Regarding the conservation of value sources in tourism activities, this result is similar to most previous studies. Conservation of value sources in tourism development is expressed through activities to conserve natural resources and preserve cultural resources, which are not worn out or lost due to the impact of tourism exploitation (Mbaiwa, 2011; Ruiz-Ballesteros and Hernández-Ramírez, 2010; Gilmore and Simmons, 2007). Preserving the environment and protecting natural resources will create the center of community culture as well as tourism sustainability (Binns and Nel, 2002; Gössling et al., 2004).
In addition to the above discussions on sustainable tourism development activities, the results of the research overview in Chapter 2 show that value creation, value sharing and value source conservation activities have been mentioned by authors in tourism development in previous studies, but they were mentioned and analyzed separately without being linked together, especially the simultaneous connection based on economic - social - environmental aspects at the destinations.
The second question is the role of stakeholders in the process of achieving sustainable tourism development at the destination.
The study mentioned the role of stakeholders in the process of achieving sustainable tourism development at the destination, stakeholders include: local authorities, businesses, local communities and NGOs. The research results are also similar to the research results of some previous authors when referring to the subjects involved in tourism activities. Specifically: Local authorities clearly demonstrate the role of direction and supervision in the process of sustainable tourism development (Alipour, 1996; De Oliveira, 2003; Gunn and Var, 2002; Inskeep, 1991; Meethan, 2005; Murphy, 1985; Southgate.C. &Sharpley, 2002), this role is demonstrated through many forms such as: planning, regulation, provision and maintenance of infrastructure, finance; building institutional capacity, controlling development and tourist flow, creating protected areas (Briassoulis, 2002; Southgate. C. & Sharpley. R, 2002; De Oliveira, 2003). Businesses are seen as a bridge between tourists and local tourism service providers, making a major economic contribution and creating jobs for local people (Spenceley and Rozga, 2007), and in particular, businesses are a stakeholder actively involved in value creation activities at the destination (Hardy and Beeton, 2001b; Leiper, 1995). Local communities play an extremely important role in ensuring sustainable tourism development at the destination (Cole, 2006; Zhao and Ritchie, 2007). This assurance is demonstrated through activities of receiving and sharing tourism experiences; determine the type and scale of sustainable tourism development
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at the local level (Tosun, 2006; Macbeth et al., 2002). The role of NGOs is evident through encouraging, supporting and empowering local communities to participate in tourism activities associated with cultural conservation and environmental protection (IUCN, 2008; Jafari, 2000).
However, studies to date have only stopped at analyzing the roles of stakeholders individually without interacting or linking the roles of the parties in the process of implementing the main activities of sustainable tourism development based on the economic - social - environmental aspects as mentioned above.
Third question, what aspects are unsustainable in community tourism development activities and how to develop and enhance sustainability for the destination?
As analyzed in the answers to the first and second questions above, previous studies have pointed out the main activities carried out in community tourism development and mentioned the role of stakeholders in the process of achieving sustainable tourism development at the destination. However, tourism development activities and stakeholders have only been mentioned and analyzed separately without being linked together at the destinations in the process of sustainable tourism development. This study has solved that problem through analyzing the role of stakeholders' activities affecting the level of sustainability of the destination for community tourism models.
Based on an overview of research on tourism development and sustainable tourism development, the study has defined the roles of stakeholders (local authorities, businesses, local communities and NGOs) in each main activity of tourism development (value creation, benefit sharing and value source conservation). From there, applying to specific case studies on community tourism development models at destinations such as Ban Lac, Mai Hich, Ta Van and Nam Dam, the study has clearly pointed out which aspects are still lacking in sustainability in tourism development activities towards sustainability. The content of this issue comes from the analysis of activities that have been done and need to be done but have not been done by stakeholders in tourism development activities. The activities that have not been implemented but are the responsibility of the stakeholders that the study has pointed out at the specific destinations above are considered the root cause of the unsustainable aspects in the development of community-based tourism towards sustainability in the Northwest region in particular and similar tourism development models implemented in Vietnam in general.
5.2. Research significance
5.2.1 In theory
The thesis has great theoretical significance, specifically expressed in the following three main contents:
Firstly, the thesis is conducted in the direction of assessment based on the combination of all three aspects of sustainable development, namely economic, social and environmental. The results achieved are to propose the main activities to achieve sustainability in tourism development at the destination, which are: value creation, value sharing and value source conservation.
Second, the thesis points out that there needs to be effective participation of stakeholders in the process of sustainable tourism development at the destination. Based on the spirit of stakeholder theory. The thesis has identified four main stakeholders carrying out the above activities, including: local authorities, businesses, local communities and NGOs. Different stakeholders have different levels of impact on the sustainability of the destination.
Third, the thesis uses qualitative research methods to collect and analyze data. This is a very suitable research method to understand the nature of the underlying problem, especially the stakeholders. This method is especially suitable for analyzing sustainable tourism development issues, so the thesis will be a good suggestion for scientists to apply qualitative research methods in research and conduct analysis and evaluation of sustainable community tourism development in Vietnam in the future.
5.2.2 In practice
Along with the theoretically significant contents above, the thesis helps to point out 3 practically significant contents as follows:
Firstly, there are 3 groups of activities for sustainable community tourism development, which are value creation, value sharing and value source conservation. To achieve the goal of sustainable development, these groups of activities interact and are closely linked together, in which value creation activities aim at the goal of “development”, while value sharing and value source conservation activities promote the achievement of “sustainability” in the development process.
Second, the role of stakeholders is clearly demonstrated in the case studies in all three groups of activities: value creation, value sharing and value source conservation. Stakeholders have different levels of participation and impact on each stage of development. From there, the key role of each party in the process of achieving sustainability in tourism development can be determined.
Third, to develop sustainable community tourism to increase income and reduce poverty for local communities, the thesis points out a number of suggestions for stakeholders in the process of implementing activities, namely: (i) Local authorities play a key role in building strategies and planning tourism development; issuing policies, creating connecting corridors for parties participating in tourism activities; (ii) Enterprises play a key role in value creation through investment activities, proposing ideas, designing
establishing a network to develop tourism; (iii) Local communities play an active role in all three main activities, participating in the tourism service supply chain, building and implementing village covenants to maintain and preserve the origin of values, linking tourism activities with local human resource development; and (iv) NGOs play a connecting role, activating initial tourism activities, establishing a network of activities between parties and encouraging and guiding people to participate in tourism.
Based on the research results as presented above, the stakeholder model in sustainable community tourism development is shown as follows:
PTBV Goals
Economic Society Environment
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
Increase income, reduce poverty for local communities
value
PTBV activities
Value creation Value sharing Preserving origins
Business
Government
local
NGOs
Local community
Stakeholders
- Invest and propose ideas for building tourism products.
- Establish a tourism development network.
- Develop strategies, plans and policies.
- Create a corridor connecting stakeholders.
- Connect and activate initial travel contract
- Establish a network of stakeholders.
- Encourage people to do tourism.
- Participate in the DVDL supply chain.
- Maintain and preserve the source of value, associated with tourism development.
Note:
Main impact
Normal impact Moderate impact
Figure 5.1: Stakeholder model in sustainable community tourism development
Source: Author's suggestion
5.3. Some proposals and recommendations on developing and enhancing sustainability at destinations for community tourism models
Based on the case studies presented in chapter 3, the thesis proposes some recommendations on developing and enhancing sustainability at destinations as follows:
5.3.1. For local authorities
a. Develop plans and orientations for tourism development in the context of local socio-economic development, issue specific support policies for tourism development at destinations
Developing tourism in association with sustainable development is one of the priority goals for a developing country oriented towards developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector like Vietnam. However, the planning and implementation of policies to promote tourism development in the community tourism destinations in the Northwest mountainous region have not received due attention, especially not paying attention to the subjects directly and indirectly participating in tourism development activities. For example, the loan support policy for households participating in tourism activities is limited to low loans, not ensuring people's investment, so households have proactively mortgaged their houses or participated in other loan packages with larger amounts. Although the organization of training on tourism activities for local people has a clear target group orientation (focusing on young workers and female workers), the rate of participation is not high. The construction of intra-village and inter-village roads has the contribution of enterprises, local communities and NGOs, but it has been carried out for a long time, causing a lot of dust and affecting the air in the villages, typically in Ta Van and Ban Lac. In addition, the local government has not really proposed an optimal solution in dividing benefits among stakeholders in tourism development activities. Local people in Ta Van and Ban Lac also think that tax policies and reinvestment in tourism development are unreasonable and disproportionate because the organization and implementation are almost all self-mobilized by the people, the participation of local authorities is still quite vague and ineffective. Activities to preserve original cultural elements and the environment are not effective, clearly shown through the loss of local culture and pollution at some of the above-mentioned community tourism sites.
Thus, the overall planning for DLCĐ development needs to be carried out on the following aspects:
- Adequate investment in planning work, including activities: hiring experts or reputable and experienced consulting organizations to effectively carry out key planning work and planning community tourism spots in the area.
- Integrate tourism development into the local annual work plan to facilitate budget allocation and coordination. Implement annual tourism target activities such as implementing basic models such as the model of "Typical cultural tourism village associated with new rural construction; Tourism village associated with medicinal plant development; Tourism village associated with OCOP star standards"... in line with the new rural policy associated with poverty reduction in the Northwestern provinces.
- Develop a program to research and evaluate the tourism market periodically, as a basis for management activities. Develop a program to integrate internal propaganda content on sustainable tourism development with propaganda and promotion to attract tourists.
- Enhance the effectiveness of social enterprises and community tourism association networks towards enhancing autonomy, initiative and coordination with state management agencies.
To maintain community tourism activities associated with sustainable development, local authorities need to implement specific support policies to bring high efficiency. Specifically:
- Support preferential loans for community tourism development activities and tourism development support activities, targeting local labor groups and households that want to apply and deploy community tourism models.
- Support homestay households to purchase initial equipment, renovate toilets, especially mobilize capital from the people to proactively invest in building homestays in community cultural tourism villages that are being piloted or have been implemented.
- Support ancillary activities such as production of traditional handicraft products for tourists such as blacksmithing, casting, brocade weaving, etc.
b. Develop a fair benefit distribution mechanism among stakeholders, with special attention to the interests of local communities.
Local authorities need to establish a mechanism for distributing benefits from tourism activities among stakeholders, clearly demonstrating fairness and equality between the contributions and interests of the parties, with special attention paid to the local community. Establishing a mechanism
Profit distribution among parties associated with community tourism development needs to be reflected in the following aspects:
- Establish a community tourism management board responsible for implementing tourist distribution activities, rotating and dividing groups reasonably for homestay households, and ensuring that tourism benefits are shared equally with the local community. The community tourism management board ensures that tourism benefits or tourism benefits are shared equally and appropriately (for direct and indirect participants and the remaining members of the community).
- Establish a community tourism development fund to ensure that tourism benefits will be shared equally among the local community, households and individuals participating in providing tourism services, from which the parties commit to contribute a portion of profits to the community tourism development fund according to the agreed contribution principle. In addition, the local government encourages support contributions from tourists. Contributions from tourism to the community tourism development fund will be used for work, activities for general economic - social - cultural development and tourism development of the locality.
- Establish a tourist distribution mechanism to ensure the effective exploitation of homestay services, improve the quality of visitors' visits and experiences, and contribute to a more even distribution of benefits for the community. Tourist distribution activities include two activities: (i) a rotating reception mechanism in which homestay households take turns receiving guests; and (ii) a reasonable division of guest groups (international and domestic guests). The division of tourists is carried out on the principle of not dividing groups into smaller groups for domestic guests. In special cases, if a homestay receives two consecutive guests (due to having to divide the group, or special requests from guests and travel companies), these households will be given priority over the remaining households to receive guests in the next round.
- Establish a profit sharing mechanism from tourism to ensure the goal of developing tourism for the community and bringing benefits to the community. Profits from tourism business activities will be allocated as follows: most of the profits belong to households or individuals serving guests, the remaining profits will be allocated to the Community Tourism Development Fund and the Community Tourism Management Board. If the business assessment results in the year are good and generate a lot of profit, the community tourism management board and local people can discuss with business households about the possibility of
Increase the rate of sharing this benefit. The profit generated from business activities obtained from common tourism activities such as community guest houses will be discussed, agreed upon and decided by the community on the rate of retained profit to be spent on activities such as reserve activities, reinvestment costs, maintenance, etc.
c. Coordinate the organization of training courses on tourism knowledge and skills for businesses, accommodation establishments and individuals participating in tourism activities.
Human resource training plays an important role in achieving the goal of tourism development at the destination. Training subjects often focus on businesses, local people, and officials at all levels of government to aim at the goal of sustainable community tourism development. Training in knowledge and skills on tourism development and community tourism needs to be developed in the following aspects:
- Develop a training plan to improve tourism skills suitable for each group of employees and workers currently working in the local tourism industry. It is also necessary to focus on local people, youth and women who need to improve their knowledge of tourism skills and the combination of tourism development and environmental protection.
- Develop a network of vocational education and training facilities for tourism in the locality to enhance on-site human resource training, such as investing in building a system of high-quality vocational education facilities for tourism, closely linked with tourism businesses to meet the specific human resource needs of businesses and the local tourism market.
- Promote human resource training, job creation and poverty reduction support in border economic zones. It is necessary to develop and implement separate and specific training programs for each local population, prioritizing the "hand-on" method combined with "learning from practice" to aim for the goal of developing sustainable community tourism. In particular, it is necessary to regularly inspect and evaluate the quality of local tour guides, because this team plays a very important role in introducing the attractiveness of local tourism resources to attract tourists to return to the destination. Proactively develop a new set of criteria or apply existing standards suitable for the destination to evaluate and classify homestays.
- Strengthen cooperation and exchange of tourism experiences through a number of events such as (Conferences, Science Workshops...) domestically and internationally, especially with countries in the ASEAN region.