HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE ************ NGUYEN THU PHONG

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY OF CONSTRUCTION HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE ************ NGUYEN THU PHONG RESEARCH ON SOUTH CENTRAL COASTAL TOURISM WHICH IS BASED ON ECOLOGICAL AND HUMANISTIC EXPLOITATION SPECIALTY : REGION & URBAN PLANNING NO. : 62 58 01 05 PHD THESIS SUMMARY URBAN & RURAL PLANNING HCMC 2013

1 A. THESIS INTRODUCTION A research with topical and imperatively scientific characteristics: From specialized perspective in regional planning, tourism economic specialism, particularly coastal tourism, there are some comments as following: - Despite general planning in Vietnam tourism development up to 2020 and 2030 vision which is approved by the gorvenment, the management system of tourism regional planning is still not completed in many provinces includes South Central Coastal Regions (SCCRs). It s still lack of a comprehensive study on the relationship between traveling demands and natural environment of the tourism region; coastal tourism is not yet maximized its potential (based on sustainable development perspective which natural ecology and humanistic ecology s value can be used effectively). - In many regions or provinces, coastal tourism is not reasonably planned or selected; it s likely to be a localized and unplanned decision or directions that are above the execution s ability, lack of connection with other functions of the urban, region or adjacent region. It cause a wrong result in tourism development scenarios comparing to the beginning idea, or there will be beneficial conflict in coastal land fund; situation of coastal lotting becomes common, inflation in resort projects, tourism real estates, golf courses; unsustainable development and lack of local community s consensus. - SCCR is favored by its nature in the fact that it owns many natural potentials and advantages such as nice weather, many beautiful swimmable beaches, and good brand in coastal tourism in decades, along with many local cultural heritages. However there is still a limit in coastal tourism in comparing to its potential. Futhermore, unorder appears in tourism development at high level. Although most of provinces have their own efforts, there is still unavailable of effective connections and a

2 harmonic & intelligent scenario to create a breakthrough factor for coastal tourism in SCCR. - Coastal tourism with natural ecology and humanistic ecology s resource: From the TIES definition (The International Ecotourism Society) [51], International Ecology Tourism Association: Ecotourism is a responsibly traveling type, which encourages local community s natural and sustainable development. In connection to featured local culture of rich South Central Region (SCR), we can see those studies in Coastal Tourism Subregion (CTS) planning, which is built on natural ecology and humanistic ecology s exploitation, is a very urgent job and a basic premise for every orientation of tourism development in SCCR. - Study subject: Main study subject of this project is coastal tourism of SCCR. This subject is observed and analysed based on other relative objects: value fund of tourism potential in humanistic ecology and natural ecology, CTS, working content of coastal tourism regional planning Research s process will be analysed deeply to discover the interactive connection among objects so that we can find out proper rules and behaviors, in order to obtain the objectives of this research. The result of this study object will be the foundation to continue learning values and rules of next study object. All objects and contents of the study based on real situation of resource and actual state of tourism development in the study area. - Study area: is within SCCR, includes beaches, swamp areas, outfalls, small islands, bays, coastal mountain area that belong to 8 provinces as following: Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan (whole province according to administrative boundaries) Reason of choosing this region for research: - It is a beautiful coastal area within Vietnam s coast, with many advantages in natural conditions, many attractions available, many

3 beautiful beaches, and many existing beaches with available sources of tourists. - Homology in weather conditions, mostly homologised from south of Hai Van mountain pass; there are a lot of shiny days, rainfalls; and the temperature is not too cold or too hot; suitable for coastal development. - Specially potential in natural ecology and humanistic ecology, specially rich in natural ecology, particular humane values in local, enough ability to concentrate conditions in order to become particular Coastal Tourism Region (CTR) of Vietnam and a high quality destination in the world map of tourism. - Share market of coastal tourism in both domestic and international, there are both competitions and cooperations in sharing sources of long trip tourists when destination lines are connected. Study objectives: - To build a criteria system of tourism resource based on exploitation in values of natural ecology and humanistic ecology. - To comprehensively assess in tourism potential, to concentrate values of natural ecology and humanistic ecology, to identify advantages of coastal tourism, to compare, and to assess ranking result for 8 provinces in the study area. To prove and identify outstanding values of tourism resource in the study area, which is enough conditions to let South Central Coast (SCC) become a world class destination for coastal tourism. - To propose for selecting and building development orientation in coastal tourism at SCCRs. Study content: - Research reality and case study in coastal tourism development in Vietnam and in the world; systematize theories, development projects. Examine contributing role of tourism resources of natural ecology and humanistic ecology in creating developing pushes in coastal tourism.

4 - To overall assess and recognize the system of resource fund in natural ecology and humanistic ecology in tourism s perspective, identify core values to form and develop CTS; to examine outstanding advantages of coastal tourism in SCR in comparing to other tourism region in Vietnam. - To identify basic components in forming and development of a CTS, to study interactivities in comprehension, to learn roles of a core city, in order to promote general strengths of all components to create connection in tourism destinations in a CTS or expand to bigger tourism area. To apply these study results into other selecting CTS. Survey content and reference of the subject: Foreign content: To study the development process and trend of coastal tourism industry in the world via experience lessons in tourism operation, which is based on preservation for natural ecology and humanistic ecology s value. The study can be done via learning the plan and the management of successful-built CTRs in other countries. Domestic content: - To update and research national development strategies, economic social strategies, regional plannings, constructional plannings, tourism planning which are published by the gorvenment, industry and provinces. - To research available STR s system of Vietnam and SCR; to classify and analyse characteristics, critical levels and potentials; to compare and assess developing opportunities. - To overall study on ecologies and tourism resource values of Vietnam. To deeply research on space distribution of leisure tourism, of natural ecologies, of nature reserves, cultural heritage sources, local humanistic ecology s values at study area. To analyse the relationship of CTR and urban regions, agricultural regions, industrial regions New proposals of the thesis:

5 - The thesis does research on tourism regional planning which is a branch of featuredly ecomonic regional planning. The thesis is to build up theoretical points of regional planning as well as to find the answer for those problems at study area with proposed models of CTS. - The thesis focuses on researching sources of natural ecologies and humanistic ecologies in 8 south central provinces. The thesis establishes detailed results from reality and also compares disadvantages of every content which based on local assessment. The result is a comprehensive investigation, a solid and scientific basis for studies that propose development strategy for coastal tourism; to systematize, prove and indicate that natural ecology and humanistic ecology s core values are required condition to bring the SCCR on the way to be the arrival point of coastal tourism at international level. - The thesis proposes the specifically key CTS at SCCR; determines the core values and resources of tourism; builds and orientates the tourism products; plans space and scenarios for expanding subregional tourism. These are new results which don t coincide with existing scientific researches. Research method: Inland and outland methods of site investigation and survey, systematic method, statistical and schematized method, quantified method of assessment matrix, general method of analysis, map method. Scientific and practical significance of the thesis: - Building an overall assessment system having scientific premise of potential for resources fund of natural ecology and humanistic ecology, serving the planning research of tourism region in general and applying to the CTS models in particular. - Directly contributing research results to the development orientation of National Tourism Program, specific action strategies of Planning of CTR and projects of tourism development at SCCR s cities and provinces.

6 - Applying to the practical development of SCCR tourism, selecting the key objectives, determining solutions and management tools of investment, marketing, efficient exploitation of CTS, tourism area and coastal tourism destinations. Thesis structure: The whole thesis consists of 150 pages, apart from the issue raising part (7 pages) and conclusion (5 pages), the thesis content includes 138 pages divided into 4 chapters: - Chapter 1: planning overview of CTR at SCCR - 43 pages. - Chapter 2: Scientific premise and methodology of planning research of CTR at SCCR- 26 pages. - Chapter 3: Survey result of tourism resources fund and proposal for selection of CTS at SCCRs - 36 pages. - Chapter 4: Widening the research result and proposal for orientation of developing CTS at SCCR - 33 pages. B. THESIS CONTENT CHAPTER I: PLANNING OVERVIEW OF COASTAL TOURISM AT CENTRAL REGION 1.1Terminologies, definitions and concept 1.1.1 Awareness and access to concept, terminologies The research content of this thesis refers to 2 scientific sectors such as: Tourism and planning trades focusing deeply and professionally on regional planning and CTR planning. To unify the whole content of thesis, the basic concepts will be defined personally by the author s view point according to these principles: general principle, common principle, default principle, frame of reference in space of specialized planning and building specific theoretical point. 1.1.2 Tourism and types There are many diversified tourism types, the thesis only mentions coastal tourism types on the premise of exploiting and resonating with the values of natural ecology and humanistic ecology. The concepts of

7 ecotourism, cultural tourism and vacation tourism, leisure tourism and coastal tourism shall be distinguished. 1.1.3 Values of tourism resources The tourism exploitation must always be done in respecting and maintaining the specifically ecological environment s values of locality such as: natural ecology, humanistic ecology, ecological environment in the sea. From the theory of sustainable development, the model of «Sustainable coastal tourism development» with following targets and subjects: economic target, social target (humanistic ecology environment of coastal region), natural resource protection target (natural ecology environment of coastal region) is proposed. 1.1.4 Terminology and specialized concept of regional planning Definition of coastal tourism region (CTR): is the territory where there are many tourism resource, many advantages of natural conditions which collect many natural and humanistic ecology values that attracts visitors. The CTR may have many beautiful landscapes, good climate which is convenient for vacation, resort; with infrastructures responding to the tourism expansion; and is the region having huge economic weighting structure from tourism revenue source and auxiliary service trades. Coastal tourism subregion (CTS) : is the region where are focused all types of vacation, resort tourism on the premise of exploiting resources, potential of coastal tourism: resources of beach, of coastal landscape, coastal climate and coastal sport s potential, coastal ecology resources, coastal land, islands...the CTS does not restrict only the narrow space of coastal land strips which specialize in exploiting the coastal tourism but also widens and associates with other tourism resources, connects with urban and industrial regions. 1.1.5 Tourism Regional Planning (TRP) From the definition of regional planning, the TRP is defined, the tourism regional territory boundary is determined in the view of finding the contents of TRP. The targets of TRP are to find out the measures of

8 regional building and planning, of land planning and use in the most appropriate manner for the need and prospect for the regional tourism development. The mission of TRP is to concretize the action programs of tourism development associated with the land resources usage and other functions of the region. Content of regional planning and orientations: - Selecting, proposing the space of developing key tourism regions. - Determining the functional structures of regional space, the relationship between urban region, production region... etc and tourism regions. - Orientating social infrastructures, infrastructures which connect and serve the tourism regional development. - Orientating the standardization of regulations on planning, building tourism functional areas: tourism zone, tourism destination, and tourism building. 1.2 Developing process of coastal tourism in the world: Observing the development process of coastal tourism in the world; from the stage of before the 1 st war, the coastal tourism was only focused in Europe on the rich class of tourists; in the stage of 1920-1945 with the development project of the first coastal tourism; in the booming stage of after the 2 nd war to the decade of 80s with the apparition of many arrival points of attractive coastal tourism in the Caribbeans, Pacific of Asia, Indian Ocean; in the stage from decade of 90s up to now with new models of coastal tourism of high quality and huge investment in Singapore, Middle East The main markets of coastal tourism are divided as follows: Europe- Mediterranean, America, Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean. Table 1-2: Outstanding values which create the success of famous tourism

Locality 9 destinations in the world. Coast-beach conditions Natural ecological values Humanistic ecological values Modern values National policy, concentrated support from the government Phuket, Thailand X X X X Bali, Indonesia X X X X Langkawi, Malaysia X X X Sentosa, Singapore X X Maldives X X X Hawaii, America X X X X X Cancun, Mexico X X X X St Tropez, France X X X Some precious experience lessons which create the success of famous tourism destinations in the world and can be applied in Vietnam: - Efficient exploitation of favorably natural conditions. - Maintaining the character of specific culture. - Vision and leadership role of government in the development. - Encouraging all social investment resources. - Harmonizing the interests of local community and economic development. - Protection and re-creation of environment. - Brand name innovating marketing and building. 1.3 Process of coastal tourism development in Vietnam Vietnam coastal tourism still has a young history and is developed through different stages, feudal periods; the first coastal tourism destinations were established by the colonialist France; they are reestablished after Independence, under the open-door economic period from decade of 90s and under the new change of 2000-2010. Observing

10 the contents on real situation and orientations, trends as following: the role of coastal tourism in the sea economic development strategy of Vietnam; natural potential; system of Vietnam CTRs. 1.4 Situation of coastal tourism at SCCR Observing the scale and growth of tourist market, touristic turnover. The statistics of hotel and coastal resort system shows in 2008, the whole region has only 106 standard accommodation establishments from 3 stars and above; the average investment growth speed of material facilities of coastal tourism is 15%, particularly there are many resort hotels with high quality in the hot investment markets such as Da Nang, Nha Trang. Up to 2013, the whole region with 36 resorts at 5 stars was put into operation. The existing regions and the foreseen ones for coastal tourism expansion: Apart from the coastal tourist spots which were formed and have created its brand name in Vietnam, in the research area, a competition of the coastal tourism areas was formed between localities with many ambitious projects which exploit fully the coastal land fund to make tours, to build resort and golf courses: 1. Coastal tourism area in Son Tra - MyKhe - Non Nuoc Cua Dai 2. Coastal tourism area in Chu Lai along Truong Giang - Tam Hai 3. Coastal tourism area in Phuong Mai Quy Nhon - Song Cau peninsula 4. Coastal tourism area in Khanh Hoa province 5. Coastal tourism area in Ninh Chu Vinh Hy Nui Chua 6. Coastal tourism area in Phan Thiet Mui Ne - Hon Rom Hoa Thang 7. Coastal tourism area in Ham Tan - Ham Thuan Besides these stated areas, there are some famous tourist spots from long time ago but now they are polluted, rampantly built and are downgraded such as: CTR of Sa Huynh Quang Ngai, CTR of Ca Na Binh Thuan- Ninh Thuan.

11 1.5 Overview of natural condition and socio-economic situation of South of Central part cities and provinces Investing, surveying the indexes and characteristics of natural condition, urban-administrative-geographical characteristics, technical infrastructure, social infrastructure of human resources, cultural life, beliefs and religions in 10 studied cities and provinces. 1.6 Risks of the developing process of coastal tourism at the SCCR - The CTRs are lack of uniformity, spontaneous, crumbling and are at risk of being backward immediately upon the planning is made for investment preparation. - Lack of selecting the usetype of appropriate coastal land. - Risks of hurting the naturally ecological environment, breaking the ecological balance and destroying the environment. - Risk of conflict between tourism development and interest of local community. - Risks of losing the development opportunity of high quality coastal tourism, of not maintaining and exploiting well the tourism resources, leading to lose the competitive force with other regions and lose the role of being the pioneer arrival point of Vietnam coastal tourism comparing to the regions and international. 1.7 Publicized scientific researches referring to the thesis theme Decision No. 201/2013 QĐ-TTg by the Prime Minister approving general planning of Vietnam tourism development until 2020 and vision of 2030 is one of the important technical-legal premises being referenced. Apart from this, there are researches of tourism development made by the Research Institute belonging to the Ministry of Tourism-Sports-Culture, research themes of trade, projects of socio-economic planning and constructional planning, tourism planning of localities. The PhD thesis in the same domain to be stated is the ones by Dr Architect Nguyen Thu Hanh and Associate Professor Dr Architect Do Tu Lan. As for individual researches, there are many authors such as Ha Van

12 Sieu, Nguyen Duy Tuan, Pham Trung Luong; in the seminars of sea urban architecture, of coastal tourism architecture organized by Vietnam Architecture Association there are speeches of Hoang Dao Kinh, Tran Trong Hanh, Nguyen Quoc Thong CHAPTER II: SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL PREMISES, VIEWPOINT AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research viewpoint: the thesis is built on the basis of thought and access viewpoints as following: Accessing the matter comprehensively and scientifically; with topicality; comment and review; access under the criteria of efficient exploitation of natural ecology and humanistic ecology s values; access under the criteria of market economy; intermediary role of science and theory application and targets of sustainable coastal tourism development. 2.2 Research method: Systematization of studied matters on the following scientific method premises: methods of system, survey investigation, statistics and assessment; methods of statisticsschematization-comparison; methods of modeling, mapping, zoningmethods of map overlaying; method of quantification - assessment matrix. In which 2 surveying programs are performed: - Program 1: the famous tourist spots in the world, the surveying ticket of information collecting contents of: Overview, development history, natural-social and tourism situations, learning about natural conditions, natural ecology and humanistic ecology s conditions & values, and experience lessons. - Program 2: the coastal localities at the Central part in the scope of research region, surveying ticket of information collecting contents of: Overviews, socio-economic information, climatic natural condition, tourism real situation, natural ecology and humanistic ecology s resources and assessment analyses.

13 - Program of sociology investigation: distribution of investigation ticket to 69 persons aiming at collecting opinions on the habit, demand and hobby of coastal tourists. 2.3 Legal premise, regional strategies and national action program on tourism Based on the important legal framework of the Government and of trades, these are the basic orientations to the development of CTS in connection with other socio-economic factors. 2.4 Planning premise and important planning projects - Regional central cities: Researching the regional central city planning project such as Da Nang, Quy Nhon and Nha Trang as well as urban planning projects of other provinces. - In the Central territory which is in the research scope of theme, there are 5 big economic regions being established by the government: Economic regions of Chu Lai, of Dung Quat, of Nhon Hoi, of Phu Yen South and of Van Phong. These economic regions have the general multitrade functions; have developing space of coastal tourism and investment preferential statutes. - Planning project of typical CTR: TRP of Bai Dai - Cam Ranh, Khanh Hoa Sea. - Communities of coastal tourism with future huge scope in Vietnam. 2.5 Practical premise from the development-management of coastal tourism - Practical building planning work - Practical tourism exploitation management work - Practical propaganda - Marketing - building of tourism trade name. 2.6 Practical premise from activities of coastal tourism - Demand and hobby of coastal tourists. - Market of coastal tourists.

14 - Market of international and domestic tourists. - Development trend of coastal tourism at SCCR. CHAPTER III: SURVEY RESULT OF TOURISM RESOURCE FUNDAND PROPOSAL OF SELECTING COASTAL TOURISM SUB-REGIONS AT AT THE CENTRAL COAST 3.1 Building of tourism resource value system Referencing the practical and theoretical experiences of world tourism organizations and applying to Vietnamese condition, the value system of existing tourism infrastructures and potential resource of development in the future is divided into 5 main groups as follows: natural conditions, natural ecological resource, humanistic ecological resource, infrastructure and tourism development management work. 3.2 Building the selection result of CTS following 3 screening steps - Step 1: Point assessment of the criteria which are structured with point according to value group so as to find out total point of preliminary assessment of tourism potential of localities. - Step 2: Generalizing point, regional association of adjacent localities for pairgroup creation of basic CTS. - Step 3: Based on the radius of tourist service, high concentration density of tourism resources, the CTS will be proposed. 3.3 Principle of setting priority order, marking scheme coefficient, assessment & summary of result: Assessment marking table is divided into 2 grades with different weightings corresponding to the important level and the decisive character the content. The total assessment point is 500 points with 25 content items and 16 detailed sub-items; the marking scheme is wide enough and convenient to 2 standard assessments: point coefficient and assessment point specific content. There are18 criteria of quantity assessment with specific data, 7 quality assessment criteria. 5 value groups being structured with point at different level of ratio in view of ensuring the important role, the point affecting the common assessment:

15 - Natural condition group: 135 /500 points - 27% total point. - Natural ecology resource group: 65 /500 points - 13% total point - Humanistic ecology resource group: 125 /500 points - 25% total point - Infrastructure group: 125 /500 points - 25% total point. - Tourism develop ment management group: 50 /500 points - 10% total point. 3.4 Assessment point and result assessment: The contents will be collated and be marked many times; continuous adjustment so as to find out the most right objective result. The detailed point will be shown in the description underform of vertical matrix for localities and of horizontal matrix for contents. 3.5 Point summary and determination of compared sub-regions 3.5.1 Summary of point: the score assessing comprehensively the tourism resource values of 8 cities-provinces in the research region has shown in 3 groups: outstanding or developed, potential and reserved ones: - Developed group (with total point of over 350): Khanh Hoa (399 points), Da Nang (388 point) and Quang Nam (366 points) - Potential group (with a total point from 300-350 points): Binh Thuan (329 points) and Binh Dinh (322 points) and Ninh Thuan (307 points) - Reserved group (below 300 points): Phu Yen (288 points) and Quang Ngai (269 points). 3.5.2 Access for widening and reviewing result: Should we only look at this result system and focus on developing the strong points, leave the weak localities then the final outcome and measures are not comprehensive. Therefore some approaches and discussions are brought out for reviewing, considering multifaceted matters so as to find out the reasonable result: - Widening the regional space without limitation on local border line.

16 - Coordinating, combining the values aiming at compensating the weak points of a single locality. - Merging the weak localities into bigger tourism resource having a strong locality acting in the role of leader. - Increasing the competition between inter-provincial regions. - Eliminating the geographical areas whose tourism potential is minimal; the traffic radius is far and is not considered for expansion. - Coordinating the tourism values at the outside of the region. 3.5.3 Building the CTS and compared scenarios The concept of inter-provincial tourism sub-region shows a territory including many provinces which coordinate fully the geographical space or coordinate partially on the basis of exploitation, supplementation of tourism resource values. The author suggests 2 research types of regional selection solutions: - Solution 1: is simply a geographical border line join of continuous localities in a spatial series of the studied region. - Solution 2: selecting regions having many potentials of developing the coastal tourism in the strongest way so as to study, to associate with the permission of widening into adjoining localities and increase the supplementary values. 3.6 Advantages and core values of tourism resource at SCCR: From the careful researches of the real situation, the author has systematized and re-selected the most appropriate factors which were possessed by the central coastal tourism through which the Central coast has opportunities to confirm the ability of becoming one of the leading coastal tourist s destinations in Vietnam and at an international level. Some deep analyses are made on the tourism resource values of the SCCR through following contents: - A system of long beaches with above 10 km length and ability of expanding at a big scale the communities of coastal tourism.

17 - A system of geographical area able to be exploited with the model of any specific tourism model. - Differences and advantages of coastal tourism at SCCR comparing to other regions in Vietnam. 3.7 Method of joining geographical border line, resonating with the tourism region s values: 5 sub-regions being selected integrally namely: Da Nang-North of Quang Nam; South of Quang Nam-Quang Ngai; Binh Dinh-Phu Yen; Khanh Hoa-North of Ninh Thuan; South of Ninh Thuan- Binh Thuan.This zoning still has the character of simple one since the previous territory of 8 cities-provinces is replaced by that of 5 integral regions having close border line and similar area of the studied region. 3.8 Composed method of selected region based on the focus of resource values: This method is a solution of comparison, discussion, condensation of values in view of finding out the CTS having the highest competitive force and focusing on sectors of specific advantage and potential, without repetition of tourism product types. The border line of selected sub-regions is based on the concentration of the most convenient sectors with close radius and exclusive of sectors where tourism is underdeveloped and has no opportunity of competition in the future. There are 4 sub-regions being zoned for selection: 1. Sub-region of Da Nang - Quang Nam 2. Sub-region of South of Binh Dinh North of Phu Yen 3. Sub-region of Khanh Hoa Ninh Thuan 4. Sub-region of South of Binh Thuan 3.9 Development orientation proposal of CTS of SCCR and reserved regions of coastal tourism Table 3-1: Comparison of specific values and development role of CTS at SCCR CTS Outstanding value developing role Sub-region of Da General tourist region at national level Nang Quang Nam represents fully the cultural character of the SCCR