Crowding-out or crowding-in: The impact of Chinese tourists on selected tourist segments in Vietnam destinations

Abstract

This study estimates the short and long-term impacts of Chinese tourists on Vietnam's five leading inbound tourist markets. While most prior studies perceive crowding as an undesirable phenomenon relating to visitors' dissatisfaction and lower perceived destination attraction, this study extends the understanding of crowding's impacts on tourism by identifying crowding-out and crowding-in effects among tourist segments. The study contributes to the existing literature by considering crowding's impacts on different cultures in Vietnam's context, representing a fast-growing tourist destination that only earned a reputation in recent years and is different from ones previously considered. The methodology includes unit root, cointegration, causality testing, and application of the Limited Information Maximum Likelihood regression method. The findings indicate that Chinese tourist demand has primarily positive impacts on the other researched tourist markets. The findings provide practical implications for policymakers to strengthen inbound markets and enhance sustainability-oriented tourism development in the long run. • Chinese tourist demand for Vietnam has both crowd-in and crowd-out effects. • Chinese tourists foment demand from Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the United States. • Chinese tourists have both crowd-in and -out effects on Korean tourists to Vietnam. • Crowd-in and crowd-out effects can have both long- and short-term dimensions.