Environmental competitiveness of Hai Duong tourism destination

Institute of Southeast Asian studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, no.1 Lieu Giai str., Ba Dinh district, Hanoi, 10000, Vietnam

^* Corresponding author: xuantung23992@gmail.com

Abstract

Located in the northern economic focal region, Hai Duong is one of the cultural and spiritual centers of Vietnam. Hai Duong is not only favored with beautiful natural sceneries such as Con Son, Kiep Bac, Kinh Chu, An Phu, ... but it also owns priceless cultural and historical assets such as traditional festivals, historical relics, and folk songs, etc… This diversity allows Hai Duong to develop different types of eco-tourism. However, there are many hinderances to Hai Duong in making tourism the key economic sector. The province has failed to determine its own direction of tourism development, leading to ineffective investment in tourist attraction sites. Insufficient promotion of local tourist attractions also make the tourism products offered non-unique. These problems reduce destination competitiveness of the province. Based on theories of destination competitiveness, this article evaluated the current status of tourism destination competitiveness in Hai Duong province on a number of criteria, then suggesting recommendations, solutions to improve the competitiveness of the province in the new development period.