I. INTRODUCTION
1. Urgency of the thesis topic
In a country with rich and diverse tourism potential and very favorable for tourism development, in recent years, Vietnam Tourism has developed rapidly and is gradually becoming an important economic sector. With a high and stable annual growth rate, tourism is becoming a key economic sector of the country. In the process of international economic integration of the country, Vietnam Tourism is facing an important turning point to have a period of strong and breakthrough development.
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As enterprises operating in the foreign economic sector, Vietnam's international travel enterprises are having great opportunities but at the same time are and will have to face disadvantages brought about by the integration process. Fully and accurately perceiving the opportunities and challenges of the integration process in general and joining the WTO in particular as well as the competitiveness of international travel enterprises in order to have timely measures to adapt effectively is an urgent task for Vietnam Tourism as well as international travel enterprises.
How Vietnam's official membership in the WTO with relatively open commitments in the tourism sector will impact domestic travel businesses is a matter of great concern today. Obviously, joining the WTO will bring domestic travel companies many opportunities to expand their markets, increase resources and develop their business activities in both scale and quality. However, making the best use of these opportunities is not an easy task.
easy for Vietnamese travel businesses. After foreign travel companies are allowed to operate in Vietnam, will Vietnamese travel businesses be able to stand firm against the increasing competitive pressure ? The current competitiveness of travel businesses and what these businesses must do to strengthen and enhance their competitiveness are issues that need to be carefully studied.
Opportunities and challenges as well as the competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises after Vietnam became an official member of the WTO have been discussed and mentioned regularly. Many studies, surveys and assessments on this issue in many fields have been carried out. However, such a study on Vietnam's tourism activities in general as well as domestic international travel businesses is still open. Therefore, the thesis has conducted a study on "The competitiveness of Vietnamese international travel businesses after Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO)" to contribute to solving the problems that Vietnam's tourism practices are posing.
2. Purpose and research tasks of the thesis
The purpose of the thesis is to contribute to improving the competitiveness of international travel businesses after Vietnam becomes an official member of the WTO.
With the orientation of researching the competitiveness of Vietnam's international travel businesses in practical aspects according to both quantitative and qualitative approaches, the thesis will proceed to solve the following main research tasks:
- Identify the factors that make up the competitiveness of an international travel business.
- Build a system of indicators and models to determine the competitiveness of an international travel business.
- Analyze the current competitive environment of international travel businesses in Vietnam.
- Assess the competitiveness of international travel businesses in Vietnam in the current period.
- Analyze the impacts of Vietnam's accession to the WTO on the competitiveness of international travel businesses.
- Propose solutions and recommendations to contribute to improving the competitiveness of Vietnam's international travel businesses after Vietnam joins the WTO.
3. Subject and scope of the thesis research
- The main research object of the thesis is the competitiveness of international travel businesses in Vietnam, focusing mainly on the activity of welcoming international tourists to Vietnam (inbound).
- Scope of the thesis research:
o In terms of space : Covers the entire territory of Vietnam but is concentrated in major tourist centers such as Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.
o In terms of time : The thesis conducted a survey and collected primary data in the period from 2006 - 2008 and used secondary data in the period from 1997 - 2008. The thesis's proposals and solutions are meaningful in the period from 2009 - 2015, with a vision to 2020.
4. Research methods
4.1. General methods
The thesis uses dialectical materialism as a comprehensive guiding foundation for research issues. Accordingly, the thesis is carried out on the basis of combining qualitative and quantitative research. The basic research methods used in the thesis include:
- Methods of document research, sociological investigation, and field surveys in collecting and building a primary database system for the topic.
- Methods of mathematical statistics, econometrics and systems analysis in data analysis and processing.
- Methods of description, analysis, comparison, contrast, and logical reasoning in presenting, analyzing, and evaluating the current state of operations of the system of international travel companies in Vietnam.
- Expert methods to filter and complete the research results of the topic.
4.2. Specific methods
Currently, the study of business competitiveness is often approached quantitatively and is divided into two main directions: determining the trade competitiveness index - BCI (Michael
E. Porter, 2003) [35] of the entire enterprise system of a country or calculating the competitiveness index of enterprises according to the value chain model . The BCI index is meaningful in assessing the competitiveness of the enterprise system of a country and has been studied annually through the Global Competitiveness Report - GCR. Therefore, the thesis will use the method of calculating the competitiveness index applied to the
Vietnam's international travel businesses follow Michael E. Porter's value chain model .
Enterprise Infrastructure Human Resource Management
Technology Development
Purchase
Profit
profit
Pandemic
service
Inbound Logistics
Operate
Output logistics
Marketing and sales
SUPPORTING ACTIVITIES
PRIMARY ACTIVITIES
Diagram 1. General value chain model of M. Porter [7, 76]
To use this model, the thesis will conduct a sample survey on about 20 to 40 international travel businesses in Vietnam over a period of 24 months. The survey sample will be distributed according to the criteria of scale, type and area of operation of international travel businesses in Vietnam. At the same time, the thesis also uses secondary data of the industry and in-depth interview methods to filter the research results.
After collecting and analyzing the survey results, the thesis will calculate the competitiveness index of international travel businesses in Vietnam. Through the construction of a competitiveness regression function with the surveyed criteria, the thesis will point out the factors that create strengths and weaknesses in the competitiveness of these businesses.
5. Contribution of the thesis
- Build a system of factors that make up the competitiveness of an international travel business based on M.Porter's value chain model.
- Forming a system of evaluation criteria and calculation methods for the competitiveness of an international travel business.
- Survey and calculate the indicators that make up the competitiveness of international travel businesses in current conditions in Vietnam.
- Calculate and provide the competitiveness index (TBCI) of international travel businesses in Vietnam.
- Construct a regression function showing the relationship between the travel competitiveness index (TBCI) and the indicators that make up the competitiveness of international travel businesses in Vietnam.
- Based on regression analysis and business survey results, the current competitive situation as well as the strengths and weaknesses of international travel businesses in Vietnam are shown.
- Using secondary industry data systems and qualitative methods to indicate the impacts of WTO accession on the competitiveness of Vietnam's international travel businesses.
- Based on the results of calculations and analysis, the topic will propose solutions and recommendations to improve the competitiveness of Vietnam's international travel businesses after Vietnam joins the WTO.
6. History of research problem
Regarding the issue of international economic integration and Vietnam's accession to the WTO, the number of studies is very large and very diverse, from the accession procedures and conditions of the WTO ( Phan Thanh Pho , Vietnam and the process of joining the World Trade Organization , National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2005 ; Bernard Hoekman (editor), Handbook on trade development and the WTO, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2004 ; Nhiem Tuyen (China), WTO: Basic principles, Social Sciences Publishing House, Hanoi, 2003...) ; issues on liberalization of trade in services ( National Committee for International Economic Cooperation, Overview of issues on liberalization of trade in services, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2005... ); Vietnam's WTO commitments ( Nguyen Thi Thu Trang (editor), Business handbook on WTO and Vietnam's WTO commitments, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2009... ) to the opportunities and challenges of Vietnamese enterprises and economy after joining the WTO ( Do Hoai Nam, Le Dang Doanh, Vo Tri Thanh, Vietnamese enterprises with WTO accession, Social Sciences Publishing House, Hanoi, 2005 ; Pham Quang Thao, Nguyen Kim Dung, Nghiem Quy Hao , Vietnam joins the World Trade Organization: Opportunities and challenges, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2005 )...
It can be said that research and information about the WTO and the process of Vietnam joining this organization have been presented fully and in detail, specifically in many works. The impacts of Vietnam becoming an official member of the WTO on domestic enterprises have also been thoroughly studied and dissected in a large number of research works from the national level to the industry level. From a general perspective, these studies all indicate that joining the WTO, domestic enterprises will have opportunities and conditions to expand their markets and develop resources.
(management, technology, human resources and capital...)... in a more favorable business environment, at the same time, Vietnamese enterprises also have to face challenges from protection restrictions, resource drain to barriers as well as strong competitive pressures in both the international and domestic markets. In general, the content of these studies all mention or aim to improve the competitiveness of domestic enterprises in order to make good use of the opportunities brought by the WTO as well as for Vietnamese enterprises to be able to survive and develop in new business conditions.
In fact, the issue of enterprise competitiveness is of great interest and has been studied quite widely. These studies span both theoretical and practical aspects.
In terms of theoretical research, studies on competition have been mentioned quite a lot. The classical competition school was founded on the theory of A. Smith and D. Ricardo and then Marx with the Surplus Value Theory . The modern competition school was initiated by M. Keynes's General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1963) and then developed into the construction of competitive market economic models such as perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly... [14].
By the 80s of the 20th century, the trend of international economic globalization, the development of the theory of competitive advantage and the study of competitiveness focused on the study of factors that constitute competitiveness and indicators for evaluating the competitiveness of enterprises. A typical representative of these theoretical studies is Michael E. Porter, a professor at Harvard University. He is the one who proposed the criteria