tourism-related organizations can understand the behavior of other tourists in the future, all with the aim of attracting tourists to that destination. This is of interest to the author because it helps us improve the business efficiency of the enterprise; or, improve the professional service of the state...
Thus, we can see that tourist behavior includes destination selection, subsequent evaluation, and future behavioral intention (Chen and Tsai, 2007). However, travel decision making is considered to be a very complex and difficult to predict phenomenon (Chien et al., 2012; Lam and Hsu, 2006). On the other hand, behavioral intention does not always lead to successful implementation of a behavior (Conner and Armitage, 1998). In addition, Bagozzi (1992), also argued that the observed variables stated in the models, such as the theory of planned behavior, are necessary, but not sufficient determinants of behavior. Therefore, continuing to study tourist behavior in the future can be said to be very necessary and topical for the issue of further development of the tourism industry.
5.1.2 Novelty and contributions of the thesis
5.1.2.1 Contribution to the research model of intention to return to tourist destinations
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The theory and practice of customer behavior in general, and tourist behavior in particular, are extremely important for businesses and state management agencies in the tourism sector to be able to meet tourists' expectations in order to develop tourism effectively, contributing to promoting economic development. Although there are many theories that can be applied to study tourist behavior, the TPB theory of planned behavior can still be considered "a useful theoretical approach" (Sparks and Pan, 2009) to predict tourists' intention to choose a tourist destination.
This thesis has conducted research on the possibility of expanding the application of the theory of planned behavior TPB to predict the intention to return to tourist destinations of tourists. Through the overview, the author has identified the gap that has not been researched, specifically the thesis has built and proposed a research hypothesis. This is the basis for the author to continue to propose a new theoretical framework for researching factors affecting the intention to return to tourist destinations. This new research model of
The thesis is expected to better explain tourists' intention to revisit tourist destinations, in the case of three provinces: Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang.
5.1.2.2 Practical contributions
(1) Firstly, the author has reviewed 83 tourism research documents with topics related to the intention to revisit a tourist destination (including 48 international studies and 35 studies in Vietnam), articles published in the period from 1989 to 2021. Through synthesis and analysis, the author has summarized the main research approaches (07 approaches that many domestic and foreign scholars are interested in) and established a framework to summarize previous studies on this topic.
(2) Second, through practical and theoretical assessments, the author recognizes the potential for national tourism development in general and the Mekong Delta in particular (especially the three adjacent southwestern coastal provinces of the Hau River: Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang), so the issue of researching the tourism sector in these localities through visitors' assessments will help interested parties have a more comprehensive source of reference materials for the current status of tourism activities in the localities.
(3) Third, the issue of studying tourist behavior towards tourist destinations has been studied by many scholars. However, if the study is conducted in the tourism context of the three provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang, it will also contribute to supplementing and developing the theory of tourist behavior and in the practice of local tourism development. At the same time, this study can also be a reference channel for tourist behavior towards a destination in a developing tourism market (Vietnam) compared to markets with strong tourism development such as: Europe, America, Asia...
(4) Fourth, the study also proposed some specific management implications for state management agencies, businesses and relevant individuals... to gain more understanding of tourists' perceptions of existing destinations, in order to focus on enhancing the value of destination resources, satisfaction and intention to return to tourist destinations in the three provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang.
5.2 MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
5.2.1 Basis for proposing managerial implications
The results of the thesis show some evidence of the relationship between factors affecting tourists' intention to return to a tourist destination: the case of 3 provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang (Vietnam) is formed from the following groups of factors, including: (1) Subjective norms; (2) Perceived behavioral control; (3) Destination image of access to resources and resources; (4) Destination image of quality and reputation; and (5) Tourist satisfaction. All of these groups of factors have a positive influence on their intention to return to travel based on the data collected and analyzed by the author. The results of the thesis can show some practical managerial implications as follows.
5.2.2 System of administrative implications
5.2.2.1 Management implications for tourism businesses
As discussed in the previous chapter, attitude is the first and most important antecedent of behavioral intention. Attitude is an individual’s positive or negative belief about performing a particular behavior. Once an attitude is formed about an action or event, the attitude leads to the formation of behavioral intention related to that action (Ajzen, 1991). Although the research results have rejected the hypothesis that attitude (AT) has a positive influence on destination revisit intention (the research results suggest that attitude toward the destination does not influence their revisit intention).
However, in my personal opinion, the author finds that an individual will intend to perform a certain behavior when they evaluate the issue positively or negatively and also agrees with the TPB theory that attitude has a direct impact on behavioral intention. Businesses operating in the tourism sector such as restaurants, hotels, travel agencies, transportation, etc., in addition to the internal factors of the business being very good (such as having a good business strategy, management model, etc.), for the external market, if the business has a basic understanding of the psychological characteristics of a tourist, there will be many opportunities to increase revenue by understanding their main needs for the type of business that the business serves: for example: good service makes it easier to sell goods (products/services) and can be better word of mouth.
On the other hand, reality shows that when first visiting a destination, tourists often tend to consult others or through many information channels. For example: acquaintances, friends, family, local residents; or, ask for advice from employees of their own business; or, media channels... for where to go, what to buy, what to do when arriving at this place. This problem is like a loop, the travel experience at destinations in order from one person to another over time. For the experience of the previous person, it is the experience that the next person learns from. This has suggested to those working in tourism that even if the service to the first person is not good, the next person still knows whether the quality of service of their unit is good or bad. Therefore, tourism professionals need to be consistent in the quality of their business and continually improve this consistency. Or more simply, if everyone speculates that a destination is bland or has unclear prices, or is "ripping off" tourists, then the next person will still believe it. Therefore, in folklore, there has been a saying "bad news travels fast" to reflect a psychological state of society.
5.2.2.2 Management implications for local tourism management agencies
In the tourism sector, satisfaction and behavioral intention to revisit a tourist destination are indicators of a tourist's relative willingness and commitment to revisit a previous destination, and this intention may also take into account the intention to recommend the destination to friends and relatives back home.
In the minds of tourists, the image of a destination seems to be an impression of a place that they think of. In general, the attributes that help determine the image of a destination perceived by tourists can include the following components: accessibility, rich tourism resources, or favorable weather or just a destination with quality food and accommodation and a reputation for culture-history, tourist atmosphere or good tourism environment... Thus, depending on the location, geography, culture-society characteristics of each locality, the tourism management agency or local government can target the core elements of the destination in the most effective way, or more specifically, it must determine which type of tourism industry is specific to their locality that attracts tourists and is most effective for the locality. The most typical example is that Quang Ninh Province has many conditions
favorable for both tourism development and mining industry development. If priority is given to mining industry development, tourism will be affected by environmental pollution due to smoke, dust, etc. and vice versa. Therefore, the issue here is only choice and “trade-off” - a good and important topic in economics.
From the perspective of state management, the locality is the subject that has the most potential to make the destination image gain many good feelings from tourists, through planning and investment in tourist destinations; through logistics that are always ready such as: quick support for tourists (medical, security, etc.); or, close cooperation with other related subjects: for example, the state's interest in tourism, in addition to investing in tourist destinations, needs to pay attention to what specialties they will enjoy, where the entertainment space is, or, how large passenger car parking is, how fast or slow the assistance is... For a more specific example, when travel companies bring tour groups to the locality, if only talking about finding a place to park 40-seat passenger cars (large) in the inner city, they encounter many difficulties, because private accommodation establishments cannot arrange parking areas at the enterprise or rent parking outside. In fact, state management agencies have not yet had a plan for arranging locations (or renting locations) for parking large and small tourist vehicles. Thus, during the peak tourist season, this issue really puts a lot of pressure on relevant entities in the local tourism sector.
5.2.2.3 Management implications for tourism development policy makers
In 2022, looking at the world as a whole, there are still many unpredictable developments: terrorism and war are still taking place in some continents; the Covid 19 infectious disease is still there, data shows that although the number of cases and deaths has decreased due to vaccination coverage, this is still a very new disease; natural disasters continue to occur; economic competition between countries is always present... All of these issues, more or less, still affect world tourism activities in general, and in Vietnam in particular.
In fact, the development of tourism in our country in recent times still has many limitations and shortcomings. Tourism products have not created special attraction. Small and medium-sized enterprises... or the number of workers who are fluent in foreign languages is still low (Hong Quyen, 2018). In a narrow scope, developing the tourism economy will continue to be the strategic goal of
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national, therefore all activities directly or indirectly related to the tourism industry must be carried out through the conscious activities of the state, businesses and local people. In particular, the role of the state is extremely important to orient the development or minimize the negative impacts of tourism economic activities, which contributes to strongly promoting the development of other industries and fields, at the same time, maximizing the contribution of tourism to the economy, creating jobs and improving the quality of life of people to make Vietnam a truly attractive destination, with increasing prestige in the international tourism market. Perhaps, without tourist destinations, many localities would have nothing attractive to attract people to visit, experience and explore their land, which would lose the exchange, cooperation and development of that locality, country or region.
5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE THESIS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
In the field of tourism, research topics can be said to be very diverse and have many different approaches, with many contents such as: tourist behavior, behavior of individuals and organizations related to tourism, natural resources, tourism business activities or tourism management methods... With such generality, to carry out his doctoral thesis, in the process of researching tourism, with the orientation of researching the issue of tourist behavior, the author only stopped at studying the factors affecting the intention to return to tourist destinations of tourists in these 3 provinces.
Through preliminary assessment of the thesis, the author also recognized some limitations in the process.
research implementation process, specifically as follows:
Firstly, in the process of surveying tourists in these localities, the author had to divide the data collection into many batches and could not do it in the same batch. The author would like to draw experience for other studies in the future. Due to a number of objective and subjective reasons, such as: encountering many difficulties due to some limitations in ensuring disease prevention. On the other hand, the research budget is low, so it is impossible to hire a large number of support personnel for the survey, so it may not be possible to collect samples in a timely and sufficient number in many other locations.
Second, from December 2019 to now, the Covid-19 acute respiratory infection epidemic has broken out globally, and the country has also been affected.
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with many levels of disease control depending on the actual situation (isolation, restriction of crowded activities, restriction of some commercial and service activities, etc.). Therefore, the number of international and domestic tourists at tourist destinations cannot be as vibrant and crowded as before. It can be said that the interviewees are not diverse (in terms of nationality, region, gender, age, education, occupation, etc.), the number of tourists at each time is also different due to the epidemic situation, on the other hand, the participation of tourists in answering the interview is also difficult because some tourists are not enthusiastic. The author had to spend a lot of effort to approach the right interviewees so that the research sample is objective. In some situations, tourists want to be answered later because they do not have time, so the author also has to collect data via Zalo, Facebook, email, etc. (tourists answer and take photos and send them back to the author).
Third, the author's research area is the three provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang. Tourism activities in these localities have not been invested in a synchronous manner, both from the business side (hotel facilities, restaurants, game areas, souvenirs, service level...) or from the state side (traffic system, parking lots, means of transport, planning of new tourist destinations, state management methods...), so the role of promoting tourism development to other areas is not clear, this may affect the positive or negative feelings of tourists when interviewing tourists at a certain tourist destination.
Fourth, the thesis has implemented a research model applied to all three provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang without applying each research model to one province for comparison. This can be explained that, when choosing these three provinces, it is only intended to be a "representative sample" for the research area to serve the purpose of selecting primary data samples, but does not expect to analyze the difference in tourists' perception between these three provinces, because in reality, with the geographical proximity, the tourist destinations in the Mekong Delta can be said to have similarities with each other, it will be difficult to create a difference for tourists. This is also a limitation of the thesis, the author was not proactive from the beginning of the model building, not including the variable "location" according to the three provinces into the model.
Fifth, in the qualitative study of building a scale of factors, based on the research model, the author carried out the process of building a scale and had
consulted the opinions of experts working in many different fields and related to the research topic of the thesis, such as: state management agencies in the field of tourism, tourism enterprises, training institutions, service staff at destinations and tourists. According to the author's assessment, these are experts with full professional knowledge and working experience, so they will be very helpful in discussing the content of building the research scale. However, in practical research, due to time constraints and working relationships, the author has not had time to ask for opinions from many experts in many units (tourism management agencies at the ministerial and industry levels; tourism management agencies in Bac Lieu and Soc Trang; travel businesses; tourism transport businesses; media businesses, press agencies, training institutions, researchers, etc.).
With some limitations presented above, the author also has some suggestions for further studies in the field of tourist behavior towards a destination, specifically: (1) It is possible to re-examine the research model of this thesis in different regional contexts: the North, Central, South; or spatial contexts: mountainous areas, coastal areas and islands... to increase the ability to generalize; (2) Re-examine this model but the survey subjects are international tourists, for example: Western tourists to Vietnam or Asian tourists to Vietnam...; (3) Re-examine this model but apply and compare in different localities; or, (4) Eliminate, add some new factors, increase the number of survey samples or new research methods, or the influence of global risks such as: terrorism, epidemics affecting tourists' intentions.