Sustainable tourism destination management - Some theoretical issues and management suggestions

UNWTO, 2007)
According to this model, DMOs 
are in charge of working with partners to 
build a tourism destination management 
plan in order to:
- Welcoming, serving and bringing 
satisfaction to tourists; 
- Building a prosperous and profi t-
able tourism industry; 
- Attracting participation and bene-
fi ting local communities from tourism ac-
tivities; 
- Protecting and strengthening the 
indegenous environment and culture. 
This model is also used to quickly 
examine the sustainability of tourist des-
tination management plans. Accordingly, 
four questions will be asked to test the 
level of sustainability of the management 
decisions or proposed policies. They are:
- How will this decision/ policy af-
fect the tourists?
- How will these activities aff ect 
tourism business organizations?
- How will these activities aff ect the 
local community?
- How will these activities aff ect the 
natural environment / indigenous culture 
of the tourist destination?
If it is not possible to give a positive 
answer to all four questions above, the 
balance of benefi ts between socio-eco-
nomic- environmental factors has not 
been achieved and therefore the deci-
sions or proposed activities certainly does 
not guarantee sustainability. Hence, in 
parallel with the planning, principles of 
sustainable tourism development should 
always be considered throughout the des-
tination management process to ensure 
the sustainability of tourism activities in 
the destination. In which, the principles 
of sustainable tourism development are 
clearly specifi ed in Article 4 of the Viet-
nam Tourism Law 2017:
- Developing sustainable tourism, 
following the strategy, planning in focus.
- Developing tourism in association 
with conserving and promoting the values 
of national cultural heritages and natural 
resources, exploiting the advantages of 
each locality and strengthening the re-
gional connectivities.
- Ensuring national sovereignty, na-
tional defense, security, social order and 
safety; expanding foreign relationships 
and international integrations, promoting 
the images of the country and people of 
Vietnam.
- Ensuring national interests, com-
munity interests, legitimate rights and in-
terests of tourists, tourism business orga-
nizations and individuals.
- Simultaneously developing do-
mestic and international tourism; respect-
ing and treating tourists equally.
45Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion
3.3. Some suggestions for sustain-
able tourism destination management 
3.3.1. Raising awareness of sustain-
able tourism management
 Perception determines action. 
Therefore, in order for developing tour-
ism in a sustainabe way, DMOs need to 
raise awareness about the sustainability of 
tourism activities for: tourists, local com-
munities and other tourism business orga-
nizations. Activities of raising awareness 
can vary from person to person, depend-
ing on the approach, but they should aim 
at raising awareness of the roles and im-
portances of sustainable tourism develop-
ment through proposing Do’s and Don’ts 
for each stakeholder when participating in 
tourism activities at the destination. And 
when the awareness of the implications 
develops, visitors, local communities and 
tourism business organizations will be 
able to practice participating in tourism in 
a responsible and responsive way to real-
ize the sustainable development goals for 
the tourism destination development.
3.3.2. Preserving natural and cul-
tural values
The natural and cultural values have 
been associated with the local community 
in the tourist destination for a long time. 
This is also the material to create tourism 
products and services for tourists to expe-
rience. Therefore, the preservation of nat-
ural and cultural values is not only one of 
the core strategies to help tourism destina-
tions preserve their indigenous values, but 
also help ensure the local tourism resourc-
es are exploited responsibly.
In addition to create a suitable legal 
corridor for the protection and manage-
ment of natural and cultural values that 
cater to tourism, tourism destination man-
agement organizations can directly sup-
port tourist destinations in the preserva-
tion, restoration and degradation of these 
values. The conservation of natural and 
cultural values should be consulted with 
professional bodies prior to implementa-
tion to ensure the intact conservation of 
inherent values but can still be exploited 
eff ectively for tourism activities at the 
destination.
In addition, tourism destination 
management organizations can socialize 
activities to protect and promote the nat-
ural and cultural values of the locality 
through mobilizing capital from organi-
zations, unions, businesses, communities 
and aid from international organizations, 
governmental organizations, and non-gov-
ernmental organizations for the conserva-
tion and promotion of natural and cultural 
values.
3.3.3. Minimize the impact of sea-
sonality in tourism
Seasonality in tourism is a common 
rule in all countries and regions where 
tourism is active. Tourism seasonality is a 
repetitive fl uctuation in the supply and de-
mand of tourism services and goods that 
occurs under the infl uence of certain fac-
tors. Tourism season is a period of a busi-
ness cycle, where there is the highest con-
centration of tourism supply and demand.
Seasonality in tourism creates the 
main season and off -season in tourism. 
In the main season, when the demand for 
tourism increases, the number of tourists 
concentrating in the winter destination 
will stimulate the demand for consump-
46 Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion
tion and purchase of tourism products and 
services at the destination. This has a direct 
impact in promoting the business of local 
tourism business organizations, providing 
more job opportunities for the local com-
munity, thereby increasing income, con-
tributing to part of improving the quality 
of life of indigenous people. Meanwhile, 
during the low season (off -season), a de-
crease in the number of tourists arriving at 
the destination will give tourism resources 
time to recover, and have opportunities for 
infrastructure and technical infrastructure 
renovated and newly built.
However, in addition to the posi-
tive impacts, tourism seasonality also has 
adverse eff ects on all participants in the 
tourism process, including: local com-
munities, local authorities, tourists and 
tourism business organizations. For local 
communities, during the main season, 
when the demand for tourism is too large, 
it causes an imbalance and instability in 
the transport and infrastructure system, 
technical infrastructure social (traffi c, 
electricity, water, commercial network 
...), aff ecting the daily life of local people. 
In the off season, the demand for tourism 
decreases, the seasonal contractors will be 
unemployed and full-time employees also 
have lower income in the low season. In 
addition, the seasonality in tourism also 
creates negative impacts on local authori-
ties because when the demand for tourism 
is too large, it will cause many imbalanc-
es for the protection of public order and 
security of subsistence. At a certain ex-
tent, the seasonality causes diffi culties for 
state management of tourism activities (at 
the central and local levels). Meanwhile, 
when the demand for tourism decreases, 
the income from taxes and fees brought 
in by tourism also decreases. In addition, 
seasonality in tourism also has a signifi -
cant impact on tourists when participating 
in tourism activities locally. In the main 
season, the number of tourists is crowded, 
the capacity of the destination falls into 
an alarming situation, which will aff ect 
the quality of service provided to visitors, 
thereby greatly aff ecting the experience of 
tourists there. There are also adverse im-
pacts on tourism businesses because sea-
sonality is shown when tourism demand 
increases to a level that exceeds the sup-
ply capacity of tourism businesses. This 
causes an impact on all aspects of busi-
ness activities, especially the quality of 
tourism services, on the organization and 
use of tourism human resources.
Therefore, fi nding ways to prolong 
the tourist season is an eff ective solution to 
minimize the seasonal impact of tourism. 
However, in order to prolong the tourist 
season, it is necessary to look for specifi c 
solutions to improve the attractiveness of 
the destination at extended times. Some of 
the things that need to be considered to de-
termine a destination’s ability to extend the 
tourist season include: Determining which 
type of tourism is suitable to develop over 
an extended period and the possibility of 
combining some diff erent types of tourism 
during that time, determine the value and 
availability of the destination’s tourism 
resources, determine the reception capaci-
ty of tourism facilities and techniques, de-
termine the availability Labor resources, 
research organization experience of other 
domestic and world destinations. After 
determining the potential for prolongation 
of the tourism season, tourism destination 
47Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion
management organizations need to deter-
mine what types of tourism can be devel-
oped.
In addition, the readiness to welcome 
tourists all year round for tourist destina-
tions can be enhanced by improving the 
quality and improving the infrastructure 
and facilities - tourism techniques, creating 
interest to better meet the diverse needs of 
visitors. At the same time, tourism desti-
nation management organizations should 
encourage the activeness of tourism busi-
ness organizations in prolonging the tour-
ism season, such as using discounts and 
promotions to stimulate tourists to travel 
outside the main season.
3.3.4. Minimize negative environ-
mental impacts from tourism
Tourism development can bring 
positive impacts to the environment such 
as contributing to enhancing environmen-
tal values, improving environmental qual-
ity or improving people’s understanding 
of the environment in general. . However, 
tourism without good control can also be-
come a cause of problems with wastewa-
ter, waste, air pollution and environmental 
landscape.
Here are some tips to help tourism 
destination management organizations 
control the negative environmental im-
pacts of tourism:
- Determination of destination ca-
pacity: Determining the destination’s 
capacity including mechanical capacity, 
ecological capacity, and social capacity to 
ensure the activities of tourists are with-
in the “ endure “the tourist destination”, 
do not signifi cantly aff ect the daily life of 
the local community, do not pollute the 
environment but still ensure the economic 
benefi ts obtained from tourism activities.
- Control of transport vehicles in 
service of tourism: Emission from trans-
port vehicles for tourism is one of the 
main causes of environmental pollution. 
Therefore, destination management or-
ganizations need to rely on the pollution 
level of each type of vehicle to determine 
the types of vehicles that are allowed to 
circulate for tourism as well as identify 
should be limited to minimize the level of 
environmental pollution.
- Develop a set of guidelines for the 
implementation of regulations on waste 
and wastewater treatment from tourism 
business establishments into the environ-
ment. At the same time, strongly imple-
ment the handling of violations of regu-
lations.
- Label “eco”, label “green” for 
tourism products and services meeting the 
requirements of environmental protection 
to encourage organizations to do business 
in a sustainable direction.
3.3.5. Increase participation of lo-
cal communities in tourism
Ensuring the benefi ts of local com-
munities when participating in tourism 
is one of the fundamental goals of sus-
tainable tourism development. However, 
local communities can only benefi t the 
most from tourism when they participate 
in the provision of products and services 
for tourism activities locally. Therefore, 
increasing the participation of local com-
munities in tourism is essential to ensure 
sustainable tourism development at the 
destination.
Some suggestions for increasing 
48 Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion
local community participation in tourism 
include:
- Organize training to raise awareness 
of local communities on tourism;
- Organize training to improve tourist 
service skills for local community;
- Enabling local communities to par-
ticipate in decision-making in destination 
tourism development strategies;
- Supporting preferential loans for 
households who have the desire and abil-
ity to participate in activities to provide 
products and services for tourists;
- Support to connect customer markets 
to increase the effi ciency of business ac-
tivities of local communities...
The role of tourism destination man-
agement organizations is of utmost im-
portance in ensuring the sustainable de-
velopment of tourism in the destination. 
This role cannot be eff ectively realized 
without the coordination of stakeholders 
in tourism. Therefore, it is very important 
to coordinate all stakeholders involved in 
tourism activities at the destination in the 
overall development of the tourism desti-
nation in a sustainable direction.
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 Author Address: Faculty of Tourism - Hanoi 
Open University
Email: giangvh@hou.edu.vn