Coming of Age: The Rise of American Inbound Tourism in Vietnam (Hospitality, Tourism and Marketing Studies)

Vietnam has transformed itself, and it is increasingly playing a significant role in global and regional issues. The country is proud of its long-standing cultural traditions and charming landscapes. The history and development of Vietnam has produced a legacy of grand culture, history and artistic heritage yielding strong tourism attractions. Moreover, the strength of Vietnam also lies in its location in relation to neighbouring international gateways. This provides opportunities for the country to develop an intra-regional tourism strategy. Nonetheless, as a tourist destination, Vietnam came late to the American market and remains relatively underdeveloped. During previous decades, the borders of Vietnam were closed to American citizens. However, the re-establishment of diplomatic ties between America and Vietnam has initiated a new era of commercial and cultural relations as well as in tourism between the two nations. The military connection provides Vietnam with some prospect of building tourism. Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, motivated by nostalgia or curiosity about how things have changed, may be interested in revisiting Vietnam. The country has a plethora of sites from the War that are of interest not just to veterans, but also to all others interested in the Vietnamese culture and history as well as its beautiful landscapes. Conversely, the US market is extremely complex and heterogeneous, and the potential market for Vietnam is a relatively small subset of all travelers. Likewise, despite the strong historical and cultural links between Vietnam and the US, until now there has been little focus on Vietnam as a holiday destination for American travelers and there are only few works apropos of tourism marketing on how to acquire an increasing market share from US inbound tourism to Vietnam. As a result, there is a need to conduct systematic research to fill the gaps that exist in our knowledge of American tourists to Vietnam. This book investigates American tourists perceptions and their level of satisfaction during their holiday in Vietnam, and attempts to fill a gap in literature on American inbound pleasure travel to Vietnam. With a goal of identifying the extent to which Vietnam provides the destination attributes sought by American tourists, this book uses a variety of variables including socio-demographics, travel characteristics and behavioural intentions. In addition to its academic significance, this research done by the authors should provide tourism service providers and destination marketers with improved insights into the behaviour and characteristics of American tourists. The findings from this study should also provide important information that can be used in the future planning and management for the American and Vietnamese tourism industries, allowing wholesale and retail travel agents to improve levels of service and develop appropriate products to meet the expectations of the American travel market.