Tourism and economic development in Vietnam

Abstract

After going through 3 decades of war, it was only in 1975 that the war-torn Vietnam was finally reunified as one country. The early years after that were difficult and faced social and political challenges to try different reforms to the country. It was in 1986 that the government implemented ‘Doi Moi’ reform programmes which included marketoriented reform measures to help revamp her economy. The programme was successful and after 1990, her economy reported on the average 8 percent GDP growth annually. The purpose of this thesis is to find out whether Vietnamese tourism industry is suitable as an economic growth engine in the 21st century. The current state, strength and weaknesses of her tourism industry were examined. In addition, new markets for Vietnam are recommended on the basis of the new trends of tourism and tourism marketing being researched. The previous studies were on the tourism industry in the 1990s, and thus a more thorough study, other than on marketing prospects is needed to provide detailed prospects of tourism industry in the 21st century