Sustainable tourism destination management - Some theoretical issues and management suggestions

Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion

Tạp chí Khoa học - Trường Đại học Mở Hà Nội 72 (10/2020) 39-48

39

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DESTINATION MANAGE-

MENT - SOME THEORETICAL ISSUES AND MANAGE-

MENT SUGGESTIONS

Vu Huong Giang^*

Date received the article: 3/4/2020

Date received the review results: 5/10/2020

Date published the article: 26/10/2020

Abstract: For the sustainable development of a tourism destination, destination man-

agement organizations need to make a plan of developing tourism according to the three

pillars of the sustainable triangle: economy, society, and the environment in order to en-

sure the harmonious beneﬁts for all stakeholders. Some suggestions for sustainable tourism

management include: raising awareness about sustainable tourism, conserving natural and

cultural values, minimizing impacts of seasonality on tourism, minimizing negative impacts

on the environment from tourism activities, increasing the participation of local communities

in tourism activities.

Keywords: tourism destination, tourism destination management, sustainable development,

sustainable tourism destination management.

1. Introduction

ities, without compromising the ability to

meet the demand of tourism in the future.

Accordingly, in order for the tourism des-

tinations to develop in a sustainable way,

some suggestions can be considered in-

clude: raising awareness about sustainable

tourism, preserving natural and cultural

values, minimizing the impact of tourism

seasonality or increasing the participation

of local communities in tourism activities.

Apart from positive impacts, the neg-

ative impacts of tourism activities in terms

of economy, culture - society and environ-

ment are not small. This has put tourism

destinations in the requirements for sus-

tainable management. Tourism destination

management is an impact that is continu-

ously adjusted by public power, mainly

through the laws to establish a stable order

for the activities and social relations aris-

ing in the ﬁeld of tourism. Developing a

sustainable tourism destination according

to the three pillars of sustainability helps

ensure the harmonization of interests of all

stakeholders participating in tourism activ-

2. Tourism destination manage-

ment

2.1. Deﬁnition

In Vietnam, tourism destination

management is carried out by state-owned

* Faculty of Tourism - Hanoi Open University

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Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion

management organizations at diﬀerent

levels. Therefore, the concept of tourism

destination management can be under-

stood as state management in tourism.

Hence, to clarify the concept of tourist

destination management, it is necessary to

clarify the concept of state management in

tourism.

laws based on the certain political institu-

tions for tourism processes and activities

to achieve socio-economic eﬃciency and

goals set by the nation”

With the above concept, the concept

of tourism destination management is

proposed as follows: Tourism destination

management is an organized and contin-

uously adjusted impact by public power

through laws to establish a stable order for

activities and social relations arises in the

ﬁeld of tourism sector to achieve the tour-

ism destination’s goals.

According to the most common

opinions, management is considered as

a series of activities aimed at organizing

and directing the managerial entity on a

managed object to adjust social processes

and human behaviors in order to maintain

the stability and development of the man-

agement object to meet the set goals.

From this concept it is possible to

determine:

- Tourist destination management

subjects are the State’s representative

agencies or authorized by the State.

From this point of view, the concept

of state management is understood as a

special form of social management which

is carried out by organizations in the state

apparatus, using state laws to regulate hu-

man behaviors in all ﬁelds of social life to

satisfy the legal needs of human beings,

maintain the stability and development of

the society. In other words, this is the ex-

ercise of state power carried out by state

agencies in order to establish a stable or-

der and social development according

to the goals set by the ruling class. State

management appears with the appearance

of the State and changes depending on the

political regime, socio-economic develop-

ment level of each country.

+ The State management agen-

cies on tourism at central level include:

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism,

General Department of Tourism and other

functions; Ministries such as: Ministry of

Finance, Ministry of Public Security, Min-

istry of Planning and Investment ...

+ In the locality, in the state appara-

tus structure, there are also similar agen-

cies at the central level such as the Depart-

ment of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the

Department of Finance, the Public Securi-

ty, the Department of Planning and Invest-

ment ... but only management functions in

the area and subject to the direction of ver-

tical agencies in the central state apparatus

structure.

According to this approach, the

deﬁnition of State management on tour-

ism has been clariﬁed by scholars. One

of them, Tran Nhu Dao (2017) claimed:

“State management of tourism is seen as

an organized impact and continuously ad-

justed by public power, mainly through

From this deﬁnition, we can deter-

mine:

DMO plays an important role in

leading and coordinating tourism activi-

Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion

41

ties with a strategic plan. Hence, tourism

destination management should be ap-

proached with a strategic framework to

ensure the best tourism destination man-

agement performance.

environment, economy and social culture

at the destination. At the same time, it helps

strengthen tourism resources to meet the

needs of tourists and local communities not

only in the present but also in the future.

In order to get the eﬀectiveness of

the tourism destination management, it is

necessary to build diﬀerent strategic plans

for diﬀerent periods of time to ensure the

sustainable development with the partici-

pation of all the stakeholders. These plans

will be regularly accessed and updated.

2.3. Contents of tourism destina-

tion management

According to UNWTO (2007), there

are 03 main contents in the tourism desti-

nation management. They are:

Creating a suitable environment

for the development of tourism destination

2.2. Roles of tourism destination

management

Creating a suitable environment for

tourism activities to develop is a funda-

mental and key task of destination man-

agement. The creation of a suitable envi-

ronment will facilitate marketing activities

as well as providing experiences for visi-

tors to be deployed eﬀectively. Before a

traveler is attracted to a destination’s mar-

keting activities or before they decide to

choose a destination for their itinerary, it

is imperative that there is a suitable social,

economic, and physical environment to

develop tourism activities. Therefore, the

establishment of tourism destination man-

agement organizations is essential to the

most sustainable tourism development.

Tourism destinations management

plays a signiﬁcant role in the development

of tourism destination. Due to the man-

agement, tourism activities develop and

it leads to the development of the local

communities in terms of economy, social

culture and environment.

Especially, tourism destination

management activities can help enhance

the competitiveness of the destination. It

suitably coordinates the eﬀorts of devel-

oping tourism destinations so that it will

be easier for the DMOs to identify the

management gaps. This contributes to

the development of the industry operating

in an environment which is more and more

dynamic and full of competitiveness.

The content of creatings suitable en-

vironment for tourism activities is diverse

but mainly includes:

Besides, tourism destination man-

agement has a key role in ensuring the

sustainable development of a tourism des-

tination. An ineﬀective destination man-

agement plan will destroy the environment,

cause socio-cultural conﬂicts and aﬀect

local communities in the destination. Sus-

tainable tourism development helps man-

age the impacts of tourism activities on the

- Planning and developing tourism

infrastructure;

- Developing tourism human re-

sources;

- Developing tourism products;

- Developing technologies and sys-

tems to support tourism activities;

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- Developing other supporting in-

dustries.

experience to visitors, especially in tourism

destination’s public areas;

Tourism destination marketing

- Developing new products;

Tourism destination marketing is

activities aimed at attracting tourists to the

destination. These activities should focus

on promoting the most attractive char-

acteristics of the destination to potential

tourists to persuade them to choose the

destination for their journey. Key func-

tions of destination marketing include:

- Developing and managing tourism

events;

- Developing and managing tourist

attractions;

- Tourism education and training;

- Consulting tourism business;

- Researching and developing tour-

ism strategies.

- Deploying destination branding

and positioning strategies;

Normally, tourism destination man-

agement is easily deployed in the public

sector, within a sub-region, province or city,

as most tourism infrastructure is funded or

invested from the state budget. However, in

order to bring the best experiences to tour-

ists, DMOs need to deploy the management

in a wide range of areas within the desti-

nation’s administrative boundaries with the

participation of all the stakeholders.

- Deploying promotion campaigns

to promote business activities, especially

business activities of small and medium

tourism enterprises;

- Providing public and transparent

information services;

- Operating and facilitating custom-

er services;

- Managing customer relationships.

3. Sustainable tourism destination

It is not necessary to implement a

thorough marketing plan for the whole

destination. It can be deployed in diﬀerent

sub-areas with diﬀerent marketing plans.

But it must aim at creating a consistent

positive image for the destination and

avoid making conﬂicts for target markets

in identifying the destination.

management

3.1. Concept of sustainable tourism

destination management

Sustainable tourism destination

management can be understood as tour-

ism destination management towards the

goal of sustainable tourism development.

Therefore, to understand the concept of

sustainable tourism destination manage-

ment, it is necessary to clarify the concept

of sustainable tourism development.

Delivery on the ground

Tourism destination management

helps ensure the quality of services provid-

ed to tourists during their stays at the des-

tination. It includes these following activi-

ties:

According to Vietnam Tourism Law

(2017), the concept of sustainable tourism

development is understood as “the tourism

development which meets the socio-eco-

nomic and environmental requirements

- Coordinating and managing tour-

ism activities to bring the highest quality of

Nghiên cứu trao đổi ● Research-Exchange of opinion

43

at the same time, ensures the harmony of

According to this concept of sus-

tainable tourism destination management,

all of the contents of tourism destination

management must be deployed with the

requirements of tourism sustainable de-

velopment. Every tourism destination de-

velopment’s policy and strategy have to

meet economic, social and environmental

requirements to ensure the harmonious

beneﬁts for all the stakeholders.

beneﬁts of all stakeholders participating

in tourism activities and does not harm

the ability to meet tourism needs in the fu-

ture”. In particular, the economic, cultural

- social and environmental requirements

can be understood in the interpretation of

UNWTO (1992) as follows:

- Economic factors: Ensuring

long-term economic activities, provid-

ing socio-economic beneﬁts to all ben-

eﬁciaries and equally distributing to all

stakeholders. The association generates

stable proﬁts and social services for local

communities, and contributes to poverty

alleviation.

In this way, present tourism activi-

ties can guarantee the least damage on the

future tourism demand.

3.2. Model of sustainable tourism

destination management

- Social - Cultural factors: Respect

the social and cultural authentics of local

communities, preserve cultural heritages

and traditional values and contribute to

mutual understanding and cross-cultural

exchange.

Reaching the right balance of eco-

nomic, social and environmental beneﬁts

in the tourism destination development

is not a simple task. However, according

to UNWTO (2007), it is shown that the

VICE model can meet these requirements

and can help DMOs to develop a destina-

tion management plan.

- Environmental factors: maintain-

ing essential ecological processes, main-

taining natural heritages and natural bio-

diversities.

From this point of view, the concept

of sustainable tourism destination man-

agement can be understood as the orga-

nized and continuously adjusted impact

by public power, mainly through the law

to establish a stable order for activities

and relationships. a society arises in the

tourism sector, aiming to develop a sus-

tainable destination in all three economic,

social and environmental pillars to ensure

the harmonization of interests of actors

participating in tourism activities, does

not prejudice the ability to meet the de-

mand for tourism in the future.

The VICE model describes desti-

nation management as an interaction be-

tween tourists, tourism industry (tourism

business organizations), local commu-

nity, and the environment in which tour-

ism interactions take place. In particular,

the environment can be understood in

the broadest sense, including natural and

cultural tourism resources, which are the

most important material for creating and

developing tourism products.

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natural environment / indigenous culture

of the tourist destination?

If it is not possible to give a positive

answer to all four questions above, the

balance of beneﬁts between socio-eco-

nomic- environmental factors has not

been achieved and therefore the deci-

sions or proposed activities certainly does

not guarantee sustainability. Hence, in

parallel with the planning, principles of

sustainable tourism development should

(Source: UNWTO, 2007)

always be considered throughout the des-

tination management process to ensure

the sustainability of tourism activities in

the destination. In which, the principles

of sustainable tourism development are

clearly speciﬁed in Article 4 of the Viet-

nam Tourism Law 2017:

According to this model, DMOs

are in charge of working with partners to

build a tourism destination management

plan in order to:

- Welcoming, serving and bringing

satisfaction to tourists;

- Developing sustainable tourism,

- Building a prosperous and proﬁt-

following the strategy, planning in focus.

able tourism industry;

- Developing tourism in association

with conserving and promoting the values

of national cultural heritages and natural

resources, exploiting the advantages of

each locality and strengthening the re-

gional connectivities.

- Attracting participation and bene-

ﬁting local communities from tourism ac-

tivities;

- Protecting and strengthening the

indegenous environment and culture.

This model is also used to quickly

examine the sustainability of tourist des-

tination management plans. Accordingly,

four questions will be asked to test the

level of sustainability of the management

decisions or proposed policies. They are:

- Ensuring national sovereignty, na-

tional defense, security, social order and

safety; expanding foreign relationships

and international integrations, promoting

the images of the country and people of

Vietnam.

- How will this decision/ policy af-

fect the tourists?

- Ensuring national interests, com-

munity interests, legitimate rights and in-

terests of tourists, tourism business orga-

nizations and individuals.

- How will these activities aﬀect

tourism business organizations?

- How will these activities aﬀect the

local community?

- Simultaneously developing do-

mestic and international tourism; respect-

ing and treating tourists equally.

- How will these activities aﬀect the

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3.3. Some suggestions for sustain-

able tourism destination management

ment of natural and cultural values that

cater to tourism, tourism destination man-

agement organizations can directly sup-

port tourist destinations in the preserva-

tion, restoration and degradation of these

values. The conservation of natural and

cultural values should be consulted with

professional bodies prior to implementa-

tion to ensure the intact conservation of

inherent values but can still be exploited

eﬀectively for tourism activities at the

destination.

3.3.1. Raising awareness of sustain-

able tourism management

Perception determines action.

Therefore, in order for developing tour-

ism in a sustainabe way, DMOs need to

raise awareness about the sustainability of

tourism activities for: tourists, local com-

munities and other tourism business orga-

nizations. Activities of raising awareness

can vary from person to person, depend-

ing on the approach, but they should aim

at raising awareness of the roles and im-

portances of sustainable tourism develop-

ment through proposing Do’s and Don’ts

for each stakeholder when participating in

tourism activities at the destination. And

when the awareness of the implications

develops, visitors, local communities and

tourism business organizations will be

able to practice participating in tourism in

a responsible and responsive way to real-

ize the sustainable development goals for

the tourism destination development.

In addition, tourism destination

management organizations can socialize

activities to protect and promote the nat-

ural and cultural values of the locality

through mobilizing capital from organi-

zations, unions, businesses, communities

and aid from international organizations,

governmental organizations, and non-gov-

ernmental organizations for the conserva-

tion and promotion of natural and cultural

values.

3.3.3. Minimize the impact of sea-

sonality in tourism

3.3.2. Preserving natural and cul-

tural values

Seasonality in tourism is a common

rule in all countries and regions where

tourism is active. Tourism seasonality is a

repetitive ﬂuctuation in the supply and de-

mand of tourism services and goods that

occurs under the inﬂuence of certain fac-

tors. Tourism season is a period of a busi-

ness cycle, where there is the highest con-

centration of tourism supply and demand.

The natural and cultural values have

been associated with the local community

in the tourist destination for a long time.

This is also the material to create tourism

products and services for tourists to expe-

rience. Therefore, the preservation of nat-

ural and cultural values is not only one of

the core strategies to help tourism destina-

tions preserve their indigenous values, but

also help ensure the local tourism resourc-

es are exploited responsibly.

Seasonality in tourism creates the

main season and oﬀ-season in tourism.

In the main season, when the demand for

tourism increases, the number of tourists

concentrating in the winter destination

will stimulate the demand for consump-

In addition to create a suitable legal

corridor for the protection and manage-

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tion and purchase of tourism products and

services at the destination. This has a direct

impact in promoting the business of local

tourism business organizations, providing

more job opportunities for the local com-

munity, thereby increasing income, con-

tributing to part of improving the quality

of life of indigenous people. Meanwhile,

during the low season (oﬀ-season), a de-

crease in the number of tourists arriving at

the destination will give tourism resources

time to recover, and have opportunities for

infrastructure and technical infrastructure

renovated and newly built.

the income from taxes and fees brought

in by tourism also decreases. In addition,

seasonality in tourism also has a signiﬁ-

cant impact on tourists when participating

in tourism activities locally. In the main

season, the number of tourists is crowded,

the capacity of the destination falls into

an alarming situation, which will aﬀect

the quality of service provided to visitors,

thereby greatly aﬀecting the experience of

tourists there. There are also adverse im-

pacts on tourism businesses because sea-

sonality is shown when tourism demand

increases to a level that exceeds the sup-

ply capacity of tourism businesses. This

causes an impact on all aspects of busi-

ness activities, especially the quality of

tourism services, on the organization and

use of tourism human resources.

However, in addition to the posi-

tive impacts, tourism seasonality also has

adverse eﬀects on all participants in the

tourism process, including: local com-

munities, local authorities, tourists and

tourism business organizations. For local

communities, during the main season,

when the demand for tourism is too large,

it causes an imbalance and instability in

the transport and infrastructure system,

technical infrastructure social (traﬃc,

electricity, water, commercial network

...), aﬀecting the daily life of local people.

In the oﬀ season, the demand for tourism

decreases, the seasonal contractors will be

unemployed and full-time employees also

have lower income in the low season. In

addition, the seasonality in tourism also

creates negative impacts on local authori-

ties because when the demand for tourism

is too large, it will cause many imbalanc-

es for the protection of public order and

security of subsistence. At a certain ex-

tent, the seasonality causes diﬃculties for

state management of tourism activities (at

the central and local levels). Meanwhile,

when the demand for tourism decreases,

Therefore, ﬁnding ways to prolong

the tourist season is an eﬀective solution to

minimize the seasonal impact of tourism.

However, in order to prolong the tourist

season, it is necessary to look for speciﬁc

solutions to improve the attractiveness of

the destination at extended times. Some of

the things that need to be considered to de-

termine a destination’s ability to extend the

tourist season include: Determining which

type of tourism is suitable to develop over

an extended period and the possibility of

combining some diﬀerent types of tourism

during that time, determine the value and

availability of the destination’s tourism

resources, determine the reception capaci-

ty of tourism facilities and techniques, de-

termine the availability Labor resources,

research organization experience of other

domestic and world destinations. After

determining the potential for prolongation

of the tourism season, tourism destination

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47

management organizations need to deter-

mine what types of tourism can be devel-

oped.

beneﬁts obtained from tourism activities.

- Control of transport vehicles in

service of tourism: Emission from trans-

port vehicles for tourism is one of the

main causes of environmental pollution.

Therefore, destination management or-

ganizations need to rely on the pollution

level of each type of vehicle to determine

the types of vehicles that are allowed to

circulate for tourism as well as identify

should be limited to minimize the level of

environmental pollution.

In addition, the readiness to welcome

tourists all year round for tourist destina-

tions can be enhanced by improving the

quality and improving the infrastructure

andfacilities-tourism techniques, creating

interest to better meet the diverse needs of

visitors. At the same time, tourism desti-

nation management organizations should

encourage the activeness of tourism busi-

ness organizations in prolonging the tour-

ism season, such as using discounts and

promotions to stimulate tourists to travel

outside the main season.

- Develop a set of guidelines for the

implementation of regulations on waste

and wastewater treatment from tourism

business establishments into the environ-

ment. At the same time, strongly imple-

ment the handling of violations of regu-

lations.

3.3.4. Minimize negative environ-

mental impacts from tourism

Tourism development can bring

positive impacts to the environment such

as contributing to enhancing environmen-

tal values, improving environmental qual-

ity or improving people’s understanding

of the environment in general. . However,

tourism without good control can also be-

come a cause of problems with wastewa-

ter, waste, air pollution and environmental

landscape.

- Label “eco”, label “green” for

tourism products and services meeting the

requirements of environmental protection

to encourage organizations to do business

in a sustainable direction.

3.3.5. Increase participation of lo-

cal communities in tourism

Ensuring the beneﬁts of local com-

munities when participating in tourism

is one of the fundamental goals of sus-

tainable tourism development. However,

local communities can only beneﬁt the

most from tourism when they participate

in the provision of products and services

for tourism activities locally. Therefore,

increasing the participation of local com-

munities in tourism is essential to ensure

sustainable tourism development at the

destination.

Here are some tips to help tourism

destination management organizations

control the negative environmental im-

pacts of tourism:

- Determination of destination ca-

pacity: Determining the destination’s

capacity including mechanical capacity,

ecological capacity, and social capacity to

ensure the activities of tourists are with-

in the “ endure “the tourist destination”,

do not signiﬁcantly aﬀect the daily life of

the local community, do not pollute the

environment but still ensure the economic

Some suggestions for increasing

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2. Quốc Hội nước CHXHCN Việt Nam, 2017,

Luật Du lịch, Việt Nam.

local community participation in tourism

include:

- Organize training to raise awareness

of local communities on tourism;

- Organize training to improve tourist

service skills for local community;

- Enabling local communities to par-

ticipate in decision-making in destination

tourism development strategies;

3. Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Mai, Nguyễn Thị Thu

Mai, 2020, “Quản lý điểm đến du lịch”, NXB

Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân.

4. Kotler P., Bowen J., Makens J, 2006, Mar-

keting for Hospitality and Tourism 3^rdedition,

Pearson.

- Supporting preferential loans for

households who have the desire and abil-

ity to participate in activities to provide

products and services for tourists;

- Support to connect customer markets

to increase the eﬃciency of business ac-

tivities of local communities...

The role of tourism destination man-

agement organizations is of utmost im-

portance in ensuring the sustainable de-

velopment of tourism in the destination.

This role cannot be eﬀectively realized

without the coordination of stakeholders

in tourism. Therefore, it is very important

to coordinate all stakeholders involved in

tourism activities at the destination in the

overall development of the tourism desti-

nation in a sustainable direction.

5. SNV Netherlands Development Organi-

sation, 2010, Value Chain Development for

Tourism Destinations: A practical guide for

promoting pro-poor, sustainable tourism

along the Great Himalaya Trail, Nepal.

6. Standing committee for Economic and

Commercial Cooperation of the Organization

of Islamic Cooperation, 2019, Sustainable

Destination Management Strategies in the

OIC Member Countries, Turkey.

7. Stange J., Brown D., George Washington

University, Usaid, 2016, Tourism destination

management - achieving sustainable and com-

petitive results, Washington.

8. UNWTO, 2007, A practical guide to Tour-

ism destination management, Madrid.

9. Wang Y., Pizam A., 2011, Destination Mar-

keting and Management, UK.

References:

1. Trần Như Đào, 2017, Luận văn thạc sĩ

“Quản lý nhà nước về du lịch trên địa bàn tỉnh

Quảng Nam”, Trường Đại học Kinh tế, Đại

học Đà Nẵng.

Author Address: Faculty of Tourism - Hanoi

Open University

Email: giangvh@hou.edu.vn