Sustainable Tourism Business Experience of Some Countries in the World

In addition, through major economic conferences, the tourism industry has the opportunity to promote its strengths to the world.

The tourism industry only develops when there are tourists. The factors that form tourists include free time, motivation, travel needs and financial ability. We see that the financial ability of each individual tourist plays a very important role in promoting the steps of tourists to join the journey. Thus, the economic development conditions are the basis for the tourism industry to exploit and do business with different sources of tourists.

However, as mentioned above, there is always an inverse relationship between the economy and tourism, which means that they either hinder or promote each other's development. The economic crisis has caused many tourism businesses to go bankrupt, many tourist attractions, tourist areas, and accommodation facilities are deserted. Revenue from tourism is low. The consequence is that workers' salaries are low, they are discouraged, quit their jobs, and people's living standards decrease. Therefore, people's demand for tourism runs towards zero.

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Economic conditions play a very important role in tourism development. This also requires the tourism industry in its development process to promote and contribute to economic development. Only then will the relationship of mutual influence be sustainable.

 Local tourism development capacity

- Management level

Tourism management and development policy is the key to success in tourism development. It can be hindered if the policy is not in line with reality. Tourism management and development policy has two aspects: the general policy of the World Tourism Organization for member countries and the second is the policy of the local authority in that country. The second aspect has significance.

More importantly, it mobilizes human resources, based on the actual capabilities of each region and country to make appropriate policies.

- Facilities and technical infrastructure

Social and technical infrastructure is the lever that promotes all socio-economic activities of a country. For the tourism industry, infrastructure is even more important because it is a prerequisite to ensure that tourists can easily access tourist destinations and satisfy their communication needs and other needs during their trip. In fact, the rapid development of local means of transport and traffic networks has promoted the strong development of international and domestic tourism.

Among the infrastructure factors, transportation is one of the main factors promoting tourism development, especially international tourism. In recent years, the transportation sector, especially tourism transportation, has developed in both quantity and quality, facilitating tourism development worldwide. The development in quality of tourist transportation is reflected in the following aspects: transportation speed, ensuring safety for tourists, ensuring convenience, low prices, etc.

- Population and labor force level

High cultural level creates conditions for tourism development. Most of the people participating in the tourist journey are people with a certain cultural level, especially those who travel abroad. Because they have the need to learn about scenic spots, historical relics, national cultural identity or more precisely, resources, tourist attractions that affect them in a process. Only with a cultural level can one fully understand the value of a tour. In countries where people have a high cultural level, the number of people traveling abroad is constantly increasing with high intensity. Besides the level of the host country's people, the place receiving guests must also pay attention.

Low cultural level affects tourism development: begging, robbery, forcing customers to buy goods...

Tourism development must bear the mark of human beings, that is, humans, through their intelligence, come up with measures and methods to develop tourism. A country rich in tourism resources but if it does not know how to use human intelligence to fully exploit the value of those resources, it will be considered a failure. On the contrary, there are countries poor in tourism resources but know how to exploit them properly, will attract a large number of tourists and the tourism industry will develop sustainably.

1.2.6 Sustainable tourism business experience of some countries in the world

1.2.6.1, Hawaii Island Tourism and the “Be Reef” Campaign

Hawaii is one of the world's top vacation destinations. But most people don't know that the Hawaiian Islands are also a conservation hotspot with more than 25,000 unique species. These species are threatened by population growth, development, pollution, overuse, and climate change. At the same time, more than 8,000,000 visitors come to Hawaii each year to experience its stunning scenery and unique wildlife. This also puts endangered species at risk.

The Hawaii Ecotourism Association recognized the need to develop sustainable solutions that would conserve Hawaii’s natural resources while also supporting eco-friendly tourism. In 2011, the association launched a sustainable tourism certification program for tour operators, the Hawaii Ecotourism Certification, with rigorous criteria that demonstrate a business’ commitment to environmental and cultural responsibility.

Movements toward sustainable tourism in Hawaii include the “Be Reef” campaign, an awareness program designed to help keep coral reefs healthier by educating visitors, operators, and the public.

tourism, businesses, and community members. Researchers have found that coral reefs are rapidly declining due to pollution and rising temperatures. In addition, the negative impact of sunscreen has raised the level of concern for coral reefs. Thousands of tons of sunscreen from our bodies wash into the ocean every year. Once in the water, some chemicals in sunscreen interact negatively with the surrounding environment. These chemicals have been shown to inhibit coral growth, disrupt coral reproduction, and promote viruses.

The “Be Reef” campaign has educated consumers to change their perceptions and work towards protecting coral reefs, by learning to read product labels carefully, sunscreen buyers can ensure they are choosing products with the least environmental impact.

1.2.6.2 Singapore and long-term tourism business strategies towards sustainability

Singapore is a small island nation with limited resources, but it has known how to fully exploit its potential, its geographical location and its human resources to make great strides in development. The island nation has an area of only 710 km2 but there are 5.2 million people living and working here, including nearly 2 million foreigners. Among Singapore's recent successes, we must mention the success of its tourism development policy.

To achieve this result, we must mention the success of planning, building strategies and tourism development plans suitable for each stage of the Singapore Government. From 1965 to now, Singapore has planned strategies and built 6 different tourism development plans, namely: "Singapore Tourism Plan" (1968), "Tourism Development Plan" (1986), "Strategic Development Plan" (1993), "Tourism 21" (1996), "Tourism 2015" (2005), "Tourism Territory 2020" (2012).

With the "Tourism Development Plan" (1986), Singapore advocated preserving and restoring historical and cultural areas such as: Chinatown, Tanjong Tagar, Little India, Kampong Glam, and Singapore River.

With the “Strategic Development Plan” (1993), Singapore focused on developing new tourism products such as: cruises, medical tourism, educational tourism, honeymoon tourism; developing new tourism markets; organizing large international festivals; focusing on developing human resources for tourism; awarding tourism awards; educating and raising people's awareness of tourism...

In 1996, Singapore launched “Tourism 21”, preparing and implementing a long-term vision for tourism development in the 21st Century, with emerging tourism market strategies, regional tourism strategies, new tourism product development strategies, tourism capital strategies, and the “Singapore Tourism Champion” strategy.

In “Tourism 2015”, Singapore focuses on developing key markets with the motto of creating a better understanding of Singapore, developing Singapore into a “must-visit” tourist destination, improving service standards to provide memorable services to tourists, upgrading tourism infrastructure, developing tourism businesses and professional tourism human resources, developing key tourism products…

In 2012, Singapore spent 300 million Singapore dollars to organize tourism events, 340 million Singapore dollars to develop tourism products, and 265 million Singapore dollars to develop tourism human resources. By 2015, Singapore invested 2 billion Singapore dollars in the Tourism Development Fund, welcomed about 17 million international tourists and tourism revenue was about 30 billion Singapore dollars.

CHAPTER 2

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

2.1 Data collection method

2.1.1 Primary data collection method

The primary data source in the thesis is mainly collected from questionnaires. This stage is carried out through the following main steps: Building the questionnaire; Conducting pilot interviews and consulting with experts; Adjusting the questionnaire; Conducting the survey and Processing the data. The processes before building a complete questionnaire will be repeated many times until the questionnaire is considered relatively complete, then this complete questionnaire is used in the actual survey process.

Building a questionnaire

Mock interviews and expert opinions

Adjust the questionnaire

Data collection

Conduct an investigation

If there is an error

Complete

Figure 2.1: Primary data collection process using questionnaire

(Source: Author's synthesis)

2.1.1.1 Building a questionnaire

 Determine the objectives of the questionnaire The objectives of the questionnaire for the topic are:

- Assess awareness of the issue and importance of sustainable tourism business.

- Assess the need for adventure travel.

- Assess understanding of Son Doong Cave and related projects.

- Evaluate the quality and sustainability of Son Doong tour business model.

- Measure the level of opposition/support of tourists if there are projects to develop tourism business in a mass direction.

- Evaluate the impacts of mass tourism development projects.

- Collect ideas on solutions to help promote sustainable tourism business.

 Determine the layout of the questionnaire

The parts of the questionnaire need to be clearly identified as belonging to which part of the theoretical framework: dependent variables, independent variables and mediating variables.

The title and introduction are the means for the respondents to grasp and understand the purpose of the survey as well as to shape the approach of the questionnaire. The language and expression in this section should be focused on so that the reader does not feel heavy and alert when answering, but instead is open and comfortable answering the questions of the survey.

The layout should be neat and attractive.

 Select question type, ask question

There are many ways to categorize questions:

- Closed/open/combined questions

- Multiple choice questions

- Direct/indirect questions

- Questions about content/ psychology…

The way to ask questions should go from easy to difficult, from general to detailed, from interesting to less interesting, and questions in the same section should be related to each other, avoiding branching out into many other areas.

2.1.1.2 Mock interviews and expert advice

After designing the questionnaire, pilot surveys were conducted at Hanoi National University with students as the subjects, to collect comments from respondents. Based on feedback on content, form, semantics and length of questions, appropriate adjustments were made. At the same time, principles for choosing location, subjects, time and introduction and explanation methods to ensure that respondents give the best survey results were also compiled.

In addition, consulting the instructor helps the questionnaire to have better quality and go in the right direction.

2.1.1.3 Adjusting the questionnaire

The questionnaire was designed and adjusted many times, combining pilot interviews and consulting instructors.

The avoidance of direct language such as “I” in the questionnaire was also suggested, to avoid the feeling that the respondent was being judged. Some questions avoided the subject by only giving the subject once in the general question.

For example, please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements. Some use the word “myself” instead of “I” to relieve the respondent of moral responsibility, allowing him/her to fully reveal his/her actual attitudes and behaviors.

2.1.1.4 Conduct investigation

 Survey subjects and sample size

The survey subjects include both Vietnamese and foreigners, aged 18 and over, who are interested in sustainable tourism development.

Sample size: 200 samples.

 How to proceed