Abstract
Tourism potential provides an indication for the tourism development opportunities of regions and sites. This paper deals with a multicriteria evaluation of the tourism potential in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The study area is located in the Southeast Asian monsoon tropical climatic zone, and offers both natural and cultural tourism resources. GIS-based cost distance analysis was used to calculate the travel time along the road and using other transportation networks. Then an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to determine a weighting coefficient for each criterion in multicriteria evaluation. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was processed next to AHP, allowing combination of the internal and external tourism potentials of the considered sites. Both AHP and PCA approaches were based on a certain number of alternatives, and take multiple criteria and conflicting objectives into consideration. The results show that the Central Highlands have considerable potential for tourism development at 99 potential eco-tourism sites and 45 potential cultural tourism sites. However, the region is now faced with poor tourism infrastructure with low external potential. An improvement of tourism infrastructure, service quality, and strengthened linkages with other tourist sites is indicated to diversify the tourism products and increase the attractiveness of regional destinations.
Highlights
Vietnam is part of the Southeast Asian monsoon zone
The results show that the Central Highlands have considerable potential for tourism development at 99 potential eco-tourism sites and 45 potential cultural tourism sites
The internal tourism potential is to a large extent determined by the cultural-historical value of the tourist sites, followed by the aesthetic and art, and entertainment and scientific values, which have the same weight scores (0.13)
Summary
The country stretches over a long narrow territory with various landscapes and seascapes such as mountains, hills, river deltas, coasts, beaches, and sea water bodies It has a high cultural diversity of 54 ethnic groups, among which the Kinh are the most numerous. A multicriteria evaluation of the tourism potential of a site depends on its attraction, carrying capacity, seasonal variability, accessibility, sustainability, tourism infrastructure, and economic benefit [2,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Sánchez et al [12] proposed a synthetic methodology to assess the tourism potential of a territory, in a relatively simple but complete and applicable way Their method considers three basic pillars of tourism: the attractions, supply and demand. The methods are grouped by dimension (social, economic, environmental) to determine the tourism potential and research paradigms
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
