CHAPTER 1. SOME THEORETICAL ISSUES ON ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION LAW IN THE FIELD OF TOURISM IN VIETNAM
1.1. SOME CONCEPTS OF ENVIRONMENT AND TOURISM
1.1.1. Environmental concept
Environment is a general concept, referring to factors that have a direct impact on all economic and social activities of humans. According to the Vietnamese Electronic Encyclopedia, the concept of environment is understood as follows: " The environment includes natural factors and artificial material factors that are closely related to each other, surrounding humans, affecting the life, production, existence and development of humans and nature " [8, 1] . Thus, the general environment includes the natural environment, artificial environment and social environment. The natural environment includes natural factors: physics, chemistry, biology that exist objectively beyond human control. The artificial environment includes physical, chemical, biological and social factors created by humans and controlled by humans. The social environment is the sum of relationships in society through forms of organizational apparatus and economic - social institutions. These three types of environments coexist and interact closely in the development of human society.
Clause 1 - Article 3 of the Law on Environmental Protection passed by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on November 29, 2005 stipulates: "The environment includes natural and artificial material factors surrounding humans, affecting the life, production, existence and development of humans and living organisms" .
1.1.2. Concept of tourism, tourism environment
In a broad sense, tourism is the movement of people from one point to another for various purposes and by different means. This movement is continuous 24/24 hours a day without ever stopping. Besides traveling by personal means, there are also transportation businesses serving people traveling. Thus, tourism includes all
human movements, as well as activities related to such movements.
In a narrow sense, in the tourism business, tourists are essentially people who move from their regular place of residence to different locations for the purpose of sightseeing, entertainment, and relaxation for a certain period of time and then return to their regular place of residence. So tourism is understood as the movement of people to satisfy their travel needs according to a certain program and the activities of organizing that travel program.
Clause 1 - Article 4, Law on Tourism 2005 stipulates: "Tourism is activities related to human trips outside their regular place of residence to meet the needs of sightseeing, learning, entertainment, and relaxation within a certain period of time" .
The concept of tourism environment is understood to include natural, economic - social and human factors, in which tourism activities exist and develop. Tourism activities have a close relationship with the environment, exploiting the characteristics of the environment to serve the purpose of development and impacting back to contribute to changing the characteristics of the environment.
Tourism environment includes human tourism environment and natural tourism environment.
The human tourism environment is a component of the general environment, including cultural traditions, customs, habits, political security and social order and safety, behavioral style... affecting tourism activities.
The natural tourism environment includes a collection of organic and inorganic natural objects; including natural objects that have not been affected by humans and natural objects that have been transformed by humans to varying degrees, but still preserve part or all of their self-recovery and development characteristics. The natural tourism environment includes natural elements: land, water, air, flora and fauna, that is, physical elements (physical environment) and biological elements (biological environment).
Within the scope of this thesis, tourism environmental issues will only be considered from the perspective of natural tourism environment.
1.1.3. Identifying world tourism development trends to 2020
In recent years, tourism has increasingly asserted its role in the world economy, becoming a choice to escape poverty for some developing countries or those with low competitiveness in high-tech and modern fields. At present, it is possible to identify some main features in the development trend of world tourism as follows:
- Number of visitors and tourist market by 2020:
According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), international tourist arrivals are expected to reach 1 billion in 2010 and increase to 1.56 billion in 2020 with a growth rate of 4.5%. Within the Asia-Pacific region, tourism is growing faster than the world average with an average annual growth rate of 8% in the years 2000-2010. According to the WTO, the three regions receiving the most visitors by 2020 will be Europe (717 million visitors), East Asia and the Pacific (397 million) and the Americas (282 million), followed by Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East and South Africa are expected to grow at 5% per year compared to the world growth rate of 4.1%. Other regions such as Europe and the Americas will grow at a lower rate than the world average. The European region will remain the largest market for international arrivals, despite a decline from 60% in 1995 to 46% in 2020. By 2010, the Americas (whose market share has fallen from 19% in 1995 to 18% in 2020) will have to cede second place to East Asia and the Pacific (which will account for about 25% of the world's international tourist arrivals in 2020). [22, 2] (See Table)
Forecast of international tourist market share by region to 2020
Number of international visitors to regions (million people)
Base year | Forecast | Product growth rate year(%) | Market share (%) | |||
1995 | 2010 | 2020 | 1995-2020 | 1995 | 2020 | |
Total | 565.4 | 1,006.4 | 1,561.1 | 4.1 | 100 | 100 |
Africa | 20.2 | 47.0 | 77.3 | 5.5 | 3.6 | 5.0 |
America | 108.9 | 190.4 | 282.3 | 3.9 | 19.3 | 18.1 |
East Asia/Pacific | 81.4 | 195.2 | 397.2 | 6.5 | 14.4 | 25.4 |
Europe | 338.4 | 527.3 | 717.0 | 3.0 | 59.8 | 45.9 |
Middle East | 12.4 | 35.9 | 68.5 | 7.1 | 2.2 | 4.4 |
South Asia | 4.2 | 10.6 | 18.8 | 6.2 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
Inland | 464.1 | 790.9 | 1,183.3 | 3.8 | 82.1 | 75.8 |
International | 101.3 | 215.5 | 377.9 | 5.4 | 17.9 | 24.2 |
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- The position of tourism in the world economy and Vietnam:
Tourism is one of the most important and fastest growing industries in the world. However, its importance has not been fully recognized in the past because it has not identified itself as a composite industry but has been divided into many sub-industries such as aviation, domestic transportation, hotels, travel agencies, retail, entertainment, etc. Expenditures in tourism are also difficult to determine because they are made in cash, in many different countries and often do not keep records. While the finance in agricultural production is taken seriously, tourism is fragmented or classified as "services", a classification used for redundant components that we do not know where to put.
In fact, tourism is an export industry because it brings an important source of foreign exchange for the country. Due to many promotional activities abroad, tourism should be coordinated with export promotion activities to combine into a national brand and support each other's development. But in reality, this concept has only been introduced in some countries and has not been widely recognized. Not only that, tourism is also sometimes considered as an act of encouraging foreign influence, seriously changing the structure and cultural traditions. Sometimes tourism is considered to be the cause of youth degeneration and in the worst cases, tourism has destroyed nature, created waste and pollution. Therefore, some countries tend to restrict tourism instead of implementing it more effectively.
However, according to general assessment, tourism industry is becoming a big industry with great economic potential. In the coming years, tourism will have to be recognized as an economic sector, this economic sector can cause pollution and environmental degradation and therefore it needs to be treated properly to exploit tourism resources effectively, at the same time have appropriate environmental protection policies to develop sustainable tourism.
After more than 45 years of formation and development, on the basis of summarizing practical experience, based on the country's potential, combined with experience drawn from tourism activities of countries around the world, the tourism industry has been placed in a worthy position by our Party and State, and at the same time entrusted with a heavy but glorious task in the country's development process. In fact, in recent years, implementing the Resolution of the 8th Party Congress and Conclusion 179/TBTU of the Politburo, the tourism industry has achieved an average growth rate of 20%/year in both infrastructure and number of tourists, with revenue of more than 2 billion USD per year, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. In key areas, tourism activities have contributed to changing the appearance of urban, rural areas and the lives of communities, promoting on-site export of goods and services, positively impacting the development of many economic, cultural and social sectors; Restore many festivals, develop many traditional occupations; contribute to promoting transformation
economic structure; contribute to hunger eradication and poverty reduction; expand exchanges between regions and areas in the country and between localities of our country with countries in the region and the world. Vietnam tourism has established and gradually enhanced its image and position in the international arena, gradually affirming its role and position in the national economy, creating the basis for developing a key economic sector.
- Sustainable tourism development trends:
Although not all countries have determined a suitable tourism development policy, most countries have determined the policy of sustainable tourism development. Until now, there is still much debate about the development of sustainable and unsustainable tourism. To be able to clarify the concept of sustainable tourism, we will consider it in relation to unsustainable tourism.
Spontaneous tourism development can be seen as a form of unsustainable tourism development. Spontaneous tourism development often focuses on maximizing the number of arrivals without regard to whether the country or locality is capable of receiving and satisfying the needs of tourists. This inevitably creates bad impressions, spreads widely and results in a reduction in the number of future arrivals. Spontaneous tourism also tends to emphasize the number of arrivals rather than the length of stay or the level of spending, while in terms of economic efficiency, fewer visitors who stay longer and spend more are much better than having to take care of many customers in a short time, with limited spending levels. There is also a tendency to focus on income, visitor input and immediate benefits rather than investing and reinvesting in infrastructure and facilities for tourists to increase quality, supply large quantities in the future and focus on the long term. The attraction of the number of visitors often leads to the disregard of the ability to protect the environment and preserve local culture, historical monuments and non-renewable natural resources. In some countries, people sell historical monuments, natural products... to tourists for cash rather than preserving them for future generations. And that is exactly what
is the act of a short-lived, transient tourism. In addition, the introduction of bad habits that go against social customs such as prostitution, drugs and even uncontrolled casinos are also manifestations of an unsustainable tourism.
In contrast to unsustainable tourism is sustainable tourism. Although there are still some inconsistent views on the concept of sustainable tourism development, the majority of experts in the field of tourism and related fields in Vietnam agree that: "Sustainable tourism development is the managed exploitation of natural and human values to satisfy the diverse needs of tourists, paying attention to long-term economic benefits while still ensuring contributions to the conservation and restoration of resources, maintaining cultural integrity to develop tourism activities in the future: for environmental protection and contributing to improving the living standards of local communities " [17, 5]. In the process of tourism development, it is necessary to ensure economic sustainability, tourism environmental resources and socio-culture.
+ Economic sustainability in this case is the "stable and long-term development" of tourism, generating significant revenue, contributing positively to the economic growth of society and bringing benefits to the community, especially local people. When the living standards of local people are improved thanks to tourism, they will have the motivation to protect this source of income by protecting resources and the environment, protecting traditional cultural values so that tourists continue to come. Sharing tourism benefits is also a positive method in the fight against hunger and poverty, providing opportunities to improve the living standards of local people, contributing to economic growth in disadvantaged areas.
+ Environmental resource sustainability is the use of resources that does not exceed their self-recovery capacity, so as to meet current development needs but not weaken the ability to regenerate in the future to meet the needs of future generations.
+ Cultural sustainability is the exploitation and response to current tourism development needs without damaging or degrading traditional cultural values left for future generations. Currently, over 80% of tourists travel to enjoy unique cultural values that are different from their own culture [23, 3]. Tourist destinations that combine natural beauty and traditional culture create a strong and unique impression and have greater appeal to tourists. Tourists want to see and enjoy authentic cultural values that are alive in the daily lives of people. This is much more attractive than what is recreated in a museum, an exhibition or a performance. And so, if cultural values are destroyed, transformed or only exist in a simulated form, they will no longer be able to attract tourists and thus the tourism industry will have difficulty developing.
1.2. NATURAL ENVIRONMENT WITH ISSUES FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM
1.2.1. The role of the environment in sustainable tourism development
* Environment is a decisive factor in tourism development.
No production process does not require the exploitation of natural resources and environmental components. Especially for the tourism industry, where natural resources play an important role in building products that attract tourists and are decisive for the existence and development of the industry. The increase in tourism activities is reflected in the increase in the number of visitors to tourist attractions; the increase in the number of days of stay of visitors and the increase in social income from tourism. To do this, it is essential to maintain the attractiveness for tourists. The components of the natural environment, landscape, and ecosystem are all factors that form tourism resources, creating tourist attraction. Tourism can only develop when these factors are protected and maintained.
Tourist attractions can only attract tourists when there is a clean and beautiful environment, environmental hygiene in air, water and land is guaranteed, meeting the desire for rest, relaxation and health protection.