Linkage of tourism development in the north central coast

to develop and manage tourism destination of regional tourism effectively. With this perspective, activities of regional 9 linkage include a variety of activities from building development strategies, marketing activities, and managing visitor experience enhancement (UNWTO 2008) [194]. 2.1.4. Conditions of regional linkage in tourism development 2.1.4.1. Basis for creating tourist region linkage 2.1.4.2. Conditions for linking regions and sub-regions in tourism development 2.1.4.3. Tourism development link assessment criteria 2.2. Content about tourism development linkage Tourism development linkage includes many contents, but the thesis focuses on some of the following main contents: 2.2.1. Linkage in propagating, advertising and promoting tourism branding 2.2.2. Linkage in building tourism products, tourism programs (tours) for the whole region 2.2.3. Linkage in training and development of human resources 2.2.4. Linkage in building synchronous tourism infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure 2.2.5. Linkage in mobilizing investment capital and developing mechanisms and policies for general tourism development investment in the region, reviewing tourism development planning in accordance with the strengths of each locality 2.2.6. Linkage in cooperating in enhancing tourism competitiveness 2.3. Factors affecting tourism development linkage 2.4. Experience in tourism development linkage and lessons for provinces in North Central Coast 2.4.1. Experience from some countries in the region 2.4.1.1. Experience from Thailand 2.4.1.2. Experience from Malaysia 2.4.1.3. Experience from China 2.4.2. Experience from some provinces in Viet Nam 2.4.2.1. Experience from the South Central region 2.4.2.2. Experience from the Northwest region 2.4.3. Lessons learned for provinces in the North Central Coast First, regional and inter-regional tourism development linkages is an essential requirement for tourism development. Second, regional tourism development linkage in accordance with socio- economic development, forming a chain of regional and inter-regional linkage. Third, there should be clear orientations and strategies for developing the tourism region linkage, focusing on investment in developing some regional tourism centers to spread to other regions. Fourth, building governance institutions and forming regional coordinating organization is one of the priorities of promoting regional tourism linkage. Fifth, linkage of tourism product development is one of the key contents of tourism development linkage. Sixth, promoting the participation of private sector is an important requirement to be effective in tourism region linkage. 10 Seventh, attention should be paid to an inclusive approach, commitment, and representation of all stakeholders in tourism linkages. CHAPTER 3 CURRENT SITUATION OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT LINKAGE OF PROVINCES IN THE NORTH CENTRAL COAST 3.1. The potentials and advantages of tourism in the North Central Coast 3.1.1. Geographical location This region has a special geographical position, with spreading coastal, complicated terrain, neatly located on the narrowest land in Vietnam, a bridge between the North and the South, with Laos and Cambodia. Many deep bayou and estuaries that can form a large/ small port to serve the exchange of goods among provinces in the region, between domestic and international regions. This is a region where all the provinces are bordered by the sea, an advantage that not all regions have. 3.1.2. Tourism resources The North Central Coast is an extremely diverse and abundant tourist resource area with a coastline of about 670 km in length, original nature, and a variety of unique cultural features. The North Central Coast is famous for its beautiful beaches such as Sam Son (Thanh Hoa), Cua Lo (Nghe An), Nhat Le (Quang Binh), Cua Tung (Quang Tri), Thuan An, Lang Co (Thua Thien - Hue), etc.; nature reserves, national parks: Ben En (Thanh Hoa), Pu Mat (Nghe An), Vu Quang, Ke Go (Ha Tinh), Phong Nha - Ke Bang, Son Doong (Quang Binh), Bach Ma (Thua Thien - Hue), etc. With the potential of the abundant and diverse ecological of forests and seas, the North Central Coast’s provinces have ideal conditions to develop various types of eco, relaxation and adventure touristm. 3.1.3. The infrastructure The North Central Coast has a transport system road, railway and air, connecting all 6 provinces in the region, which are three important routes on the North-South traffic: National Highway 1A, North - South railway and Ho Chi Minh road. In addition, the region also has many airports, the most important of which are Phu Bai airport (Thua Thien - Hue), Vinh airport and Dong Hoi airport. In general, compared with the whole country, the road traffic routes of the North Central Coast are quite convenient, are regularly maintained and upgraded, so they are of good quality. However, due to the impact of natural disasters, storms, and floods, traffic still faces many difficulties in the rainy season. 3.1.4. Position of North Central Coast tourist in the tourism development strategy of the whole country and the world The direction of socio-economic development of many provinces in the North Central Coast to 2020, with a vision to 2030 has clearly identified a decisive important role of tourism - service through the goal of local economic restructure. Most provinces in the region have determined to shift their economic structure in the direction of Industry - Tourism, Services - Agriculture and have determined the direction of making the tourism and service industry as a key economic sector or strong economic sector. Thus, service tourism will play a decisive role in the local economy. 11 Chart 3.1. Comparison of economic restructuring in the North Central Coast in the period of 2011 - 2018 In summary, the North Central Coast tourist area is a region not only has a beautiful landscape endowed by nature but also has a complicated history, society, and culture. It is a place where different cultural and ideological flows are mixed by different ethnic groups. This blend makes provinces of the region becomes a unique feature of Vietnam's national cultural history. With its comparative advantage, the development of tourism activities in the region is really important, it not only contributes to the tourism development of the country, but also promotes tourism development in the region of Southeast Asia and Asia - Pacific. 3.1.5. Current situation of tourism development in the North Central Coast * Tourist market In 2011, the North Central Coast welcomed 10,908,503 tourists, in 2018 the number of visitors to these provinces was 27,985,000, increased 156.54%. In which, the number of domestic tourists in 2018 increased as compared to 2011 was 158.87%; The number of international visitors in 2018 increased as compared to 2011 was 136.61%. Among the six provinces in the North Central Coast, Quang Binh province has the fastest growing number of domestic and international tourists in both absolute and relative numbers. Table 3.3. Revenue from tourism of the provinces in the North Central Coast (Unit: billion dong) Province Year Compare 2011 2014 2015 2018 Total 2015/2011 2018/2011 Thanh Hoa 2 245 3 690 5 180 10 605 21 720 230,73 472,38 Nghe An 1 004 2 093 2 382 7 410 12 889 237,30 738,19 Ha Tinh 256 306 400 5 601 6 563 156,25 2187,89 Quang Binh 403 2 871 3 235 4 485 10 993 803,48 1114,01 Quang Tri 946 1 270 1 300 1 624 5 140 137,42 171,67 Thua Thien - Hue 4 910 4 833 4 750 4 950 19 442 96,73 100,81 Total 9 763 15 062 17 246 34 675 76 747 176,64 355,15 (Source: Report on tourism development over the years – DoCST of provinces) [62] 12 * Tourism technical facilities Tourism technical facilities of the region are generally underdeveloped, not really favorable for tourists to access tourist sites/ destinations and ensure hygiene and environment for tourism activities. Figure 3.4. Comparison of the number of tourist accommodation rooms in the North Central Coast over the years (Unit:room) * Human resources for tourism In 2011, the number of direct employees in the tourism industry in the region was 52,522 people, by 2018 the number of direct employees in the tourism industry in the region was 72,093, the growth rate in 2011 compared to 2011 was 37.26%. Labor in the tourism industry is most concentrated in Quang Tri province, followed by Thanh Hoa and Hue, and the remaining provinces have the same number of employees in the tourism industry and account for 7-8% of the whole region. There is about 19% of employees of the total workforce have university and postgraduate degrees in the region's tourism industry. Currently, the whole region has 25 places that have tourism training programs at different levels. However, there is only Hue Tourism College, Central Tourism Vocational School have specialized training. (Unit: person) Figure 3.5. Compare tourism employees by provinces North Central Coast over the years 13 * Travel products Promoting the strength of natural and human tourism resources, the North Central Coast develops many different types of tourism such as: Sea resort tourism: Sam Son, Cua Lo, Thien Cam, Nhat Le, Lang Co, ... Travel to explore the hidden heritage: Hue ancient capital, Ho Dynasty citadel, ... Ecotourism, cave discovery: Phong Nha - Ke Bang, Son Doong, .. Travel to learn about history - revolution, travel to original points: Kim Lien (Nghe An), Truong Son cemetery, Quang Tri ancient citadel, ... In addition, the region also has many models of tourism linkage such as the ancient capital of Vietnam; heritage road in Central Vietnam; 3 meals in 3 different countries in 1 day, .. 3.2. Current situation of tourism development linkage in the North Central Coast 3.2.1. Linkage in advertising and promoting tourism The results of the advertising and promotion activities show that the form and method of advertisiing to promote tourism in the provinces is quite productive in both content and form, having a positive impact on enhancing the unique tourism brand of the North Central Coast, creating a good impression on the tourism potential of the North Central Coast for domestic and international tourists. The survey results showed that the majority of respondents (90.42%) thought that the tourism linkage program in the North Central Coast had the effect of enhancing the North Central Coast tourism brand. Many linked tours and tour routes have been formed and put into effective operation. Many unique tourism products have been built through linking with tours, routes and attractions. The provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh have had many cooperation programs to build many unique tourism products to become one of the tourist routes attracting quite a large number of international tourists. The quality of community tourism has been significantly improved. The development of tourism linkage programs and inter- provincial tours and routes has facilitated the modernization of the tourism infrastructure system. The investment trend in the high-end segment with the participation of strategic investors in the tourism sector in the North Central Coast has been formed. The linkage among the provinces in the North Central Coast with big major tourist centers such as Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City has created a great attraction for investment. The North Central Coast provinces have attracted many investment projects in tourist areas, resorts, high-class accommodations, in which, there are many projects of hotels with standards of 3 - 4 stars, contributing to change appearance of some tourist areas and step by step, meeting the quality requirements of the tourism infrastructure system. 3.2.2. Linkage of tourism product development The linked programs have initially introduced the typical tourism products of the North Central Coast and each local group as well as the specific products of each locality. The survey results show that, with a total of 386 respondents, including officials in tourism authorities, officials in tourism areas, and tourism businesses, scientists and tourists on the results of the linked program of the typical tourism product of the North Central Coast are described in Table 3.7. The results pointed out 14 that up to 87.05% of the respondents agreed that tourism linkage programs in the North Central Coast had the effect in introducing regional tourism products. 3.2.3. Linkage in training and development of human resources * In terms of scale The North Central Coast is a region with large scale of human resource, the population is mainly concentrated in rural areas. In 2018, the population of the whole region is 10,513,694 people, of which the rural population accounts for 82.9%. The population is sparsely populated, the density is lower than that of other regions (121 people/ km2). The structure of young population, the number of people under the age of 15 years is 3,082,271 (26.84%). The labor force of working age in 2018 accounts for 62.2% of the population (male 15-60 years old, female 15-55 years old). * In term of quality Labor skills are not high: in 2018, Thanh Hoa's rate of trained workers aged 15 and over is 12%, Hue is 16.2%, Ha Tinh is 13.7%, Quang Tri is 11.8 % (17.9% nationwide). Quang Binh has a better signal of 17.9% and Nghe An at 18.9%. This rate partly represents the quality of human resources in the North Central Coast, having an important influence on the policies and goals of tourism development in the region. Literacy rates of the population aged 15 and over in the North Central Coast are the lowest in the country. If the literacy rate of the whole country is 94.8%, this rate in the North Central Coast has not reached 90%. 3.2.4. Linkage in building synchronous tourism infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure Traffic infrastructure in this region is focused on investment. In terms of road traffic, major projects (project to enhance the transport network in the Central region - ADB5, project to upgrade and expand Ho Chi Minh road, project to bridge over Hue- Da Nang intersection, etc.) , have been promoted to push up the exchange between the North - South Central regions with the development poles of the whole country, the Red River Delta (the North) and the Southeast (the South), contributing to creating the platform for socio-economic development, thereby promoting tourism. In the region, the road transport system plays a key role, accounting for 90% of the market share of the transport, the others only take a small market share (2.2% of aviation passengers), railway (4.49 % of passenger). The road traffic system basically meets the requirements of intra-regional, inter-regional and international transportation of goods and passengers, especially international transit. The bridge system on National Highway 1A has been renovated, upgraded and newly built, which has significantly improved the traffic capacity of the road traffic system in the region. 3.2.5. Linkage in mobilizing investment capital and developing mechanisms and policies for general tourism development investment in the region, reviewing tourism development planning in accordance with the strengths of each locality According to the master plan on tourism development in the North Central Coast, the capital demand for investment in tourism development in the region by 2030 is 165,025 billion VND (equivalent to about 8.05 billion USD). This goal also poses many challenges for the North Central Coast, because this region has faced many difficulties in resources of socio-economic development in general and tourism 15 development in particular. In general, the investment capital attraction for tourism development of provinces in the region still has many limitations compared to the practical requirements, not commensurate with the potentials and strengths in tourism development of the region. In particular, there is a lack of regional linkage policy solutions to attract investment capital for development of particular types of tourism, forms of tourism linkages ... in the other hand, the investment capital from the state budget for the region's tourism development is still limited. Table 3.6. Mobilizing capital from the private sector for tourism development in the provinces of the North Central Coast (2011 - 2018) Province Year 2011 2014 2015 2018 Total Thanh Hoa 193 137 1157 115 1602 Nghe An 597 841 1257 958 3653 Ha Tinh 133 167 150 237 687 Quang Binh 112 99 162 343 716 Quang Tri 91 211 233 357 892 Thua Thien – Hue 1057 391 612 882 2942 Total 2210 2255 2693 3423 10581 (Source: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, 2019) The data in Table 3.6 shows that private investment plays an important role in regional tourism development. The provinces in the North Central Coast have had many solutions to promote attracting domestic private investment for tourism development. However, compared with the huge resources in the community, the current level of attracting investment capital for regional tourism development is still limited. Provinces still lack appropriate policies to attract regional linkage, so there is a lack of investment for projects of linkage and exploitation of inter-regional tourist sites and destinations. 3.2.6. Linkage in enhancing tourism competitiveness The North Central Coast consists of 06 provinces with many similar conditions in terms of development and tourism products, locates near each other in different itineraries of tourists. Naturally, the relationship amongs organizations, businesses, communities and governments of the provinces in the North Central Coast regarding to tourism development activities has been established. At the simplest level, it is the transport connection between provinces, firstly due to the demand of citizens, and then for tourism development. The formation of tours in the North Central Coast is a natural catalyst for the establishment of relationships among provinces, especially between businesses and tourism service providers. First, the tourism cooperation and linkages in the North Central Coast were formed at an initial level. This is shown in all three areas of cooperation. At the local level of internal cooperation, the mechanisms of cooperation between the parties are more transactional than the cooperative process. The same goes for regional business linkage. At the regional policy linkage level, some initiatives and results of 16 cooperation have been recognized (such as organizing some joint promotion activities, information exchange). However, regional policy cooperation stops at specific activities but has not yet formulated action programs or at a higher level of a strategic approach to cooperation. Second, linked cooperation activities are shifting from building trust to building cooperation programs. Building trust is considered as the first stage of cooperation, from having directions of cooperation and interdependence in activities before taking joint action decisions. The process of tourism cooperation and linkage in the North Central Coast region has gradually shifted from stage of testing and informing to orientation stage of coordinated joint action. This is more evident in the linkage policy at the regional level and the internal linkage at the local level. Third, tourism cooperation and linkages in the region are not really proportional, due to the uneven development of tourism in other provinces in the region. Tourism in the North Central Coast region is outstanding in Quang Binh province - tourism center of the whole region. In Quang Binh, a force of tourism businesses has been formed quite a lot. Not only accommodation establishments and local service providers, but the formation of travel businesses marks a new stage of development of this tourist destination - a stage of growth (Butler 2011, citing Butler 1980). Meanwhile, other provinces in the region are in the stage of exploration or involvement (Butler 2011, citing Butler 1980) when the tourism industry is still in newly. Different stages of tourism development lead to different development capacities of the tourism industry, and the level of local cooperation as well as the requirements for regional and external cooperation. In Quang Binh, while internal cooperation has been thriving in the past 5 years, recently becoming an important requirement for businesses, authorities and stakeholders, the internal cooperate of other provinces are in the initial stage of formation. Some businesses in Quang Binh, especially travel ones, have gradually expanded their operating areas to neighboring provinces, creating regional business cooperation networks. Fourth, the scope of cooperation is mainly in the tourism sector (departmental and business level). Cooperation activities have received more and more attention from provincial leaders. However, these concerns have not been transformed into policy and investment orientations at the provincial level, that caused limiting efficiency and capacity of cooperation and linkages. Fifth, state management agencies play an important role in the cooperation process. The tourism businesses in the North Central Coast, except for Quang Binh province, are mainly small, newly formed businesses with limited scope of organization in the locality. The new cooperation and linkage activities are in a passive status. In such conditions, tourism linkage cooperation in the region emerges out the role of state management agencies in tourism. These agencies pioneered in terms of cooperation, creating awareness of the importance of this activity, gradually introducing and promoting cooperation models. Although the results are only the initial steps, the role of state management agencies is increasingly clear. Sixth, the role of external partners in promoting cooperation and linkage. One of the important partners outside the region is the travel companies that bring tourists 17 to travel in the region. A tour of the North Central Coast usually goes through many tourist destinations in many provinces in the region. Combining these tourist attractions and travel services to a tour, a tourism product is a task of travel companies. The tour business process requires cooperation between local businesses and tourism businesses outside the region. Gradually, this cooperation process expands into cooperation between businesses and local stakeholders. A prime example of this partnership is familiarization trip (FAM trip) that introduce local travel products and services to travel agencies to build tourist product. 3.3. Model analysis of factors affecting tourism development linkages in the North Central Coast 3.3.1. Overview of the model From the proposed theoretical framework, a good tourism linkage model should provide results for the following factors: (i) Quality and popularity factors; (ii) Factors of policies, plans for tourism development; (iii) Management factors; (iv) Factors of key tourism resource; (v) Auxiliary factors; (vi) Market factors. These key elements are the set of many specific criteria. The first factor includes practical conditions such as location, safety, popularity. The second factor represents the institutional environment for tourism activities. The third factor shows the ability to adjust and adapt to the actual conditions. The fourth factor indicates the direct advantages to attract tourists. The fifth factor consists of conditions that affect exploitation, bringing direct advantages to market, for example, infrastructure. The last factor is related to the characteristics of the guest market. Therefore, the assessment model of the tourism development linkage in the North Central Coast should be designed to include these important factors. The actual conditions of the provinces in the North Central Coast have indicated tourism resources, market-side issues (visitor demand), tourism management as well as the interaction and relationship among factors are especially important. In addition, tourism in the North Central Coast also has its own characteristics different from other regions. For example, the factors of typical tourism resources are marine tourism (all provinces in the North Central Coast have beautiful and famous