.4 Vietnam’s Government System

Vietnam‘s government is formed according to rules of communist one-party systems similar to the former Soviet Union or the German Democratic Republic. Formally it shows the division of powers like in Western democracies. However, with the leadership and control-function of the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) on all three levels of the administrative system; national/state level, provincial level, district/ local level (The Government Web Portal, 2013b).

The Vietnam State Government represents the state level with the National Assembly (Quoc Hoi) which in fact is the legislative arm of the Vietnam Com- munist Party, the Political Bureau of the Vietnam Communist Party, the Council of State, the Council of Ministers and the People's Courts and People's Organs of Control (The Government Web Portal, 2013b).

The second level is represented by 36 Provinces and five autonomous municipalities Hanoi, Can Tho, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon (Asia Briefing, 2013).

On the third level the Provinces are divided into districts, towns and capitals. The provincial districts are again divided into villages and townships; whereas the provincial towns and provincial capitals are further divided into wards and villages. Fact is that the basic administrative modules of the government are the provincial districts. These districts represent the primary political units of the local government which are in power of all economic planning, budgeting, and management for all issues of local concern (The Government Web Portal, 2013b).

The Vietnamese Communist Party practices its overall control and supervisory function in that way that it has allocated People's Councils as legislative arm and People's Committees as executive arm on each administrative level with overlapping memberships. This means that ―[...] centralized state authority is exercized over local authorities‖ (Van Arkadie & Mallon, 2004). The council members are indeed democratically elected, the list of candidates, however, is proposed by the VCP. People's Committees act as executive bodies and carry out local administrative and budgetary and duties (Van Arkadie & Mallon, 2004). The lowest administrative level is the Commune People‘s Committee (CPC) (The Government Web Portal, 2013b).

Economically, the government has provided a preferential position for the three Key Economic Zones (KEZ): The Northern Key Economic Zone, the Central Key Economic Zone and the Southern Key Economic Zone. For each zone, economic development plans have been launched in 2004. For the three KEZs a per capita income of US$ 3.000,00 in 2011-2015 is planned, which means nearly four times higher than the national average of US$ 760,00 in 2011(Asia Briefing, 2013; Trading Economics, 2013a).

As seen in Figure 7, the provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam, which are focused on in this dissertation, belong to the Central Key Economic Zone (Asia Briefing, 2013). For planning purposes an additional division into eight regions was made: Southeast, Red River Delta, Mekong River Delta, North- Figure 7 Key Economic Zones in Vietnam (Asia Briefing, 2013). East, Northwest, North Central Coast, South Central Coast and Central Highlands. Hue belongs to the region North Central Coast, whereas Da Nang and Quang Nam belong to the South Central Coast as shown in Figure 7(Asia Briefing, 2013).

3.5 Key Issues of Vietnam’s Socialist Economy

After 1978, Soviet advisers set up a system of central planning to develop the socialist transformation of Vietnam‘s economy (Van Arkadie & Mallon, 2004). The country and its economy were still suffering from the Vietnam War and the US embargo. The economy was organized in rigid, bureaucratic Fife-Years-Plans, which caused economic stagnation, problems in food and consumer goods supply, sectoral imbalances, high inflation rates and social pressures (Van Arkadie & Mallon, 2004).

In 1986, the transformation from a centrally planned economy to a ―socialist- oriented market economy‖ took place, fostered through the introduction of a political and economic renewal campaign (Doi Moi), which ―[…] combined government planning with free-market incentives‖ by that encouraging private business and foreign investment (Library of Congress, 2005; indexmundi, 2013a).

Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007 and became an official negotiating partner of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement in 2010 (indexmundi, 2013b; McKinsey & Company, 2013). 24

All this induced that the Vietnamese economy continuously flourished, however, within the framework of the socialist value system. This development is briefly demonstrated by reference to the following economic key data.

Figure 8 GDP (Trading Economics, 2013b).

As shown in Figure 8 Vietnam‘s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was continuously growing by more than 2000 % from $ 6,5 bn. to $ 141,67 bn. in 2013 (estimated) with a faster growth rate than any other country in Asia with the exception of China (Trading Economics, 2013b; McKinsey & Company, 2013).

In 2012, the estimated GDP was composed out of agriculture with about 22 %, industry about 41 % and services with about 38 %. The high percentage of agriculture and the low one for services clearly indicates that Vietnam is to be counted as a developing country (CIA, 2013).

During the same period of time, the GDP per capita was growing by 333 % from US $ 227 to US $ 775, which makes Vietnam ranking 138 in the world (Trading Economics, 2013a).

Despite these high increases during the recent years, it is to notice that the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita still only reaches about one third of the average Asia Pacific GNI - as can be seen in Figure 9 (The World Bank Group, 2013).

Figure 9 GNI per capita 2012 (The World Bank Group, 2013).

Although Vietnam belongs to the countries of middle status income, there are still extreme income disparities between the thriving economic centres and coastal areas in the North and the South and regions of poverty in remote areas like in the Highlands and the Annamite Mountain Range, as shown in Figure 10.

The policy of Doi Moi has created an economical profile for Vietnam, which among others encour- aged foreign investments, making the country ―[...] one of Asia‘s most attractive destinations for Figure 10 Poverty map Vietnam (HITT, 2011). foreign investors‖ (McKinsey & Company, 2013).

Recent figures about the source countries of foreign investments show, that the main sources of investment Europe and the US in the meantime have shifted to Japan (34.4 % = $ 4.1 bn.), followed by Singapore (31 % = $ 3,72 bn.) and Russia (8 % = $ 1,01 bn.) (Intellasia East Asia News, 2013).

The direction of economic liberalisation fostered through Doi Moi, which was launched in 1986, found its continuing support in the approval of the Master Plan on Economic Restructuring in 2013-2020, which was approved early in 2013: ―The Plan aims at perfecting the socialist-orientated market regime, creating a system of reasonable, stable and long-term stimuli, especially tax incentives and other investment-encouraging measures, promoting the distribution and use of social resources for sectors and products of competitive advantages, improving labour productivity and competitiveness.‖ (The Government Web Portal, 2013a). Since then, steering elements of liberal market economies have been introduced into the former command economy.

3.6 Tourism in Vietnam

Tourism in Vietnam is divided into three main periods. In the period of 1960 – 1975, tourism was developed for political purposes (Truong, 2013). Political delegates travelled to Vietnam to achieve political goals (VNAT, 2005). In the period of 1976 – 1990, the economic potential of tourism was recognised. And finally, since 1990s, tourism was utilised in order foster economic growth and poverty reduction. (Truong, 2013).

Recent UNWTO publications indicate that despite global economic problems, the tourism industry still is a growing sector. Tourism accounts for 9 % of the global GDP and provides 9 % of the global jobs. In 2012, 1 billion international tourist arrivals have been counted. Domestic tourists are estimated between 5 to 6 bn. For 2030, UNWTO forecasts that international tourist arrivals will increase by more than 70 % (UNWTO, 2013b).

3.6.1 Key Figures of Vietnam Tourism

In line with the global growth figures, Vietnam also experienced a noteworthy growth of its tourism sector.

In 2012, Vietnam received 6.8 mio. international tourists, which represents an increase of 13.86 % in comparison to 2011 (VNAT, 2013b; GSO, 2013).

8.000 6.848 7.000 6.014 6.000 5.050 5.000 4.172 4.254 3.772 4.000 3.000 2.000 1.000 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Figure 11 International Tourist Arrivals, in mio. (Mintel, 2013).

The international arrivals until October 2013 amount up to 6.119 mio., representing an increase of 10.4 % over the previous year (VNAT, 2013b; GSO, 2013). Inter- national visitors mainly come to Vietnam for holidays and leisure, representing 62 % of the tourism market, whereas business travel accounts for 20%, followed by VFR with 18 % (Mintel, 2013). Their average length of stay is estimated with 6.5 days and with a spending of US$ 75 per day (HITT, 2011). They mainly attend round trips to the big cities (Hanoi, HCMC), visiting cultural as well as natural attraction, especially the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Vietnam hosts five Cultural Sites – Imperial Citadel Hanoi (2010), Citadel of the Ho Dynasty (2011), Hue Monuments Complex (1993), Hoi An Ancient Town (1999), My Son Sanctuary (1999) – and two Natural Sites – Ha Long Bay (1994) and Phong Nha-Ke Bang Na- tional Park (2003). Furthermore, seven properties are on the tentative list (UNESCO, 1992-2013).

The intra-regional ASEAN source markets, namely China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan represent the most important markets for Vietnam. In addition, the USA plays an important role in terms of international arrivals, illustrated in Figure 12.

Others China 28% 21% Korea 10%

France Japan 3% USA 9% 7% Thailand 3%

Australia 4% Cambodia Taiwan Malaysia 5% 6% 4%

Figure 12 Main Source Markets, 2012 (VNAT, 2013b; GSO, 2013).

From an European perspective, it is interesting to observe that the main source markets have shifted to Asia with nearly 60 % of international arrivals.

Domestic tourism increased from 19 mio. in 2007 to more than 32 mio. in 2011, which represents an increase of nearly 70 % within four years only (Mintel, 2013; HITT, 2011).

35.000 31.880 30.070 30.000 25.310 25.000 20.800 19.200 20.000

15.000

10.000

5.000

0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Figure 13 Domestic Tourism, in mio. (Mintel, 2013).

VNAT (2013b) estimates an average stay of 3.5 days for domestic tourists, with a daily spending of about US $ 35 (VNAT, 2013b; GSO, 2013).

Regarding the contribution of tourism to the Vietnamese GDP, the World Tourism and Travel Council (WTTC, 2013) states that the tourism sector direct contribution is 4.5 % (indirect contribution: 9.4 %) to the national GDP in 2012 (EUROCHAM, 2013). For the same year, competing ASEAN countries achieve higher GDP contributions compared to Vietnam: Cambodia 11.5 %; Thailand 7.3 %; Malaysia 7.0 % and Laos 5.5 % (VBF, 2013a; WTTC, 2013).

Travel and tourism generated 1.832 mio. jobs, respectively 3.8 % of total employment in 2012 (WTTC, 2013).

3.6.2 Structure of the tourism sector

Until 1960, tourism in Vietnam was under the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. In 1992, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) took over the responsibility for tourism. MCST is accountable for all activities on the legal level (decrees, legal documents, approval of plans etc.). On provincial and district level, tourism is administered by the respective Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism (DCST) which are part of the Provincial People‘s Committees (PPC), the provincial administration, where ―tourism decisions are predominantly

made by both the macro- and micro- level tourist administrator.― (Vietnam Online, 2011).

As specialised agency, MCST founded the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) which is responsible for the execution of all tourism-related activities. VNAT controls four tourism-related institutions: Tourism Information Technolo- gy Centre, Institute for Tourism Development Research (ITDR), Vietnam Tourism Review (VTR), and Tourism Newspaper (Vietnam Online, 2011).

VNAT is responsible for the development of the tourism master plan. The version currently in force is the Vietnam National Tourism Master Plan until 2020, Vision to 2030 which was developed by VNAT agency ITDR, by evaluating the 1995 – 2010 tourism master plan (VNAT, 1995).

The Master Plan defines the goal for national tourism and the role of state management on tourism. It functions as a top-down guideline for the public institutions on the lower administrative levels down to the municipalities (VNAT, 1995).

For achieving the goals of the Master Plan, VNAT established the Strategy on Vietnam’s Tourism Development until 2020, Vision to 2030 (The Government Web Portal, 2013c).

The strategy defines ―[…] priority policies of the tourism infrastructure investment, human resources training, tourism promotion and brand development; policies of combination, mobilization of resources to make a concentrated investment in the improvement of the capacity and the quality of tourism service suppliers, establish a number of tourist service centres of the regional and international significance.‖ (VNAT, 2013c).

VNAT‘s range of internal duties also includes licencing for tour operators, travel agencies and domestic tour guides as well as the classification of three up to five star hotels, the lower classes fall into the responsibility of the provincial DCSTs. The internal duties are mainly covering all issues of quality control, training and infrastructure.

VNAT‘s range of external duties covers the domestic and international marketing and promotion activities.

Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) has currently 31 regional chapters, representing about 1.000 tourism enterprises of the accommodation and distribution sector (tour operators and travel agencies). VITA is aiming at promoting ―collaboration, coordination and mutual support and benefits of their members with regards to improvement of the service quality and competitive tourism products in a healthy competitive business environment‖ (ESRT, 2011). VITA is the national parent organisation of Vietnam Society of Travel Agents (VISTA) and Vietnam Hotel Association (VHA).

The above describes tourism structures are visualised in Figure 14.

Figure 14 Tourism Structures Vietnam.

The membership of only 1.000 enterprises in VISTA and VHA allows to conclude, that effective organisations for destination marketing and destination management organisations do not exist in Vietnam yet. Their development is seen as ―functional and institutional challenges that exist within the sector‖ (VBF, 2012). This lack is also the case in Central Vietnam.

3.7 Key Issues Central Vietnam: The three Provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam

From a tourist‘s perspective, Vietnam as destination is divided into three regions. North, Central and South Vietnam, mainly due to its geography, but also due to its different climate and seasonality. Within those regions, the tourists in general mainly visit just a few spots, for example Ha Long Bay, in the North, Hoi An and Hue in Central and Ho Chi Minh City as well as the Mekong Delta in the South, just to name some of the most popular destinations. In addition, some of the Vietnam highlights are also forming the essential parts of Vietnam-Laos- Cambodia or Indochina round trips.

Tourism of the three Central Vietnam Provinces Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam concentrates in the three destinations Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An. However, from an administrative point of view, these three provinces differ to a large extent, the three destinations as well, also from a geographical and a touristic point of view.

Hue is the capital city of Thua Thien Hue province. The Vietnamese Government has decided to improve the administrative status of Thua Thien Hue from the present province status into of a centrally governed city by 2015. This upgrading will imply that more importance will be attached to Hue as an autonomous municipality due to the reduction of one administrative layer. This results in numerous positive implications, such as faster administrative processing and will transform Hue into a leading urban zone of the country with ―a complex of heritage, historic, cultural and landscape towns […]‖ (TalkVietnam, 2009-2013).

In terms of tourism, Hue is famous for its location on the Perfume River with the UNESCO World Heritage Sites on the North bank and the French-style of colonial architecture on the South bank and the imperial tombs around the city. More- over, its cultural festivals (7 imperial and 13 other cultural festivals) (Hue Tourism Information and Promotion Centre, 2013) and temple rites, as well as its unique local cuisine with ―more than 1,700 dishes ranging from food for the people to aristocrats― (Nguyen Ho Minh & Nguyen Huu Chau, 2012) which originates from the imperial court and are well-known not only all over the country but also internationally attract tourists. Hue is also renowned for its lagoons, beaches and

bays. Lang Co Bay for example has recently become member of the club of The Most Beautiful Bays in the World (World Bays, 2013). Moreover, the province is home of Bach Ma National Park, one of Vietnam‘s biggest national parks. Hue is also a gateway for theme-based niche tourism to the DMZ and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Within the Vietnam Tourism Master Plan, the focus of Hue tourism development lies on the development and preservation of Hue‘s natural and cultural resources (VNAT, 1995).

According to Hue DCST, its tourism industry generates 7.000 direct jobs in 77 hotels and 43 tour operators and about 20.000 indirect jobs in supporting and tourism related businesses in 2010 (HITT, 2011). By the end of September 2013, the Phu Bai Hue national airport was re-opened after upgrade works of six months which will give additional tourism drive for further tourism development.

In 2011, 1.3 mio. tourism arrivals have been counted of which were 550.000 international tourist (Nguyen Ho Minh & Nguyen Huu Chau, 2012).

Da Nang became an autonomous municipality, directly under the Central Government in 2007. As the third largest city of Vietnam concerning population figures, it is a centre of economic development which is due to its geographical situation; with the deep-water seaport (also important for cruise ship tourism) and the international airport which is the busiest in Central Vietnam and third largest in the country.

Regarding tourism, the increasing number of direct flight connections from China, Korea, Cambodia, Taiwan, Singapore and Russia has helped to augment tourist arrivals to the city itself and the close by beach resorts. In addition to a large number of four and five star city hotels, Da Nang has a well-developed four and five star beach resorts along the 90 km of coast line. Other than Hue and Hoi An, Da Nang offers a large number of shopping and entertainment facilities of international standard including theatres, cafés bars, discotheques, casinos and the Da Nang International Firework Competition etc. Cultural tourism sites like the Marble Mountains and the Museum of Cham Sculpture are of minor importance in Da Nang‘s tourism programme. Furthermore, Da Nang serves as tourism gateway to the nearby UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Hue in the North and Hoi An/ My Son in the South. 33

In 2011, Da Nang achieved to reach a total of 2,345 mio. tourist arrivals, of which nearly 80 % were domestic tourists (VCCI, 2013).

Hoi An, with a population of 120.000, is the second largest city of Quang Nam province, the capital of which is Tam Ky. Quang Nam province offers rich natural resources in the inland and a coast line of 125 km with white and clean beaches which are developed only to a minor extent (JICA, 2010). The Hoi An municipal DCST reports to the provincial DCST in Tam Ky.

Tourism in Quang Nam is predominantly concentrating on Hoi An, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, with excursions to the My Son Sanctuary which is a group of Hindu temples, also inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage list, situated about 45 km away from Hoi An. Tourism stakeholders like hotels and tour operators as well as other supporting services are predominantly located in Hoi An, therefore this dissertation therefore focuses on the city of Hoi An, because the remaining parts of Quang Nam province are not (yet) relevant for tourism.

In the 17th and 18th century, Hoi An was the most important commercial port in Central Vietnam, more important than Da Nang, with trading links to China and Japan. Hoi An did not develop any further due to the siltation of the Thu Bon River‘s estuary, with the consequence that the city‘s structure remained nearly unchanged since those times (The National Committee for International Sympo- sium on the Ancient Town of Hoi An, 2011).

―Hoi An is a live museum of ancient architecture and life style, consisting of 1,360 heritages and scenes. Heritages are classified into 11 types including 1,068 ancient buildings, 19 pagodas, 43 temples, 23 commune houses, 38 ancestor churches, 5 headquarters, 11 ancient water wells, 1 bridge, 44 ancient tombs.‖ (JICA, 2010).

Handicrafts offers, like instant tailoring and shoe making, silk products, wood carving, lampions and pottery provide abundant shopping possibilities for the tourists.

Nowadays, Hoi An and My Son have developed into one of Vietnam‘s most popular tourism destinations with a total of nearly 2.5 mio. visitors in 2010 (60 % domestic, 40 % international visitors) (HITT, 2011).

In Figure 15 an overview is provided of the administrative tourism structures of Central Vietnam.

Figure 15 Tourism Structures Central Vietnam.

In terms of administration, Hue is situated in the North Central Region, whereas Da Nang and Hoi An in the South Central Region, albeit, all three provinces belong to the Central KEZ for which the National Government has set up specific development programmes (Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, 2011).

Public and private stakeholders of the three central provinces have realised the necessity to commonly develop tourism in Central Vietnam. In 2008, the provincial authorities signed an agreement to jointly promote and develop tourism in Central Vietnam as one destination. Hence, a rotating system of cooperation evolved: Each year one of the three DCSTs is in charge of tourism decisions within the three provinces. Tasks are common development and promotion activities on the basis of the tourism master plan.

Additionally, a private initiative for destination marketing has been established, namely the Destination Marketing Organisation Central Coast Vietnam (DMO CCV), aiming at building awareness of the destination Central Coast. Un- fortunately it was not possible to find any further information on this organisation.

Despite the intentions of common development in the three provinces, mainly isolated and provincial planning takes place, without reference to the common interdependencies in Central Vietnam area. One example is the Quang Nam Region Integrated Culture and Tourism Strategy: Final draft, 2010, in which Da Nang is only mentioned in terms of distinction, but not referring to the inten- tion to ―cooperate with the Central Heritage Path project involving Hue, Da Nang, Q[ang] Nam‖ (Quang Nam Region Integrated Tourism Strategy, 2010, p.27).

It can be assumed, that the same type of isolated and provincial planning is happening in the other two destinations.

3.8 Conclusion

The contextual analysis provides a general overview of Vietnam and its history and its specific political and economic development to a socialist-oriented market economy which helps to understand various factors affecting tourism in Vietnam in general, as well as the particular situation in the three provinces of Central Vietnam, which are one of the three main tourism areas in Vietnam, as shown by the tourism key figures.

Of importance for the evaluation of the current tourism situation in Vietnam is that the liberalisation and modernisation of the economy just started in 1986 with Doi Moi, and only in the period of the 1990s, tourism was recognised and supported by the Government as an economic growth factor. In comparison to most of the competing tourism destinations in South-East Asia, Vietnam just had a short development time for modern tourism structures which will be analysed in this dissertation according to the research goal.

Chapter 4. Empirical Study

4.1 Introduction

The following chapter will describe the method how primary data was collected in addition to desk research, described in chapter 1.4, which gave some general and statistical background information on tourism and the structures of destination management in the three provinces as well as on the context of Vietnam.

Field research was conducted in order to gather more in-depth information about current tourism structures in Central Vietnam from a supply-side perspective from public and private stakeholders.

Throughout desk research, established forms of cooperation were discovered which caught the researcher‘s attention. Through additional field research, the researcher sought to obtain primary data on how public and private stakeholders perform in terms of cooperation as well as how they evaluate cooperation within the three provinces. Furthermore, field research aimed at finding out more about their different perspectives and diverging opinions on appropriate target- oriented tourism development and suitable tourism structures.

Desk research Theoretical desk research destination management

Desk research context of Central Vietnam

Field Research

Figure 16 Outline Field Research

In the following, the research areas will be presented, followed by an outline of the research techniques which have been applied in order to gather primary data. 37

4.2 Research Area

For the purpose of the field research, the researcher travelled to Central Vietnam for a period of three weeks and spent one week for interviews in each province.

Figure 17 The Three Provinces in Central Vietnam (DMO CCV, 2013).

The first week, the researcher stayed in Hue. The interviewed public and private stakeholders are situated in the city centre, illustrated by through the blue circle while the interview with the Hue Monument Conservation Centre took place in the imperial city (red circle).

Figure 18 Hue

In the second week, the researcher travelled to Da Nang. Tour operators were located in the city centre (blue circle) as well as the city hotels, while the resorts were located on the beach front (red circle).

Figure 19 Da Nang City Centre and Beach Resort Area.

In the final week, the researcher stayed within the city of Hoi An, where tour operators and some hotels were grouped in the city centre, highlighted through the blue circle, as well as the Hoi An Municipality. The interviewed beach resorts are shown in the red circle.

Figure 20 Hoi An.

4.3 Field Research Techniques

Sampling

For this study paper, the researcher used purposeful sampling (Baily, 2007); tourism experts such as representatives of provincial authorities (DCSTs and Tour- ism Information and Promotion Centres), accommodation and tour operator sector on site had been selected for an interview because of their inside- knowledge (Patton, 1990) in order to adequately answer the research questions to meet the dissertation‘s research goal: Analysis of the existing organisational tourism structures in Central Vietnam under the aspect of tourism stakeholder cooperation in order to find out which structures and types of cooperation appear as the most efficient ones in Central Vietnam and which structures and which organisation types would add most value to the region, with the aim to give recommendations for enhancing tourism management in Central Vietnam.

Questionnaire

A questionnaire, based on issues and topics from the desk research‘s findings, was developed as a guideline for personal interviews. The aim was to find out what tourism structures exist and how they are functioning in the three provinces. According to the study‘s research goal – need for a DMO in Central Vietnam, question segments directly asked for the stakeholders‘ perceptions on this issue. Additionally, emphasis was put on cooperation related attitudes, motivations and interest within a province as well as between the three provinces. Further- more, to find out if the expectations of cooperation and the indicated measures are the same on both sides, public and private business side.

Due to time constraints by some stakeholders, the questionnaire has been allocated to the stakeholders.

Interviews

Experienced showed that questionnaires are rarely sent back, which makes it impossible to gain representative results. Due to that fact, the emphasis was put on face-to-face interviews, where the questionnaires functioned as a basic guideline.

Contacts to potential interview partners were made either through ESRT contacts in each province, which functioned as ―gatekeepers‖ (Bailey, 2007, p. 66) and provided the researcher with leads to additional interview contacts to mainly public stakeholders. But soon it was clear that these contacts could not be sufficient. Therefore, further research on potential interview partners was necessary. The majority of interviews were achieved through directly contacting general managers or marketing managers of three to five star hotels and tour operators in Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An by making contact via email, asking for an interview meeting or ―simple walk-ins‖ directly asking for contacts and interview meetings. Additionally, the advantage of interviews compared to other research methods is that the researcher is in charge and has the possibility to improve the quality of the interview by asking comprehension questions and/or additional questions (Blumberg et al., 2008).

Semi-Structured Interviews

The interviews were conducted as semi-structured interviews using the questionnaire as a guideline with similar question categories to ensure that all main areas are covered. This allowed the researcher to be more flexible and questions were chosen during the interview, related to the interviewee‘s knowledge or the information already given during the interview (Bailey, 2007, p. 100).

Open questions also allowed more flexibility during the interview (Bailey, 2007, p. 100). In addition, open questions enabled the interviewees to share information which was of importance to them, which might not have been considered by the researcher. This provided the researcher with the opportunity to become familiar with issues which have been ignored in the first place, but play a more important role in Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An and/or to the stakeholder. Through open questions sometimes whole new topics arose.

Un-Structured Interviews

Throughout the course of conducting interviews, it turned out to be more appropriate to rely less on the afore created questionnaire and rather have a ―free‖ conservation with some stakeholders, as firstly the interviewees seemed to be more relaxed when there was no questionnaire and rather have a normal conversation (Bailey, 2007, p. 96). Secondly it also gave the conversation a free flow 41

into different directions which provided the chance for the interviewee to freely talk about topics/issues related to the broad research theme. On the other hand, it also enabled the interviewer to ask questions which had resulted through a previous answer of the interviewee or even trough an interview with another partner (Bailey, 2007, p. 96).

In order to strengthen the validity and reliability of data, interviewed were conducted with public as well as private stakeholders from the tourism industry to ensure the analysis of a mutual perspective.

4.4 Conclusion

Field research proofed to be an adequate addition to desk research. The advantage was to gather focused primary data according directly related to the dissertation‘s research goal. Additionally, face-to-face interviews allowed gaining in-depth information (Bailey, 2007, p. 41) on tourism destination management structures in Central Vietnam.

Altogether, 78 potential interview partners have been approached. Due to time constraints of some stakeholders, the questionnaire has been sent to 17 stakeholders, while only 5 have been returned to the researcher. In total, 24 face-to- face interviews were conducted out of the 78 approached potential interview partners. During the semi-structured interviews, the researcher simultaneously took notes, whereas for the un-structured interviews, the researcher took notes in the retrospect.

In the following, the research findings will be presented and analysed.

Chapter 5. Research Findings - Analysis and Discussion

5.1 Introduction

Chapter five will show the research findings for the current status of structures and cooperation between tourism stakeholders in the field of destination management in Central Vietnam with regard to the research goal: Analysis of the existing organisational tourism structures in Central Vietnam under the aspect of tourism stakeholder cooperation in order to find out which structures and types of cooperation appear as the most efficient ones in Central Vietnam and which structures and which organisation types would add most value to the region, with the aim to give recommendations for enhancing tourism management in Central Vietnam.

The following research findings result from theoretical desk research and data collection for the contextual analysis on Central Vietnam, as well as field research in the three provinces Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An where the researcher carried out 24 personal interviews and allocated 5 questionnaires.2

5.2 Perception of Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An as one Destination

The majority of the respondents, on public and private side, share the opinion that the three destinations Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An should be considered as one destination Central Vietnam, therefore they also see the necessity of coop- erating in order to grow as one destination and to exploit the given tourism potentials of the three provinces to a larger extent.

Arguments supporting the view of one destination are the particularly close geographical location of the three destinations, the beauty of their beaches,

2 Since the large majority of stakeholders asked for confidential treatment of their answers, the following code system will be used for the quotations: The first two letters stand for the province: DN = Da Nang, HA = Hoi An, HU = Hue. The third letter stands for stakeholder type: A = Accommoda- tion, P = Public authority, T = Tour operator. EXP stands for tourism experts. The following two numbers stand for the respective interviewed stakeholder. An alphabetical list of the interviewed stakeholder is in the appendix. 43

their richness in cultural sites, the UNESCO world heritage sites in Hue, Hoi An and My Son, as well as Da Nang‘s complementary features of entertainment and shopping (EXP03; HUP01; EXP02; EXP05). Additionally, the respondents mentioned the dependency of the three destinations, on each other related to their complementary infrastructure: Da Nang as international gateway to the other two cultural heritage destinations.

Only a small minority of respondents have the view that Central Vietnam must be seen as two destinations: (i) Hoi An and Da Nang on the one hand and (ii) Hue on the other. With only 25 km distance, Hoi An and Da Nang are close together, while Hue lies nearly 100 km North, additionally separated by the mountain barrier with the Hai Van Pass, which also causes a different climate.

In the following, it is assumed that the three provinces shall be seen as one destination.

5.3 Cooperation in Public and Private Organisational Structures

Between the three provinces, cooperation of tourism stakeholders is taking place, both on an official an official public stakeholder level (DCSTs) as well as on a private stakeholder level of hotel and tour operator and their respective associations.

In addition to institutionalised cooperation, a lot of informal cooperation is taking place because ―all tourism stakeholders know each other‖ (EXP02), which will be dealt with in section 5.4 basic fields of cooperation.

The organisational structure of public stakeholders refers to the provincial and municipal organisations within the DCST structures.

Already in 2008, the DCSTs of the three provinces signed an agreement to jointly promote and develop tourism under the slogan ―Three Provinces - One Destina- tion‖ or ―Four Heritage Sites - One Destination‖ (DNA01; HUP04). This cooperation of the DCSTs Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam (municipal DCST) is known as the ―Rotating System‖, with annually changing leadership and thus also annually changing g directors of each individual tourism programme. In their annual

meetings, a common programme on basis of the National Tourism Master Plan for the upcoming year is identified by reviewing the outcome of the previous year. The new identified programmes and activities shall be presented to the private sector (HUP03).

The cooperation of the Rotating System of the DCSTs with the private stakeholders, however, seems to be tainted with quite some issues such as mentioned in the following.

Although intended, this top-down distribution of information does not happen sufficiently in the eyes of many private stakeholders (HUT01; HUT02 HUT03; HUA04; HUA01; HAA01; DNA01; DNA02). The private sector feels insufficiently informed and involved in activities by local, provincial and national authorities (HUA01; HUA04; HUT01; HUT02; HUT03; DNA01; HAA01).

Whereas decisions on the private side can be taken very fast, the public side needs to follow all administrative procedures throughout all administrative layers, and different topics require the involvement of additional administrative units with overlapping responsibilities (EXP02; DNA02).

Some stakeholders share the view that within the Rotating System, the three DCSTs are rather competing with each other because they try to outperform each other (DNA01; HUA01; HAT01).

A higher involvement of the private sector in the Rotating System could contribute to more practical decisions because they are closer to the market and have more business and tourism experience (DNP01; HUA01; DNA01; DNA02; HAA01).

Far reaching decisions require the approval from the Central Government in Hanoi, which means that the processes of coordination of planning involve different administrative layers which consequently require different timescales (DNA02; HAT01), since the destinations Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An belong to different administrative layers (Hue as city and capital of the province Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang as autonomous municipality and Hoi An as a city of the province Quang Nam). These different administrative statuses create imbalance between the three destinations (EXP01; HAA04).

Another issue regarding the Rotating System, mainly mentioned by the private stakeholders, is the fear that the province which currently is in charge of leadership will prioritise and incorporate their own province‘s goals within the common trans-provincial programme. For instance, the common presentation on the In- ternational Travel Expo in HCMC was not planned and organised properly by the current leader Quang Nam, as the province was engaged with its own provincial problems (DNA03).

Many private stakeholders share the view that the DCSTs and the Rotating System produce a lot of paper, but do not execute, nor implement or do not act (HUT01; HUA04; HUA01; HAA01). The initiatives and input by private tour operators to organise specific tourism events get lost in administration layers (HUT03).

More input from private stakeholders should be integrated into planning of the Rotating System (HUP04; HUT03; HUA01). Some private stakeholders share the opinion that the cooperation between the DCSTs, the Rotating System, happens on a reserved level because de facto they are competing with each other, which, however, is not admitted (DNA01; HUA01). This shortage may also be due to the weak cooperation of the private tourism organisations (HUP04), such as the regional chapters of the national associations Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) and Vietnam Society of Travel Agents (VISTA) in each province.

The organisational structure of private stakeholders refers to the provincial and municipal tourism associations as well as the private tourism businesses.

The regional chapters of the national associations VITA – VHA for hotels and VISTA for tour operators and travel agencies (VITA, 2013; VISTA, 2013), are generally evaluated negatively Many private stakeholders complain that their own associations exist, admittedly, but are not active enough or even do nothing and that they just report to the Government ―that they did something‖, in order to have a reason for collecting membership fees (HAT01; HUT02; HUE04; HUT01; HUT01; HUT02; HUT03; HAA01; HUA01; HUA03; HUA04; DNA01; DNA02; EXP02). The input initiatives of single private stakeholders do not receive notice, since individuals do not have the same bargaining power as an active organisation (association) would have.

These associations have overlapping memberships and responsibilities. Critical respondents state that there should only be one association for the three provinces (EXP01; EXP02; HUA01; DNA01; HUT02; HUT03; HAA01; HUP04).

Respondents from the hotel sector emphasise the positive and stimulating influence by the international hotel chains on tourism development which is out- performing the activities of local hotel association, and even VNAT (DNA01; EXP04; HAA04; HUA01; HUA02; DNP01).

The privately organised Destination Marketing Organisation Central Coast Vietnam (DMO CCV) is a marketing cooperation of ten exclusive world-class five star hotels and resorts in Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An. This network was judged quite controversially by the few stakeholders who knew about the organisation. Most private stakeholders had only heard about it, some tried unsuccessfully to cooperate with it (HUT01; HUT02; HUT03; DNA03; HUA04), some report about good cooperation (HAP01; HUA01; HUA05). The researcher‘s attempts to get in touch with the DMO CCV came to nothing, so further information could not be gathered.

An additional example for informal cooperation can be identified between further groups of luxury resorts can be identified; General Managers from one province recommend their guests where to stay in the other two provinces, in order to ensure that the quality standard remains the same because they know what ―type of standard‖ they recommend, but they also of course recommend their ―friend‘s hotel‖. (DNA01; DNA02; HUA01). In some cases, locals own hotels in more than one of the three provinces. Partly, they are integrated in international marketing programmes like ―Five-Star Alliance‖.

In Da Nang, there is a private business network, which was mentioned by one hotel, where meetings take place for knowledge transfer and news exchange (DNA03).

In summary, it can be said that various types of DMO-like cooperation are already occurring in Central Vietnam which are initiated by both, public as well as private stakeholders, but are operating rather independently of one another instead of gaining common power and effectiveness through concerted action.

5.4 Basic Fields of Cooperation

In the course of research, the questioning covered all fields of activities which in literature are generally attributed to DMOs. Concerning organisational structures and their efficiency, stakeholders have rather different opinions and attitudes. However, when it comes to the practical fields of cooperation, there is a broad consensus.

In all three provinces stakeholders agree that the cultural assets and the quality if the beaches make up the main attractions for tourists to visit Central Vietnam. This counts for Hue with its World Heritage Sites Complex of Hue Monuments comprising the Imperial City, the Citadel and the great number of pagodas and imperial tombs surrounding Hue and for Hoi An with its two World Heritage Sites the Ancient City and My Son. But even Da Nang, hosting only the Champa Art and Culture Museum and Marble Mountains, is aware of the importance of cultural assets for Central Vietnam tourism.

However, the notion about the state of these cultural assets is absolutely polaris- ing. A minority of public and private stakeholders seems to be quite satisfied with the prevailing presentation, whereas the majority strongly asks for improvement regarding conservation, protection and restoration. Hue and Hoi An, for instance, are rich in monuments and are focusing tourism on these monuments. Presentation and preservation, however, require permanent improvement in order to meet the needs of tourists. Therefore, in Hue, several activities by more than 20 organisations, originating from National Government, provincial and city authorities as well as UNESCO and a number of national and international donators, operate on the same goal but individually (HUP02).

The mutual dependencies of tourism and heritage require a close cooperation of all stakeholders and donators, which calls for mutual understanding especially between heritage managers, travel agencies, and monument guides (HUP02; HUT02).

Of particular concern are the aspects of tourist information like signage of sites and exhibits in detail. Signage is either missing at all, or it is irrelevant or even tautologic respectively (e.g. an elephant sculpture is bearing the sign ―Elephant‖). Additional concern is the lack of information folders or brochures 48

etc. and the strongly diverging quality of museum and tour guides. The latter does not only relate to partly very poor language knowledge but also to the absence of informational content and in-depth history and cultural knowledge. There are not sufficient possibilities for visitors to interact and learn about culture and history, which needs improvement in the sense of edutainment (HUP01; HUP02).

All stakeholders agree that the official listing of Hue and Hoi An by UNESCO was the decisive factor for more awareness of culture. Consequently, a Middle World Heritage Road was initiated by VNAT, meanwhile the competing idea of a Central Heritage Road, even with a logo, was developed by a Hue tour operator. The opportunity for close cooperation on this issue was not pursued adequately and not yet institutionalised (HUT01; HUT02), although the majority of stakeholders share the view that a closer theme-based cooperation would be beneficial for all three provinces.

All interviewed stakeholders agree that the beaches of Central Vietnam can actually compete with other international destinations on a worldwide level. Albeit, their potential for tourism is not fully exploited yet; the untouched beaches and bays beyond the coastline between Da Nang and Hoi An, namely the beaches South of Hoi An and the beaches and bays of the province Thua Thien Hue.

The majority of respondents, however, mention the poor cleanness of the public beaches and the lack of beach entertainment such as water sports activities like water-skiing, sailing, surfing and para-surfing, boat rentals or pontoons etc. but also bars, restaurants or music events and other shows.

Another issue is the limited access to public beaches due to the development of luxury beach resorts which are placed next to each other extremely closely, especially in the Da Nang – Hoi An area, which calls for adequate planning of public space.

Product development is vital for the competitiveness of a tourism destination, but mostly neglected or postponed by private stakeholders, due to their short- term thinking and costs involve without immediate pay out (HUT01; HUT02). Public stakeholders are not active enough in this field, possibly because of the lack of market proximity or lack of budget.

But when it comes to events, the DCSTs take the lead in organisation and execution of events such as Hue Festival, Da Nang International Fireworks Competition and Full Moon Festival at Hoi An Ancient Town etc. However, private stakeholders criticise that they are not sufficiently involved in the planning process and consequently cannot adapt their capacities accordingly (HUT01; HUT02; HUA04).

One contradicting (and interesting) view from a tour operator is, that regarding product development, tour operators do not need to be engaged in a cooperation, because Central Vietnam is ―so small‖ that ―you can do it yourself‖ and are not dependent on other operators (HAT01).

Traffic infrastructure development was generally evaluated as positive. For example, Da Nang International Airport, the improvement of Hue International Airport, Hai Van tunnel connecting Hue and Da Nang, Da Nang cruise port, increase of direct international flights to Da Nang, public and private transport between the three destinations (HAA04; EXP02; DNA02; EXP01).

The issue of high quality tourism products, like postulated in the Quang Nam Region Integrated Tourism Strategy Draft 2010, should not only be written on paper but actually implemented, promoted and monitored (HAT01).

The DCSTs and the Tourism Information and Promotion Centres are responsible for quality control and standards for hotels (star ranking) and tourism products. Expert opinion is that tourism associations and hotel associations shall be more involved in this issue, while other stakeholders share this view (EXP04).

Private stakeholders emphasise the need for more rigid quality control and especially comparable standards, which was mentioned to be varying quite substantially between the three provinces. Questions among private stakeholders arise about the inadequate classification of public businesses and/or privat- ised ―career-politician‖-hotels. The latter hotels are owned, run and ―milked‖ by ex-politicians who enjoy tax holidays and other public benefits. These hotels are 50

often lacking in service quality, ―selling the same old product […] they get the money anyway as paid by the government‖ (EXP02).

Multiple complaints about lacking cooperation and transfer of best practice between the province were mentioned, e.g. the issue of cyclo drivers, which are registered in Hoi An, but not in Hue, which leads to an uncontrolled system resulting in lacking service quality and tourist scamming (HUA01; HUA02; HUA03; HUA04). The same applies for excursion tour operators which are not registered and therefore are not subject to quality control.

Human resources are seen of utmost importance for tourism, since in all sectors persons are interacting with tourists, and by this they are contributing to the image not only of the stakeholder‘s business itself, but also for the entire destination (DNA02; DNA03; DNA06; DNP01; HAA04; HUA01).

Due to growth of the tourism, especially for the hotel sector, 30.000 new staff is required (EXP02). This is underlined by recent press releases of the Da Nang Tourism Association mentioning the lack of "at least 200.000 personnell in the mushrooming tourism industry", figures which indicate the problem (Nguyen, 2013).

Hoi An for example is competing for staff from Hue and Da Nang, where trained staff mainly is originating from (EXP02).

Tourism schools exist in Hue and Da Nang, which are operating independently from each other with different training programmes. Concerning HR development, all stakeholders see the necessity for a closer cooperation for achieving comparable standards in HR development and service standards on international level.

Hotels and resorts of international chains such as Hilton, Accor, Crown Plaza, Intercontinental and Pullman etc. are benefiting from internationally recruited management for their internal HR development programmes which at the same time are setting the standards for Vietnam. More support in training as well as more government investment is asked for by the private stakeholders. Some of the international hotel managers recommend to follow the example of Thailand, where training of hotel staff is paid by public institutions (DNA02; DNA01)

Although tourism guides need a licence from a DCST or the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre (HUP02), experience showed that there is still room for improvement. More emphasis shall be put on in-depth history and languages knowledge mainly in English, less important rated are Chinese, Japanese, French, and Russian.

A positive aspect of HR improvement is that younger people gradually take over responsibilities in government and private management positions, people who also have studied abroad and have gained international experience, which will open up their mind, will change their view on things and will have a stimulating effect on quality, policies, regulations and tourism. (HUT03; DNA01).

Only for Da Nang, stakeholders are satisfied with shopping and entertainment facilities on international level, whereas these are lacking in the other two destinations, especially Hue, while in Hoi An handicraft offers for tailoring, silk and shoemaking can be found in abundance. Especially in Hue, all stakeholders agreed that shopping and entertainment needs improvement for tourists.

Although stipulated in the Tourism Master Plan, community involvement to pre- serve and promote traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities is not sufficiently implemented. Labelled under ―community involvement‖ in most cases turns out to be mere shopping pretence to ―staged‖ craft villages, sometimes even selling souvenirs ―made in China‖ (HUP02; HUT02; HAT01).

Stakeholders also emphasised the necessity for further development of tourism on the countryside, mainly through community-based, theme-based and activity-based tourism like homestay tourism, farm tourism etc. where tourists are able to experience and be involved for a longer stay in local life of ethnic minorities (EXP01).

Because stakeholders are aware that one destination in itself is not strong enough to successfully perform on the international market, quite substantial common marketing and promotion activities on public and private side are already carried out on provincial and trans-provincial level. Joint production of folders and brochures in different languages, regional TV spots, attendance on national and international tourism fairs etc. To market a complementary bunch of tourism products from three provinces is more efficient, creates stronger

awareness for the destination and achieves economies of scale (Dwyer et al., 2004).

Central Vietnam feels under-represented in the promotion and marketing activities by VNAT (EXP04; HAA01).

In trans-provincial cooperation, especially the attendance on trade fairs can be found. Even a trans-provincial tour guide ―Hue – Da Nang – Hoi An. Center of Wonders‖ is produced in addition to the VNAT brochure ―Charming Central Vietnam‖.

Private and public stakeholders in Hue criticised lacking cooperation by Da Nang and Hoi An in terms of the attendance on trade fairs. Due to budget constraints, Hue was not able to attend a trade fair, but wanted to provide the other two destinations with information material, which they refused (HUP03).

Asked for the Destination Marketing Organisation Central Coast Vietnam (DMO CCV), the answers of stakeholders varied between ―never heard of‖, ―never answered request for cooperation (HUT01), cooperation can be improved (HUA01; EXP04; HAA04; HAP01; HUA02; HUA05; HUA16) and ―good cooperation‖ (DNP01). This wide spread variety of answers implies the interpretation of either lacking acceptance in the region or lacking activity.

Bearing in mind that length of stay is important for tourism success, mainly stakeholders from the accommodation call for product development in favour of extending tourist‘s stay in Central Vietnam which is reported with 2.02 days (VNAT, 2013b). In the three provinces, stakeholders stated an average length of 2-3 days. Stakeholders share the opinion that the length of stay does not function without appropriate marketing and promotion.

In terms of research, all stakeholders agree to supplement the present regional research activities by common trans-provincial research programme.

5.5 Perception on a Destination Management Organisation Central Vietnam

All stakeholders shared the view that there is a need for closer communicational structures of tourism in Central Vietnam. The public stakeholders (DCSTs) already made a first institutionalising step towards ―one common organisation‖ by estab- lishing the Rotating System. The private stakeholders, all without exception, are in favour of one central common organisation. However, due to their experiences with the constraints of the current Rotating System, private stakeholders have some reservations and therefore prefer a new type of organisation. Regarding this organisation‘s form, some stakeholders have either no perception at all, others have various conceptions.

Mainly from the private stakeholders‘ point of view, such a new organisation should meet the following structural requirements:

The organisation should be a Public Private Partnership (PPP), and consist out of an equally balanced combination of public and private stakeholders (DNA02; DNA01; DNP01; DNP01; EXP02; HUT02), which goes in line with Pechlaner et al., 2012). The legal form of such a PPP is new for Vietnam, there are no laws for PPPs implemented yet (DNP01; EXP02; HAT01; HUA03; HUT01; HUT02).

Stakeholders expect the public side to take the lead in such a PPP for planning and implementing target-oriented investment in tourism infrastructure and tourism supra-structure without administrative boundaries (DNP01). The management of the PPP should consist of tourism experienced and strong, convincing and confident professionals (DNP01; DNT01; HAA01; HUA01; HUT01; HUT03; DNA06; HUA03). The new organisation needs to hold institutional power for defining a regional master strategy (DNP01). Additionally, it should have a mediating role, while others prefer it should place special emphasis on the role of execution and implementation (DNA02; HUT02).

For private stakeholders, it is very important to have more influence, input and advice in the new organisation, since they are closer to tourists and the market (DNA02; DNP01; HUT01; HUT02). This was even seen by public authorities. How- ever, without relieving the government from its responsibilities for tourism and in particular for the common good (HUT03). This is also in line with the view of 54

Laesser and Beritelli (2013) on destinations as ―[…] productive social systems with specific business aims and non-business related goals‖. The task of a new DMO shall be to combine business aims with the common good.

The new DMO should allocate a central budget for all fields of common activities (DNA03), which formerly was located at public provincial and or municipal authorities.

Moreover, the new DMO shall serve as flagship for support and promotion of Central Vietnam as one destination (DNP02). Marketing and promotion measures shall be executed as common activities under one slogan, but in close cooperation with VNAT (HUA01).

5.6 Conclusion

In conclusion, research revealed that the requirements of the respondents are corresponding with DMO requirements which can be found in literature. This proofs that the stakeholders‘ perception and ideas of success-oriented development are also valid in the theoretical context. They are aware that the existing assets of the destination Central Vietnam only calls for an adequate DMO for a successful exploitation of its full potential, which goes in line with Bornhorst et al. (2010) and Ritchie and Crouch (2003), who state that tourism success is related to both.

As interim result and summary, it can be noted that the individual private stakeholders‘ understanding of one single destination and its structures are far ahead of the current existing organisational destination management structures. At present, it seems that they do not feel comprehensively represented by both, the existing public as well as the different private structures. This judgement is exactly the same which VBF is criticising for the cooperation between VNAT and private stakeholders on national level (VBF, 2013b). Partly, stakeholders even feel ex- cluded from the circles of the upscale elite organisation, such as the DMO CCV and Five-Star-Alliance, which only indirectly contribute to the image development of Central Vietnam.

Obviously, private stakeholders do not only argue with the lack of information and inclusion by the public stakeholders but also with the ―[…] serious weakness in the machinery of government dealing with tourism in its coordination, and cooperation with operators either state or privately owned.‖ (Hall, 1999). It seems that it is just the adequate organisational, institutional structure which is missing, because on the other hand nearly unrestricted consensus exists regarding necessity, function and goal of such institutionalisation.

Chapter 6. Conclusion, Recommendation, Limitations and Further Research

6.1 Introduction

With regard to the dissertation‘s research goal –

6.2 Conclusion

The analysis of research findings on basis of literature and field research leads to the conclusion that it is indicated to establish one single “DMO Central Vietnam”, which shall be responsible for all three destinations Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An, whose tasks include the sustainable development of tourism in order to position Central Vietnam as a strongly competitive destination on national as well as international level.

The DMO shall overcome the on-going organisational and structural weaknesses and inefficiencies which at present occur in Central Vietnam. It shall be deeply rooted within the region and cover all spectrums of tourism-related businesses, not to forget the entire population, and by that to be able to gain in acceptance.

Furthermore, this means that the system-immanent weaknesses on both sides need to be reduced to a minimum. On the public stakeholder side it is necessary

to overcome the structural weaknesses such as institutional rigidities in organisation and lengthy and complicated decision-making processes with overlapping responsibilities; lacking market proximity. On the private stakeholder side, weaknesses such as local competition and within the provinces, self-centredness, short-term orientation need to be eliminated. Therefore, the DMO needs to operate as an independent organisation of interest which is free of any domination by either side.

6.3 Recommendation - The new DMO Central Vietnam

Based on the conclusion, it is recommended to establish the DMO as an independent, business-oriented, non-profit institution. Its tasks include a sustainable increase of Central Vietnam‘s competitiveness in the market. By this, the benefit maximisation of its public and private stakeholders will be achieved. The benefits for public stakeholders are among others the increase of tax revenues, the increase of employment, the increase of tourism and other investment and the utilisation of public capacities (airport, trains, schools etc.), the development and optimisation of public attractions (sites, museums, theatres etc.). For private stakeholders, this means profit maximisation through the development of capacities which are competitive on the domestic as well as the international market, the increase of capacity utilisation such as occupancy, the creation of an attractive business environment for directly and indirectly tourism-related businesses (e.g. restaurants, cultural institutions, taxi companies, souvenir shops, laundry shops etc.).

Therefore it is recommended to establish one single DMO for Central Vietnam as a Public Private Partnership (PPP).

The governance of PPPs can take different legal forms ranging from rather loose types like working groups, committees, theme-based and activity-based cooperation, to institutionalised forms like associations or agencies etc. though to business-oriented corporations like the LLCs or joint stock companies.

The analysis of successful DMOs showed that quite a number of them are organised as PPPs. Examples are The Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau3, London & Partners4, Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH5, Hamburg Tourismus GmbH6, Köln Tourismus GmbH7. Paris is organised as joint initiative of Paris City Council and the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry. London is a non- profit PPP, funded by the Mayor of London and a network of commercial partners. The German examples Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne are organised as GmbH (LLC – Limited Liability Company).

Since the goals of the new DMO Central Vietnam (DMO CV) are business and success oriented, the institutionalisation of this PPP requires a firm structure as it is usual in the business environment. Therefore, the DMO CV must be seen as a business unit like a company, with firm duties and tasks and clear responsibilities. This consequently justifies the recommendation to establish the DMO CV as a business corporation, such as a LLC or as a joint stock company. Even though being non-profit organisations, the advantage of LLCs and joint stock companies is their qualification for receiving credits and funding.

Members of this PPP DMO CV ideally shall be tourism stakeholders in Central Vietnam.

From the public side, members shall be the three provinces – namely the provincial People‘s Committees, tourism-related municipalities, airports, port authorities and eventually VNAT and Vietnam Airlines etc.

From the private side, members normally would be private hotel and/or tourism associations, chambers of commerce and organisations of all other tourism related businesses. Private stakeholders shall hold shares according to their business size, accommodation stakeholders e.g. according to their number of rooms, tour operators according to their turnover etc.

Given the current situation in Central Vietnam, it would be beneficial to have individual pro-active stakeholders as members (hotels, resorts and other

3 Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2010. 4 London & Partners, n.d. 5 Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH, 2012. 6 Hamburg Tourismus GmbH, 2013. 7 Köln Tourismus GmbH, 2013. 59

accommodation businesses (homestays, hostels etc.), tour operators, travel agencies), instead of their inactive and inefficient trade associations VITA and VISTA.

As public stakeholders have to take over responsibilities not only for tourism but also for the common good of the whole region, they therefore ought to hold the majority of shares. This is also the case in the best practice examples Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH (2012) (60 : 40 %, public : private shareholders) and Hamburg Tourismus GmbH (2013) (51 : 49 %, public : private shareholders). Due to Vietnam‘s socialist market economy, the public majority is a matter of course.

Acting like a business unit requires the establishment of a professional management, the definition of the strategic goal, of medium- and long-term business goals and corresponding business plans.

The strategic goal of the DMO CV shall be to position Central Vietnam in its key markets using the brand Central Vietnam, to generate and increase awareness among visitors, customers, residents, tourism investors and to promote sustainable economic benefit to the region. As one public stakeholder suggested: ―Central Vietnam shall become the real centre of cultural and heritage in Vietnam‖ (HUP04).

In line with VNAT‘s national positioning and branding ―Vietnam. Timeless Charm‖, the slogan for Central Vietnam could be ―Charming Central Vietnam‖.

In addition to the overall tasks mentioned above, the DMO CV will have to incorporate internal tasks such as product development, structure development, control and improvement of quality standards etc.

Essential for the effectiveness of the DMO CV is to ensure that plans are actually implemented, that the implementation and its results are monitored and eventually adapted.

Concrete tasks of the DMO CV comprise among others the presentation of Cen- tral Vietnam on trade fairs; the organisation of common workshops; development of promotion material (sales guide, region brochure, meeting guide convention brochure, incentive brochure, etc.) under the recommended slogan ―Charming Central Vietnam‖; the organisation of familiarisation trips from abroad

(tour operators, firms, incentive agencies, journalists, partner cities etc.); the organisation of national and international press conferences; the handling of any type of inquiries; HR development; the development of a common website for pooling of information on the three provinces as well as web-PR; the development of mobile travel apps; the internal communications reaching ideally each person in the destination on all kinds of issues (Saftić et al., 2010; Fyall et al., 2012) etc.

Furthermore, it might be advisable for the effectiveness of the established DMO CV to engage in partnership with comparable DMOs in other countries for the purpose of fast exchange of knowledge, cooperation, best practice exchange and benchmarking.

On the road map for developing such a new DMO ―Charming Central Vietnam‖ the crucial path will be the efforts to convince the public authorities diplomati- cally by installing interim steps such as theme-based or activity-based cooperation via tourism working groups (TWG) or multi-stakeholder destination management boards, before the factual implementation process of a neutral, independent and business-oriented corporation may start.

6.4 Research Limitations

This chapter describes limitations which have been faced throughout desk and field research.

Questionnaires were not always returned to the researcher which minimised the sample size. Not in all cases, follow-up approaches to achieve a substantially higher return rate of the questionnaire. Some interviews could not take place because some refused to response, contacts could not be made because potential interview partners were not available.

The interviews were conducted in English language. Since in no case English was the mother‘s tongue of the interview partners, language barriers may portray a restriction to primary research. The consequences are possible interpretation errors on both sides, the interviewer and interviewees side. Consequently, these

interpretations might happen to be superficial or misleading which compromises the credibility and reliability of collected information.

Moreover, cultural differences between the researcher and the respondents may eventually have hampered research. Especially Hall & Hall‘s theory about culture in regard to high-context vs. low-context (Hall & Hall, 1987) was experienced throughout research, which was kept in mind throughout research, but also later on during the analysis (Köster, 2010).

Moreover, another important and worth mentioning limitation is the fact that the answers are only describing trends, which cannot be quantified and implements the questioning of generalizability (Onwuegbuzie & Johnson, 2006).

Questionable may be the validity of answers, especially from respondents who were afraid to talk openly. This was the case mainly with public authorities, where the questionnaire was reviewed by the department before handing it back to the researcher.

The recording of interviews would have been useful in order to avoid the loss of information, but especially in the case of unstructured interviews it did not seem appropriate to record the interviewee, as well as the researcher was advised that it was not appropriate to record the interviews.

Although the research results are not representative, however, this research study provides the reader with qualitative insights on a valid basis into current tourism structures in Central Vietnam.

6.5 Suggestions for further Research

In order to proof the validity of the recommendation for a business oriented implementation of the new DMO as LLC or joint stock company, it is advisable to evaluate the experience of such DMOs with this type of legal structure in different countries with capitalist and centrally planned economies in order to find out the most suitable solution for Central Vietnam.

Existing literature on destination management focuses on all types of DMO aspects, whereas the legal forms of implementation for such organisations seem to be neglected. Therefore, further research shall be concentrating on this issue in order to provide the necessary completion for practical implementation of DMOs.

None of existing destination management literature could be identified tackling the topic from a socialist market economy perspective with its specific legitimacies and consequences within a single-party political system. Therefore it might be indicated to further examine the validity destination management theory for the given context of Vietnam.

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Appendix

Appendix A – Questionnaire

Questionnaire In order to gain more benefit from visitors to Central Vietnam and to gain even more visitors, your help is needed to answer this Destination Profile Questionnaire. To identify which tourism organisation structures might be most beneficial for Central Vietnam, it is necessary to identify tourism stakeholder‘s perspectives on present and future tourism structures.

1. Organisational details: Name: Address: Website: E-Mail:

2. Guest by country of origin and main type of holiday:

3. Duration of stay:

4. Which Marketing / sales activities do you use?

5. In your opinion, what type of cooperation should be responsible for the tourism development in Central Vietnam:

6. How would you describe tourism assets in Central Vietnam?  Cultural heritage and monuments: Status  Cultural heritage and monuments: Access  Quality of landscape  Quality of beaches  Quality of streetscape  Nature discovery  Handicraft discovery  Rural life discovery  Resort, beach tourism  Signage of attractions, visitor information  Local markets in towns  Local markets country side  Community access, integration  Entertainment for tourists  Events and festivals  Shopping  Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions (MICE)  Security and safety  Language Knowledge

7. Which of the above listed assets do you consider as top three successful factors of your tourism destination? 1. 2. 3.

8. How would you describe stakeholder interaction and/or cooperation?  On local level  On provincial level (within private sector)  On provincial level (with public sector, e.g. DCST)  On regional level (Chapter VITA)  On regional level with Vietnam Destination Marketing Organisation Central Coast  Between the provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam  On national level (with VNAT)

9. How would you describe cooperation between the 3 provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam?  Marketing & Promotion of Central Vietnam tourism  Membership & Stakeholder Management (DMO)  Policies and strategies within Central Vietnam  Information research  Product development  Development/control of quality standards  Human resources development  Others, please state:

10. Who is influencing tourism development in Central Vietnam in your opinion?

11. Which collaboration/cooperation would you consider as most appropriate for the provinces Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam?  Formal tourism working group  Informal or loose tourism working group  Theme-based collaboration / initiative  Sector-based collaboration / initiative  Resource-based collaboration / initiative

12. Which of the following assistance would you find beneficial from a Destination Man- agement Organization (DMO)?  Advice to help you with your marketing activities  Updates on campaign and marketing plans  Involvement in planning DMO marketing activities (collective marketing promoting the region)  Frequent networking events  Advice / assistance in product development  Development of (quality) standards  Human resources development  Representation on trade fairs  Regional promotion film  Road shows in source markets

 Press mailings  Other, please state:

13. Will more direct flights from source markets to Da Nang be beneficial for tourism development in Central Vietnam?

13. Who should provide support for your institution?

15. How do you think cooperation within the tourism industry could be improved?

16. What is your opinion about a DMO as PPP?

16. If there would be a DMO in Central Vietnam, which recommendations would you give first to the DMO? 1. 2. 3.

17. If you could make 3 wishes for support to make your job/business easier (apart from money!) what would you wish for? 1. 2. 3.

Appendix B – List of Interview Partners

Stakeholder Province Stakeholder Data Type Type Ana Mandara Hue Hotel Questionnaire Asiana Travel Mate Hue Tour Operator Interview Brilliant Hotel Da Nang Hotel Interview Centre for Tourism Promotion Da Nang Public Institution Interview DCST Hue Hue Public Institution Interview ESRT 1 Hanoi Public Institution Interview ESRT 2 Hanoi Public Institution Interview Green Travel Vietnam Hue Tour Operator Interview Hagl Plaza Da Nang Hotel Interview Hoi An Bicycle Tours Hoi An Tour Operator Interview Hue Monument Preservation Centre Hue Public Institution Interview Hue Tourist Hue Tour Operator Interview Hyatt Da Nang Hotel Interview Imperial Hue Hotel Interview Information & Promo Centre Hue Public Institution Interview Institute for Tourism Development Re- Hanoi Public Institution Interview search Japan International Cooperation Agency Hanoi Public Institution Interview La Residence Hue Hotel Questionnaire Le Belhamy Hoi An Hotel Interview ATM ASIA Company Da Nang Tourism Consultant Questionnaire Company Muong Thanh Hue Hotel Interview Peoples Committee Tourism Information Hoi An Public Institution Questionnaire Century Riverside Hue Hotel Interview Sandy Beach Resort Da Nang Hotel Interview Sunrise Hoi An Hoi An Hotel Interview Tourism School Hue Hue Public Institution Interview Victoria Hotel Hoi An Hotel Questionnaire Vina Hotel Hue Hotel Interview Vitours Da Nang Tour Operator Interview