Mediating impact of the protection and exploitation of intellectual property rights of local intellectual property on tourism development: An empirical study in Central Vietnam

Abstract

After the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry encounters opportunities and challenges worldwide, including limited tourism resources, while considering intellectual property aspects such as place names, natural resources, traditional knowledge, and regional cultural heritage. This topic research is limited in Vietnam, especially quantitative one. Thus, this study aims to determine the impact of local intellectual assets (LIAs) on tourism development through the mediation of protection and exploitation activities of local intellectual assets. The data for the study were collected through interviews with 296 individual business households in Central Vietnam. The study utilized the SPSS and AMOS 25 software as research tools, and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to test the hypotheses. The research results indicate that local intellectual assets, consisting of reputation, specialties, traditional knowledge, and folk culture, directly and statistically significantly affect the residents’ perception and the local government’s support. Furthermore, through these two factors, local intellectual assets indirectly and statistically significantly affect protecting and exploiting local intellectual assets and the development of tourism activities. The study’s findings also provide a basis for local authorities and businesses to propose policy implications and management strategies that pay more attention to the issue of local intellectual assets and the protection and exploitation of local intellectual assets to serve tourism development.