Evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam

Protected areas in Vietnam and other developing Asian countries are being subjected to growing ecological stress due to increases in the number of domestic and international visitors.The latter in large part are alleged to adhere to a widely recognised biocentric Western construct of the 'ecoto...

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Main Authors: Hue, Huong Do, Weaver, David
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/13321/1/39.pdf
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author Hue, Huong Do
Weaver, David
author_facet Hue, Huong Do
Weaver, David
author_sort Hue, Huong Do
collection UUM
description Protected areas in Vietnam and other developing Asian countries are being subjected to growing ecological stress due to increases in the number of domestic and international visitors.The latter in large part are alleged to adhere to a widely recognised biocentric Western construct of the 'ecotourist' that should minimise the attendant environmental costs.In contrast, little is known about the characteristics of domestic protected area visitors and in particular the extent to which they adhere to the Western ecotourist model. This paper reports the results of a study in Cat Tien National Park (CTNP), Vietnam.The quantitative research involved 1,082 questionnaries completed by Vietnamese (54%) and Western (46%) visitors to the park during the 2010-2011 six month dry season.A T-test was employed to compare any differences between the Vietnamese and Western visitors with regard to psychographic, behavioural and demographic characteristics.Using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, five clusters were found; 19.2% 'Sociable wildlife engagers', 26.2% 'Typical CTNP visitors', 8.2% 'Service shunners', 15.8% 'Classic Western ecotourists', 22.1% 'Unenthusiastic visitors', and 8.5% 'Service seekers'.Among the three groups which comprise 93.4% of the Vietnamese in the sample, one softer and two structutured ecotourist groups were identified. These findings suggest suitable ecotourism management and products for domestic ecotourist markets and effective interpretation strategies for enhancing learning/education.
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spelling uum-133212015-03-08T06:17:18Z https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/13321/ Evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam Hue, Huong Do Weaver, David G Geography (General) Protected areas in Vietnam and other developing Asian countries are being subjected to growing ecological stress due to increases in the number of domestic and international visitors.The latter in large part are alleged to adhere to a widely recognised biocentric Western construct of the 'ecotourist' that should minimise the attendant environmental costs.In contrast, little is known about the characteristics of domestic protected area visitors and in particular the extent to which they adhere to the Western ecotourist model. This paper reports the results of a study in Cat Tien National Park (CTNP), Vietnam.The quantitative research involved 1,082 questionnaries completed by Vietnamese (54%) and Western (46%) visitors to the park during the 2010-2011 six month dry season.A T-test was employed to compare any differences between the Vietnamese and Western visitors with regard to psychographic, behavioural and demographic characteristics.Using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, five clusters were found; 19.2% 'Sociable wildlife engagers', 26.2% 'Typical CTNP visitors', 8.2% 'Service shunners', 15.8% 'Classic Western ecotourists', 22.1% 'Unenthusiastic visitors', and 8.5% 'Service seekers'.Among the three groups which comprise 93.4% of the Vietnamese in the sample, one softer and two structutured ecotourist groups were identified. These findings suggest suitable ecotourism management and products for domestic ecotourist markets and effective interpretation strategies for enhancing learning/education. 2014-11-05 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/13321/1/39.pdf Hue, Huong Do and Weaver, David (2014) Evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam. In: 2nd Tourism and Hospitality International Conference (THIC 2014), 5-6 November 2014, Langkawi, Malaysia. http://www.thic-uum.com/
spellingShingle G Geography (General)
Hue, Huong Do
Weaver, David
Evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam
title Evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam
title_full Evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam
title_fullStr Evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam
title_full_unstemmed Evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam
title_short Evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam
title_sort evidence of an emerging domestic ecotourist market from cat tien national park vietnam
topic G Geography (General)
url https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/13321/1/39.pdf
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