New Zealand Tourism Research Institute Faculty of Applied Humanities, AUT

1
New Zealand Tourism Research Institute Faculty
of Applied Humanities, AUT
Economic Instruments Environmental Management
for Sustainable Tourism Development Industry
Perspectives Performance in Hue City, Vietnam
Tinh Bui Duc (Ph.D. candidate) Supervisors
Professor Simon Milne Chris
Batstone Ph.D.
2

• Today..
• Rationale and Literature
• Viet Nam and Hue Contexts
• Research Questions and Objectives
• Research Design

3
Rationale and Literature
4
Tourism industry sustainable development
? The largest global industry, continued growth ?
Important element in economic development
strategies Job creation Income
improvement for communities Foreign exchange
earnings, ? Can contribute to general
sustainable development ? Depends on enjoyment
and appreciation of environment/culture -
powerful motivation to protect it.
5

• a destructive force??
• The loss of natural landscapes, environmental
  degradation
• Importation of disruptive social values
• Conflicts over access to natural resources
• Economic inequities and increasing dependency
• ? Environmental problems and social issues
  associated with tourism industry can be related
  to the so called Tragedy of the Commons,
• Basic concepts of public goods and negative
  externalities
• (Smith, 1989 UN, 1992 Milne, 1998 Bui, 2000
  Sharpley, 2000 Frederico, 2002)

6
? Many current management practices lead to
undesirable impacts on environment and society -
this threatens host communities and tourism. ?
Paradox in tourism - rapid tourism development
vs. quality of life - economic growth vs.
environmental management social justice has
awoken a profound interest in sustainable tourism
development.
7
Sustainable development and Sustainable Tourism
Principles
WCED (1987) Sustainable development, which meets
the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own
needs This concept can be elaborated by 2 basic
concepts Limitation of resources Meeting
subjective demand
Redclift (1987) seeking a compromise between
the pursuit of economic growth, environmental
protection and social justice. Sustainable
development could only be achieved through
political changes at the local, national, and
international level.
8
Sustainable Tourism

• ? Sustainable tourism development meets the needs
  of present tourists and host regions while
  protecting and enhancing opportunity for the
  future. It is envisaged as leading to management
  of all resources in such a way that economic,
  social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled
  while maintaining cultural integrity, essential
  ecological processes, biological diversity, and
  life support systems. (Agenda 21 for the Travel
  and Tourism Industry)

? Sustainable tourism development is defined as
economic activities that meet certain criteria to
fulfil the needs of different stakeholders and
contribute to overall sustainable development.
(APEC, 1996 Elber, 1992 Milne, 1998 Bui, 2000)
9
From strategic planning point of view for
sustainable tourism development, and
environmental management Limited growth
and Ad hoc approaches focus more on small-scale
and less intensive tourism development strategy,
and sustainable tourism would be achieved by
developing on project to project.
Comprehensive and integrated approaches emphasize
on incorporation the integrated development
strategies of tourism. Sustainable tourism
development need a well-established institutional
framework for coordination and participation
among stakeholders (Smith, 1997 Bui, 2000) ?
Tourism is a complex phenomenon due to its
organization, administration, and the needs of
different stakeholders. In order to achieve
sustainability, tourism development has to
encompass a set of principles and management
methods that provides local economic viability in
ways that protect environment (Harrison, 1996
Welford et al, 1999)
10
Sustainable Tourism Principles

• ? Promotes conservation and sustainable use of
  natural, social, and cultural resources
• Reduces over-consumption and waste
• Favors small-scale, low impact facilities and
  services,
• Promotes appropriate tourism activities
• Enhances and maintains heritage and natural
  resources
• ? Supports local economy Reduces leakage by
  establishing linkages among local businesses
• Provides quality employment
• ? Uses responsible marketing Provides
  accurate information
• Encourages off-peak visitation,
• (Eber, 1992 Hunter, 1995 Mowforth and Munt,
  1998 WTO, 1998...)

11
Sustainable Tourism Principles from theory to
practice

• ? Recognize the limits to growth
• Balances economic, social, cultural and
  environmental objectives
• Responsible management of public goods and
  commons
• ? Long-term strategy
• Considers needs of present and future
  generations
• ? Concerned with equity and fairness
• Cost/benefit analysis includes costs and
  benefits to all stakeholders
• ? Integrates tourism development into local
  planning and management
• Includes stakeholders in
  decision-making
• (Eber, 1992 Hunter, 1995 Mowforth and Munt,
  1998 WTO, 1998...)

12

• ? Tourism will be a part of sustainable
  development, it includes three criteria
  
• (1) It is profitable
• (2) local participation
  and benefit
• (3) conservation of
  environment
• (OBrien, 2000)

13
Why Operationalization of sustainable tourism is
difficult?

• ? There are several inherent challenges in apply
  the principles of sustainability to the tourism
  industry poor infrastructure, weak enforcement
  of regulations, a lack of government incentive
  policy, (Milne, 1998 Milne and Ateljevic, 2001)
• ? Benefit-oriented tourism enterprises focus on
  their short-term benefit at expense of
  environmental quality and long-term
  sustainability (Hanson, 1994, WTO, 1998)
• ? Tourism enterprises are often aware of
  sustainable tourism principles, but it finds hard
  to accommodate these in their daily business
  (Wight, 1998 Vernon, et al. 2003,)
• ? Tourism business contains elements of public
  goods, environmental externalities

14

• ? A lack of well designed plans and effective
  instruments for environmental management will
  exacerbate environmental problem associated with
  tourism development (Walter Alix, 2000 Huybers
  and Bennett, 2002)
• ? Non-priced tourism resources ? Free Ride
  (tragedy of the commons) (Stabler, 1997)
• ? The importance of researching and
  understanding firm level characteristics,
  awareness and responses, and of understanding
  local eco-political contexts and sustainable
  tourism.

15

• ? Sustainable tourism is utopian many
  strategies fail
• Lack of information for planning,
  infrastructural weaknesses, weak legislative
  frameworks
• Lack, or weak implementation, of
  effective instruments for management
• Limited Involvement of tourism
  enterprises,
• (Hitchcock, et al.1993 Hunter, 1995, Milne,
  1998)
• Sustainable tourism development depends on how
  well it is planned and managed (Gunn, 1998
  Walter and Noble, 2000).
• ? The use of economic instruments can promote
  mitigation of the negative impacts of tourism
  enterprises and aid in achieving sustainable
  tourism development (Taylor, et al. 2003)

16
Economic Instruments and Sustainable Tourism

• (Taylor, et al, 2003 Vernon, et al., 2003)
• Economic Instruments can promote the
  internalization of environmental costs of
  enterprises in the most efficient manner.
• Application of economic instruments in tourism
  industry can enhance the capacity of government
  to deal with environmental and development
  issues, and influence business and consumption
  pattern.
• The use of Institutional Economics aims to reduce
  negative impacts from tourism development by
  driving the behaviour of tourism enterprises to
  the optimal use point of tourism resources.

17
Figure 1 Tourism enterprises and negative
externalities
P/C P
Equilibrium point at which enterprises maximize
the benefit (MC MB)
S MC
E
MEC
D MB
0 Qe Q
Q (visitor)
Negative externalities emerge when tourism
enterprises business activities exceeds the
carrying capacity of tourism resources and
environment
MC Marginal Cost Q Quantity of (tourist,
service) MEC Marginal External Cost
P Price/Cost
18
Figure 2 Negative externalities, social cost and
unsustainable tourism development
P/C Ps P
MSC MC MEC
Additional cost on communities and society
A
Es
S MC
E
MEC
D MB
0 Qe Qs Q
Q (visitor)
Qs Quantity (of Society) Ps Price or
Cost of Society MB Marginal Benefit
Qe Quantity at which externality emerged MSC
Marginal Social Cost
19
Sustainable tourism?
Behind the mask of sustainable tourism development
20

Tourism industry has been growing as largest
industry in the world economy
Risks in tourism development that need to be
studied
21
VIETNAM AND HUE CONTEXT
22
Research sites
Figure 3 Map of Vietnam and Thua Thien Hue
Province
23

• RESEARCH SITE
• ? Vietnam is developing country with
• 332,000 sq. km
• Over 83 million people
• GDP (ppp) US 2100
• ? Political Economic Contexts
• Under centrally planning mechanism, - Vietnam
  was cut off from flow of tourist from
  non-communist system,
• Developing country transitional political
  economics, from centrally planning mechanism to
  market economic system.
• ? Tourism Development
• In 1991, WTO in collaboration with the UNDP
  published a tourism development master strategy
  for Vietnam. Government increasingly recognized
  the importance of tourism as chicken laying
  golden egg
• ? Vietnamese Government and sustainable
  development
• Rapid, efficient and sustainable
  development, economic growth in combination with
  social progress, equity and environmental
  protection

24

• RESEARCH SITE (HTD, 2004)
• ? Hue City was recognized as tourism centre of
  Vietnam, famous destination and of great
  attractiveness to domestic and international
  tourists
• ? Tourism Competitiveness Diverse tangible and
  intangible cultural heritages, unspoiled forest,
  untouched beaches,
• ? In 2004, received over 1 million visitors in
  which 350,000 international tourists
• ? Annual growth rate of over 20 per annum in
  tourist arrivals
• Tourism industry made up 43.6 of Provincial GDP
  in 2004
• Hue government has made much effort to
  decentralize the tourism management, and
  diversify tourism products with the aim is to
  ensure the sustainable growth of tourism.

25
Hue City, Vietnam
26
Perfume River in Hue city
27
White Horse National Park in Hue city
28
A Part of imperial City in Hue
29
The main gate to imperial City in Hue
30
Visitors in Thien Mu pagoda in Hue
31
Tourists visit imperial city
32
Congestion in Beaches in Hue
33
Star Cruise arrives in Hue
34
Tourism enterprises in Hue
35
Tourism enterprises in Hue
36
Tourism enterprises in Hue
37
Tourism Resort in Hue
38
Figure 4 Visitor arrivals and Annual growth rate
of Vietnam
Figure 5 Visitor arrivals and Annual growth rate
in Hue
39
Table 1 List of economic instruments for
environmental management and application in
Vietnam (APEC, 1996 Panayotou, 1994)
40
Key instruments for environmental management in
tourism in Vietnam and Hue city (VNAT, 2002,
HTD, 2004)
? National Plan on Environment and Sustainable
Development ? Environmental Action Plan 2001
2010, ? National Tourism Action Program
2002-2005, Tourism Ordinance
41
A NEED FOR PLANNING.
42

• Adoption of sustainable tourism strategy
  requires economic instruments, however, in
  different political economic contexts, the extent
  and efficacy of using these measures will differ.
• Vernon et al. (2003), state that achieving
  sustainable tourism development is to refer to an
  approach that seeks to reduce the environmental
  impacts resulting from the operation of tourist
  business.
• ? There is a relative limited array of research
  on tourism enterprise awareness of measures,
  adoption, barriers and responses to these
  institutional practices

43

• RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES

44

• RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• 1. What is the size and character of the tourism
  industry in hue?
• 2. What is the political economic context that
  has driven tourism development in Hue city,
  Vietnam?
• 3. What institutional frameworks, and economic
  instruments are in place for environmental
  management and sustainable tourism development?
• 4. Do the current policies and plans
  incentivize/motivate tourist enterprises to use
  tourist resources in a more sustainable manner
  and adopt improved environmental management
  practices?
• 5. What are the barriers and attributes of
  tourist enterprises relevant to their response to
  these measures in environmental management?
• 6. How do the institutional and economic
  attributes of tourism enterprises affect their
  decision-making in environmental management and
  adoption of the sustainable tourism practices?

45
Research Objectives
? To enhance our understanding of the complex
relationship between the context of transitional
political economics and tourism enterprises
adoption of environmental management and
sustainable tourism practices. ? To acquire
valuable insights about tourism enterprise
attributes, awareness, barriers, and their
responses to the current implementation of
measures for environmental management and
adoption of sustainable tourism principles. ? The
study will also make a contribution to continuing
debates about sustainable tourism planning and
show how to improve the effective application of
economic instruments and environmental management
plans with business. ? To provide valuable
information that can assist the establishment of
a strategy for future tourism sustainable
development in Hue city (and elsewhere).
46
Research Design
47

• RESEARCH METHODS
• ? No research method is perfect, quantitative and
  qualitative methods are merely the tools for
  researchers to use as, and when appropriate
  (Gorard and Taylor, 2004)
• ? Both qualitative and quantitative methods are
  always becoming more powerful when researchers
  used in combination than isolation, and have
  stronger inferences that could not be answered in
  any other way (Abbas and Charles, 2003)
• ? Triangulation of various research methods will
  allow this study to capitalize on the advantages
  and address the weaknesses, of each approach
  (Milne and Ateljevic, 2003).
• ? Combination of different research methods will
  also help capture rich data, a greater diversity
  of divergent views about research topic.
• ? A major advantage of mixed method research is
  that it enables the researcher to simultaneously
  answer confirmatory and exploratory questions,
  and therefore verify and generate theory in the
  same study (Abbas and Charles, 2003, P 15)

48

• For researchers
• whichever method is employed it is important
  to remember that any information-gathering
  process must the tailored to the respondents so
  that it is acceptable to them and keep demand on
  them as low as possible.
• Respondents should be encouraged to supply
  information in such a way that their version of
  events of a given situation is expressed in terms
  of their understanding.

49
Figure 5 Triangulation of research methods

50

• First step
• ? Documentary Method
• Expected information
• Theoretical reviews of the study
• Information on the overall demography and
  development profile of tourism
• Information on regulation, legislative
  framework and economic instruments for
  environmental management
• Database on level of tourism resource use at
  macro level
• ? Delphi method
• Expected information
• Government officials, experts opinions and
  information about current environmental
  management and sustainable tourism development in
  Hue
• The impacts of political economic
  transformation, barriers, risks, and constraints,
  on configuration of tourism enterprises
  business, and implementation of environmental
  management from government level to tourism
  enterprises one.

51

• Second step
• ? Structured and semi-structure interviews
• Expected information
• Size, turnover, basic characteristics
• Tourist enterprises environmental awareness
  and adoption in their business
• Decision-making process and environmental
  management and sustainable tourism principles
• Attitudinal responses to current environmental
  management practices and institutional framework
• Barriers and Constraints in their adoption and
  performance of environmental management and
  sustainable tourism practices
• Impacts of the political economic
  transformation on the configuration of their
  tourism business and their awareness of
  environmental management and sustainable tourism
  business

52

• Third step
• ? Questionnaire Surveys (120 enterprises)
• Expected information
• Tourist enterprises economic and
  institutional attributes in relation with their
  adoption of these environmental management
  measures, and sustainable tourism practices
• The recognition of impacts of tourism
  enterprises activities on environmental
  problems, risks, and sustainable tourism
  practices
• Tourism enterprises actions in their daily
  business to reduce negative impacts on
  environment and social issues
• Tourism enterprises policy and planning in
  their business
• The profile of enterprises
• The profile of respondents

53

• ? The in depth case study.
• Expected information
• Tourism enterprises opinions about constraints
  and limiting factors in adoption of the economic
  instruments for environmental management and
  sustainable practices in the decision-making
  process in their daily business that cannot be
  managed and manipulated.
• DATA ANALYSIS
• ? Interviewed data will be re transcribed by
  recorder, and analyzed by key points
• ? Factor analysis will be employed to summarize
  the data from the questionnaire survey into
  manageable format so as to identify the major
  attributes of enterprises in relation with
  environmental management and sustainable tourism
  practice
• ? Statistical data analysis techniques will be
  applied to analyze data, and test special
  relations and hypothesis (Techniques of ANOVA
  analysis, T- Test, and Chi-square, ...)

54

• Problems anticipated
• ? Sensitive issues and data collection
• ? Resources for study (NZTRI, AUT, Hue
  University)
• ? Research Assistants (The amount of work will be
  done by research assistant)

55

Study like counting stars in the sky. The more
you count, the more are waiting to be count