Group of Research Projects on Assessment of Geographical Conditions and Tourism Resources

Although it appeared late, the concept of sustainable tourism development has quickly spread and been applied to meet current needs without compromising the ability to meet future tourism needs.

1.2.1.2 Group of research works on assessment of geographical conditions and tourism resources

- In the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries

In the late 1960s, especially in the former Soviet Union, many projects began to appear to assess geographical conditions and tourism resources. The projects focused on assessing natural components and developing tourism resource assessment indicators such as: beach assessment indicators in terms of width and beach bottom materials such as sand, gravel, pebbles, clay, mud (Institute of Geography - Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union); Assessment indicators of landscape diversity for sightseeing (VXTauxkat, 1969; Mukhina, 1973); Assessment indicators of terrain contrast (IUVedenhin et al., 1975); Water temperature indicators to determine the duration of the bathing season (Kornilova, 1979); Assessment of all natural factors (Iu.A.Vedenhin and NNMirosnhitrencô, 1981).

Inheriting the research of the former Soviet Union scholars, Bulgarian scientists have developed both the methodology and research practices. According to D.D.Bac (2005) [15], this is considered a country with systematic works on tourism resource inventory to serve the organization of territory and tourism development planning. The evaluation works are based on criteria of geographical location, natural conditions, traffic; Building a model to evaluate natural resources for tourism purposes; Evaluating hot mineral water sources to serve the planning of resort and medical tourism development.

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- In Asian countries

Greatly influenced by the (former) Soviet geographical school, since the 70s of the last century, in some Asian countries such as India and Japan, works on assessing geographical conditions and tourism resources have mainly focused on classifying, inventorying, and evaluating natural components to build appropriate indicators.

tourism purposes such as: beach assessment for swimming activities (Japanese scientists); Building bio-climate indicators for humans (Indian scientists).

Since 1980, China has been considered one of the countries with the fastest and strongest tourism development in the world. Chinese geographers have relied on the UNTWO tourism resource classification table to inventory, classify, and evaluate resources and tourism development resources nationwide and locally [27, 43].

- In America and Western European countries

The works to evaluate geographical conditions for tourism and resort purposes have been developed and mentioned many new factors such as: based on accessibility, current land use status, environmental quality, road system in the forest, terrain, types of water resources; Building evaluation criteria based on the favorable level of the number of rainy days in a year suitable for tourism activities; Building a correlation diagram between temperature and absolute humidity suitable for tourists (cited in [39]).

From the perspective of assessing human tourism resources, B. Rosemary (1998) relied on criteria such as: accessibility to tourism activities, infrastructure - technical facilities serving tourism, attractiveness and participation of local communities (cited in [31]). At the same time, assessing tourism resources is also considered a basic step in the process of planning tourism development in each locality or at the national scale. Many new highly quantitative methods are applied in assessing geographical conditions and resources such as the matrix method, the "cost-benefit analysis" method (CBA), "travel cost" (TCM), "contingent valuation" method (CVM).

In short , since the second half of the 20th century, the research direction on assessing geographical conditions and tourism resources has been developed in many countries around the world. Although they do not have the same starting point and are approached from many different angles, the works are all in the direction of assessing the favorable level of resources for the purpose of tourism development. The research works follow the direction from description, inventory

to the provision of evaluation criteria for tourism and recreation purposes. Many methods of resource evaluation have been applied, and evaluation methods have gradually developed from qualitative to highly quantitative.

1.2.1.3 Group of research works on tourism territorial organization

In the second half of the 30s of the 20th century, a new direction was formed in the system of geographical sciences, studying the geography of tourist sources, the potential for exploiting resources for tourism activities, zoning and TCLTDL. According to this research direction, it can be said that scientists from Socialist countries (following the Soviet geographical school) were the pioneers.

From the perspective of Soviet geographers and former Eastern Europeans, TCLTDL is considered a form of historical social territorial organization, formed and developed in the forms of a tourism territorial system, a synthesis of tourism territories and tourism regions [45,46].

Meanwhile, in the US and Western European countries, in the early 1960s, a modern geographical trend emerged with an approach to an open space not limited by territorial boundaries with the goal of contributing to resource management and environmental protection. Especially after 1980, when the sustainable development perspective was mentioned, tourism activities in general were standardized, closely monitored and inspected. The management and use of tourism resources were carried out in a direction that benefited resources and the community. Works on TCLTDL often researched norms and standards appropriate to the capacity of resources serving tourism activities [11]. In this direction, TCLTDL needs to aim for four basic goals including: (1) meeting the satisfaction and satisfaction of tourists; (2) achieving business efficiency; (3) protecting tourism resources; (4) creating unity in the tourism area and community. According to the viewpoint of Western geographers, TCLTDL is formed in the forms of: tourism system and tourism development support cluster.

In summary , the research direction on TCLTDL was formed quite early and developed strongly in geographical science since the 70s of the 20th century. Compared to the (former) Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, this research direction in the US and Western European countries, although

developed late but developed independently and more complete in methodology. At the same time, according to many modern approaches in line with the world's tourism development trends. However, from any approach when researching TCLTDL, scientists all aim for the common goal of exploiting and effectively using tourism resources and tourism service factors to achieve the highest economic, social and environmental goals.

1.2.2 In Vietnam

In Vietnam, before the 80s of the 20th century, there were not many research works on tourism, especially issues of theoretical basis and research methods. Since the 6th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1986), implementing the national renovation, tourism has been identified as a key economic sector with important contributions to the national economy. Many research works on assessing geographical conditions and resources, planning, zoning and TCLTDL have been published. These works have clarified many issues of theoretical basis and practice from the provincial, regional to national scale.

1.2.2.1 Group of research works on tourism

- Research direction on tourism theory: Pham Trung Luong (2001) has overviewed the history of formation and development trends of tourism in the world through the periods from ancient, modern, medieval to modern. Analyzed concepts and factors affecting tourism activities [39].

- Research direction on ecotourism: identify ecotourism as a type of tourism close to nature, with the potential to bring economic, environmental and indigenous cultural values [6]; Based on the spatial distribution of specific ecological regions, socio-economic conditions, infrastructure to propose forms of development and TCLTECO on a national scale [41].; Research on ecotourism development from the perspective of national planning and State management; Analyze the relationship between ecotourism and biodiversity protection, recommend solutions for rational use of natural resources in conservation areas, national parks and coastal wetlands [6].

- Research direction on sustainable tourism: approached according to the principle of ensuring

ensure economic, social and environmental harmony. N.D.Hoe, VVHieu, (2001) analyzed the multifaceted impacts of tourism activities in many countries around the world on the environment and proposed solutions for sustainable tourism development suitable for Vietnam's conditions [26]; PTLuong (2002) determined that the task of sustainable tourism is to develop quality tourism products that can attract high numbers of visitors without causing harm and must be responsible for preserving the natural environment and local culture. At the same time, it proposed principles for sustainable tourism development, focusing on the rational use of resources, minimizing waste to the environment and sharing benefits with local communities [40]; Vietnam Tourism Law (2005) also clearly stated, "sustainable tourism is tourism development that meets current needs without harming the ability to meet future tourism needs" [49].

- Research direction on assessing territorial potential for planning and organizing tourism: analyzing factors affecting the formation and development of tourism, the role of resources in tourism activities, thereby providing orientations for organizing tourism in Vietnam [10, 39, 58, 59]; Researching theoretical and practical issues of exploiting tourism resources in the world as well as in Vietnam for the purpose of planning, organizing tourism, exploiting, protecting, and embellishing tourism resources and environment [73, 75]...

- Applied geography direction: approach in the direction of resource assessment according to each component, D.D.Loi (1992) assessed the level of terrain contrast to provide criteria suitable for each type of tourism [38]; N.Tham (2011) assessed bioclimatic resources suitable for people for tourism activities [60, 61].. Besides, there are works in the direction of comprehensive assessment of the favorable level of natural conditions and natural resources serving the purpose of tourism and recreation [17, 18, 20, 22, 53].

- Documents guiding the development of the tourism industry of the State [9]: Master plan for tourism development on a national scale with specific goals for each period in accordance with the socio-economic development reality of the country; Party Congress documents and " Socio-economic development strategy for the period 2011 - 2020" both identify the goal of developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector [2]; Many specific contents on tourism and tourism resources are stipulated in legal documents

such as: " Law on Tourism " [49]; " Law on Cultural Heritage " [48]. Strategic orientations on sustainable tourism development have been issued with the goal that Vietnam will be among the countries with developed tourism industry in the region [7, 8]; National action programs on tourism through each period 2000 - 2005, 2013 - 2020 with the perspective of sustainable tourism development closely linked to the preservation and promotion of national cultural values, landscape preservation, environmental protection, mobilizing all resources, maximizing the potential, national advantages in terms of natural factors and national culture, typical strengths of regions and areas in the country [56,57].

1.2.2.2 Group of research works on natural territorial zoning

In Vietnam, works on natural territorial zoning have appeared since the process of building and expanding the country. Each dynasty has divided the territory into multi-level units convenient for management and national defense.

Since the 15th century, our country has had research works on administrative regions, approaching the national, independent and autonomous viewpoints of each region. A typical work is “ Du dia chi ” by Nguyen Trai, which mentioned the geographical location, boundaries, territorial scale, social organization, economic situation with its own specific features.

In the period 1930 - 1960, zoning research works were carried out by a number of foreigners based on determining territorial differentiation according to the natural geographical zoning system: Robequain (1936) divided French Indochina into 8 natural regions; Fridland (1956) divided Northern Vietnam into 3 regions, 8 zones and 37 areas based on analyzing soil factors and differentiation layers;

TN Seglova (1957) divided Vietnam's natural regions according to a system of 2 levels: regional and sub-regional, in which the regions are divided according to climatic factors combined with topographic, tectonic, and vegetation factors, while the sub-regional level criteria are mainly based on geomorphological factors.

Since 1960, research has focused on natural geographical zoning and landscape zoning. The system of levels of natural geographical zoning in Vietnam can be mentioned as follows: Zoning diagram of the Zoning Team under the State Committee for Science and Technology with the system of units: Zone → Region → Area

→ Natural geographical regions; Vu Tu Lap (1978) proposed a diagram of Vietnam's zoning according to

system: Zone → Region → Natural geographical area and has divided Vietnam's territory into 2 zones, 3 regions and 13 natural geographical areas; The system of zoning levels of the Soil Geography Department of the Center for Resource Geography (1992) includes: Zone → Sub-zone

→ Region → Sub-region → Natural geographical region and accordingly Vietnam's territory is divided into 2 sub-zones, 9 regions, 2 sub-regions and 42 natural geographical regions.

In recent years, many works have established principles of natural geographical zoning and landscape research methods with the aim of effectively exploiting resources to serve sustainable territorial organization[21]; Some authors approach zoning according to the role and characteristics of creating the region[71]; According to the scale, comprehensive characteristics and development level of the territory[24].

1.2.3 At the research site

1.2.3.1 Group of research works on geographical conditions and tourism resources

For Tam Daodistrict in general, there have been topics related to the issue of comprehensive assessment of natural conditions for tourism development. Research topics in Tam Dao district on tourism development such as: Master's thesis "Research on the level of satisfaction of tourists with Tam Dao tourist area" by Ms. Bui Thi Minh Thoa,

Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration, 2014 [52]; Master's thesis "Developing ecotourism in Tam Dao National Park" by MSc. Le Giang Nam, Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration, 2014 [44].

Thus, there has been research work related to the exploitation and evaluation of

natural conditions, but no studies have mentioned

one

comprehensive approach

Comprehensive assessment of natural conditions for tourism development in Tam Dao district, Vinh Phuc province.

1.2.3.2 Group of research works on resource assessment for planning and organizing tourism territory

- Research direction, evaluate tourism resource points, build explanatory documents and build tourist routes in Tam Dao district.

- Research directions with scientific argumentation on tourism resource assessment serving TCLTDL in Tam Dao district are often integrated into general studies of the whole province or the Northern tourism region or in

Planning for socio-economic development and tourism of the province through each specific stage. Doctoral thesis " Assessing geographical conditions and resources serving the organization of tourism territory in Vinh Phuc province " by Dr. Luong Chi Lan, University of Natural Sciences, VNU [33]. Vinh Phuc province has also developed socio-economic planning orientations to 2020 and a vision to 2030 for the whole province [69]; Developing planning for each district, focusing on exploiting natural and human tourism resources of the locality. Based on the specific strengths of each locality to focus on developing types of tourism such as: cultural tourism, resort, ecological, spiritual [69]; Planning for sectors and fields related to facilities - technical infrastructure serving tourism in Tam Dao district [66]. The Master Plan for Tourism and Service Development in Tam Dao District for the period 2016 - 2020, with a vision to 2025, identifies that by 2020, tourism will become a strength in the district's economic development, one of the service and tourism centers of the province and the whole country; by 2025, Tam Dao tourism will develop comprehensively, with synchronous technical facilities and many resorts meeting international standards [67].

1.2.3.3 Group of research works on territorial zoning of Tam Dao district

Ecological landscape zoning of Tam Dao National Park. In the Site Report of Tam Dao Nature Reserve, Tam Dao National Park is divided into 4 ecological zones based on the differentiation of terrain, altitude, vegetation and climate. Including: Tam Dao medium high mountain area (peak area), low mountain area and high hills on the western slope of Tam Dao, low mountain area and high hills on the eastern slope of Tam Dao, valley and plain at the foot of Tam Dao [54].

In summary, through analysis and review of documents related to the research direction of the thesis in Tam Dao district, the following comments can be drawn:

- The above documents are scientific works that have value in both theory and practical application. These are the main reference documents of the thesis when choosing the methodology and research methods.

- During the process of formation and development, Tam Dao district has undergone many separations and mergers, as well as many administrative boundary adjustments, so Tam Dao has not had many independent research projects on geographical conditions and tourism resources. Therefore, the research results are general and have not been

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