The Impact of Tourism on Socio-Economic Development, Economic Restructuring and International Economic Integration

Directors of relevant departments, agencies, and localities in the province. In the past time, the Tourism Development Steering Committee has performed well its advisory function to the Provincial People's Committee in tourism management and development based on the overall tourism development plan.

- Provinces focus on the work of building, promulgating, and inspecting strategies, policies, planning and plans according to the provisions of Decree 144/2005/ND-CP dated November 16, 2005 of the Government. Enhance the responsibility of specialized agencies, preside over, and coordinate with other agencies and departments in implementation. Inspection and examination work of state management agencies on tourism activities is organized regularly and oriented, rectifying issues that have not been implemented well such as land policies, compensation, site clearance in tourism projects, management of accommodation facilities such as prices, taxes, security, food hygiene and safety, etc.

- Organized a tourism association, attracting members from the fields of accommodation, transportation, scenic spots, etc. Participating in the tourism association is a place for businesses to exchange experiences in tourism management, serving as a bridge between state tourism management agencies and businesses.

- Promote the position, role and function of the Tourism Trade Promotion Center to advise specialized departments and provincial People's Committees in the task of updating information, analyzing and forecasting needs, tastes, markets, and having promotion and marketing strategies to help management agencies and businesses take appropriate steps.

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- State management of tax prices, security, etc. has been improved. Tourism businesses register their own prices according to the quality of products and tourism they have invested in; no longer impose room prices on accommodation establishments. For the Public Security sector, a pilot project on online registration and management of guests has been implemented to reduce inconvenience to businesses and tourists; and methods of security and order management have been innovated to create a good and friendly impression on tourists.

- State management of tourism in the fields of travel and transportation, tourist areas, attractions, accommodation facilities and restaurants, customer services, etc. is regularly inspected to create a civilized, polite and healthy culture.

However, state management of tourism is still lax in some aspects, lacking unified and synchronous management, and there is still overlap between industry management and territorial management. In many areas, management is not effective, such as capital, planning, investment policies, joint ventures, international and domestic cooperation, environmental sanitation, security, and safety for tourists. Budget revenue, prices, consumer rights, product quality, etc. have not been focused on.

Planning work is still slow, planning adjustments are not timely, so some items for infrastructure investment have not kept up with the development speed of tourism business. Up to now, the infrastructure of the Central Highlands is still inadequate, the transportation system, electricity, water supply, post and telecommunications, water supply... have not been properly invested. Apart from Da Lat, which has a relatively complete infrastructure system, the quality of the remaining tourist areas of the Central Highlands still has many limitations. This is a big challenge for tourism in the Central Highlands now and in the future, the state management agency for tourism has not yet strengthened and arranged competent and dedicated staff, the training and development of human resources for management and operations in tourism enterprises is still slow to innovate.

2.3. Impact of tourism on socio-economic development, economic restructuring and international economic integration

2.3.1. Impact of tourism on the socio-economic development of the Central Highlands

With Decision 184/1998/QD-TTg dated September 24, 1998, the Prime Minister approved the master plan for socio-economic development of the Central Highlands for the period 2000-2010, with the targets of average GDP growth of 8%-9%; average GDP by 2010 reaching 25%-30%; tourism services reaching 30%-35%. Strive to eliminate hunger by 2010, gradually reduce poverty, ensure essential needs of food, clothing, housing, travel, and education.

Practice and treat diseases to improve the lives of people. Focus on improving the lives of people in remote, isolated and border areas. Build a fair, civilized society, a healthy community, and eliminate bad customs and social evils.

Strive for an average growth rate of 10%-15%/year in trade, tourism and services by 2010… Synchronously build infrastructure and technical facilities. Exploit and preserve nature, maintain and develop tourism resources, promote national cultural identity. Move towards an international tourism development strategy in the future…

Over the past 10 years, implementing Resolution 10 of the Politburo; Decision 184/1998/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister, the socio-economic, security and defense of the Central Highlands have had impressive developments. The whole region has undergone a positive and correct economic and social restructuring process. The average economic growth rate of 11.9%/year is higher than expected. The value of gross domestic product in 2010 increased 2.8 times compared to 2000. In 2001, the average GDP was only 2.9 million VND, but in 2010 it increased to 15.5 million VND (67% of the national average) [5].

The economic structure shifted in a positive direction, the proportion of agriculture and forestry decreased, the proportion of industry, construction and services increased. The total product of the whole region at current prices reached 69,201 billion VND, higher than the central coastal provinces; of which the total export turnover reached 1,229,874 thousand USD, the state budget revenue reached 9,568 billion VND. The whole region spent 71,317 billion VND on development investment.

Technical infrastructure and social infrastructure have developed quite rapidly. The urbanization process has been accelerated with the upgrading of Da Lat City and Buon Ma Thuot City to class I urban areas under the province, becoming two typical tourist cities, striving to be attractive destinations in the region. The whole region has had a fairly rapid development in infrastructure, with 91% of communes having car roads to the center; 98% of hamlets having national grid electricity. The whole region has 2,286 schools; over 1.4 million students, including nearly 500,000 ethnic minority students. 1.6 million insurance cards have been issued and

Free medical examination and treatment for policy beneficiaries and ethnic minorities. The poverty rate is 10.34%, lower than the national average (13.4%), the gap between rich and poor is 8.2 times (the national average is 8.9 times).

Nearly 1 million workers have found jobs, including 180,000 unemployed workers.

ethnic minority workers; mainly in the fields of agriculture, forestry and services.

The greatest achievement of the Central Highlands recognized by the international community is poverty reduction, one of the most successful stories in economic development. In 2005, the poverty rate according to the new standards of ethnic minorities was still very high, averaging over 60% in the whole region; of which Lam Dong: 55%, Dak Nong: 63%, Dak Lak: 62%, Gia Lai: 81%, Kon Tum: 88%, the poverty reduction rate only reached 2-3%/year for the whole region.

The efforts of the Central Highlands provinces are noteworthy, by 2010, 111,000 households were eliminated from poverty. The poverty rate among ethnic minorities decreased from 47.8% in 2006 to 19.9% in 2010. The poverty rate decreased sharply, but poverty reduction among ethnic minorities is not sustainable, the rate of re-poverty and near-poverty is still high. 11,000 ethnic minority households do not have land for production, although jobs have been created for them.

180,000 workers, but a large part of ethnic minorities still do not have stable jobs.

By 2010, the whole region had 6,577 enterprises operating in the entire economic system, with Dak Lak having 2,075 enterprises, Lam Dong having 1,762 enterprises, Gia Lai having 1,725 enterprises, Kon Tum having 586 enterprises, Dak Nong having 429 enterprises. The enterprise system also employed 211,758 workers, with production and business capital of 71,117 trillion VND. The enterprises also generated net revenue of 112,019 billion VND for the whole region, in which Dak Lak province led with 50,237 billion VND. However, enterprises in the Central Highlands are mainly small and medium enterprises with a scale of 1,000 employees or less, the scale of 5,000 employees or more is still small, there are 731 enterprises or more with a capital scale of 5 billion to less than 10 billion VND.

This:

In summary, tourism development in the Central Highlands has positive impacts on the following aspects:

- Is a factor that requires investment, development, and renovation of technical infrastructure.

such as roads, electricity including hydroelectricity, thermal power, airports, water supply systems, postal services, telecommunications, banks... That, it can be seen that the inter-regional transportation system has developed quite rapidly, basically ensuring the travel needs of people and tourists.

- The social infrastructure system has developed quite rapidly, after 36 years (since 1975) with a comprehensive national education system from kindergarten to university; medical examination and treatment facilities meet the health care needs of the whole region.

- The work of poverty reduction has achieved good results recognized by the United Nations, the labor force (especially ethnic minorities) in tourism service establishments has increased quite rapidly.

- Gross domestic product increased rapidly, averaging 11.9%/year. By 2010, average GDP increased 2.8 times compared to 2000.

- Although the economy still has a high proportion of agriculture, forestry, and mineral exploitation, it has generally developed steadily due to the special conditions of the Central Highlands.

- Security and national defense are maintained, the task of combining economy with national defense is effectively applied, throughout the area, defense enterprises have made important contributions to the economy; ensuring national sovereignty and security.

2.3.2. Impact of tourism on economic restructuring process

Compared to the Southeast region, the economic restructuring in the Central Highlands is slower, with a large proportion of region I (50.42%), region II (21.53%) and region III (28.05%). Due to the nature of natural conditions, the Central Highlands has great potential for forestry with 3081.8 ha, agricultural land with 1667.5 ha, and specialized land with 157.7 ha. Therefore, farm development in the Central Highlands is relatively

fast, there are 8835 farms, of which 6427 are perennial crop farms, 780 are livestock farms... Rice productivity in the Central Highlands is not high (46.5 quintals/ha), so there has been a shift to some areas such as rubber, pepper, cashew, cocoa, tea... to create higher commercial value. The value of forestry production in the whole region is 480.5 billion VND. The value of state industrial production from 899.8 billion VND in 2005, increased to 1036.3 billion VND in 2009, of which the value of locally managed industrial production was 493.9 billion VND. Total retail sales of goods and service revenue from 17398.2 billion VND in 2008 to 48583.1 billion VND in 2009.

From there, we see the economic restructuring in the Central Highlands in the following aspects:

- Shifting the economic structure of the sector, in which there is a positive trend in region I, shifting strongly to some areas such as mineral exploitation, long-term industrial crops such as coffee, rubber, pepper, cocoa...

- The livestock industry in region I has switched to raising cattle and poultry for meat, milk, and eggs for export and tourism.

- Growing high quality, safe vegetables and flowers has become popular. Da Lat vegetables have become a familiar brand for domestic consumers, Da Lat flowers are exported to over 20 countries around the world. Buon Ma Thuot coffee is present in the world coffee market. Lam Dong tea is expanding to the European and North American markets and currently the familiar markets are Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, etc.

- Restore and develop some traditional craft villages such as silk, brocade, bronze casting, statue carving, hand embroidery, to meet the needs of international and domestic tourists.

- Region III has had good development such as the financial and monetary system has covered all 05 provinces, post and telecommunications are considered quite good in the region. Seven universities and university branches, 31 colleges and vocational high schools and the general education system is relatively developed, meeting the human resource needs of the localities.

- Infrastructure for tourism is mainly concentrated in two provinces, Lam Dong and Dak Lak, mainly accommodation facilities, and entertainment systems are still limited. Investment in entertainment systems is a limitation of tourism in the Central Highlands.

- In short, the economic structural shift is not uniform in the three regions, especially in regions II and III. In the development process, the Central Highlands also revealed unsustainable factors that need to be properly adjusted.

2.3.3. Impact of tourism on international economic integration

Along with Vietnam joining the WTO, like the whole country, the Central Highlands also has positive movements. It can be seen in the following aspects of the economy and tourism industry:

- Export turnover increased, reaching 1,260 thousand USD in 2010 (while the whole country's was 57,096 thousand USD).

- Import turnover tends to decrease by 80,000 USD, while the whole country is 69,948 thousand USD.

- Foreign direct investment (FDI) with 164 projects with registered capital of 1,490.2 million USD, of which Lam Dong leads with 142 projects, registered capital of 1,341.3 million USD; the lowest is Dak Nong with 6 projects with 16.4 million USD registered capital. Foreign investment in the Central Highlands is mainly in the tourism sector, first of all in accommodation facilities, entertainment areas (golf courses, horse racing areas), eco-tourism areas... concentrated mainly in Lam Dong, first of all in Da Lat City.

- In the planning and development of tourism, localities have paid attention to planning routes, points, and regions to attract international tourists; considering international tourists as a long-term development strategy. Therefore, in addition to resort tourism that visitors are interested in, they have embellished and developed heritage, cultural, historical, adventure tourism spots, high-end entertainment areas, etc.

- Training and fostering for tourism staff is focused on, the training program has been applied closely to the program in the hotel system.

Regional and international tourism hotels. Tourism training facilities have used textbooks and documents from international organizations specializing in tourism training.

- Promotional activities have been strongly directed towards international media channels, such as international fairs and conferences, with tourism promotion projects on international television channels, international travel magazines, and international travel distribution agencies.

2.4. General assessment of strengths, weaknesses; opportunities and challenges in developing tourism in the Central Highlands

2.4.1. Strengths and weaknesses

2.4.1.1.Strengths

Tourism in the Central Highlands has some basic advantages for development, located close to the most dynamic economic region of Vietnam in the Southeast. The Central Highlands has a rich system of tourism resources and human resources, the basic premise for tourism development, striving to be an attractive destination for our country and Southeast Asia in the future.

With a total number of tourists reaching 2,331,877 in 2010, tourism in the Central Highlands has recovered significantly after the 2009 financial crisis, contributing to the country being recognized by UNWTO as the fastest recovering country.

Tourism in the Central Highlands contributes to changing the face of the Central Highlands, socio-economic development, political, social, security and defense stability; especially reducing poverty with flexible methods.

Tourism has impacted and changed the perception and actions of the whole region on international integration. Along with the expansion of the Bo Y and Le Thanh international border gates, the Central Highlands has the opportunity to connect international tourism routes with Laos and Cambodia by road in the form of Caravan; connecting international tourism routes from Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Hanoi.

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