Viet tourism in the 21st century

Call for papers

Tourism in ASEAN has been on the rise in the past decades, is predicted to grow further and is a key element of the regional community’s strategic action plan for 2025 (ASEAN Secretariat, 2017; WTTC, 2016). Vietnam is a key contributor to regional tourism growth with increasing numbers of both international and domestic tourists year by year. The country saw almost 15.5 million international tourist arrivals in 2018; this number will likely be surpassed in 2019 due to strong growth rates (VNAT, 2019). Despite the social, cultural and economic importance of tourism in Vietnam, Vietnam tourism has received limited attention by the international academic community. At the same time, studies and perceptions of Asian tourism in general and Vietnamese tourism in particular are often Western-centric and there is a need for more prominent local knowledge creation and sharing (Alneng, 2002; Cohen and Cohen, 2015; Winter, 2009).

For these reasons, British University Vietnam (BUV) is pleased to host the international conference on ‘Vietnam tourism in the 21^st century’. The conference will take place in Ecopark near Hanoi, Vietnam’s vibrant capital, at BUV’s brand new state-of-the-art campus. We aim to create an inclusive environment where Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese researchers, students and practitioners can discuss practices, opportunities and challenges in relation to Vietnamese travel and tourism. We would also like to specifically encourage undergraduate and postgraduate students to submit their research work.

We are now inviting abstract submissions of conceptual, empirical and methodological nature in relation to the broad topic of Vietnamese tourism, including but not limited to the themes listed below:

• Tourism planning and development
• Festivals and events in Vietnam
• Destination marketing and branding
• Vietnamese domestic tourism
• Vietnamese outbound tourism
• Histories of Vietnamese tourism
• Pilgrimage and traditional Vietnamese mobilities
• Impacts of tourism in Vietnam
• Sustainable tourism
• Tourism and the Vietnamese diaspora
• Special interest tourism
• Ontologies and epistemologies in Vietnamese research
• Tourism education in Vietnam
• Human resources in Vietnam’s tourism industry
• Lessons from abroad

Submission guidelines and important dates

Abstracts should be up to 600 words in length, including key references in Harvard style, and written in English. Please also include up to five keywords. Abstracts should be emailed as a Microsoft Word document to tourism@buv.edu.vn. Please make sure your email includes names, institutional affiliations and email addresses of all authors. All abstract will be double blind reviewed by our scientific committee.

• Abstract submission deadline: 13 September 2019
• Notification of acceptance: 27 September 2019
• Deadline for registration: 8 November 2019

Speakers and programme

Will be announced in due time

Conference organizers

Ms Sana Dorry, British University Vietnam

Conference scientific committee

Professor Lee Jolliffe, University of New Brunswick

Dr Pham Hong Long, Vietnam National University – University of Social Sciences and Humanities

Dr Vo Thanh Tan, La Rochelle Business School

Dr Huong Bui, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

Dr Jackie Lei Tin Ong, RMIT University Vietnam

Carol Southall, Staffordshire University

Dr Gebeyaw Degarege, RMIT University Vietnam

Accommodation and transport

There is a wide range of accommodation available in Hanoi’s popular Old Quarter, which is about 17km from the conference venue in Ecopark. British University Vietnam will provide a shuttle service from central Hanoi to the campus. Apart from that, there are free buses operated by Ecopark, the English timetable can be found here: https://ecobus.vn/en/. Alternatively, a taxi ride from the Old Quarter to the venue should cost around 200.000VND. The journey takes about 45 minutes. Short-term accommodation in Ecopark might be possible as well, please contact us if you are interested.

Tours

Hanoi is perfectly situated to combine attendance at the conference with exploring some of the most charming areas of Vietnam. Apart from the vibrant capital itself, the world famous UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay is just a few hours’ drive away and mountainous Sapa can be reached by direct train or bus from Hanoi. There are plenty of hidden gems within a short drive from Hanoi and most domestic destinations can be reached with the affordable and efficient domestic flight system. For anyone that would like some support with arranging pre- or post-conference tours we recommend getting in touch with EXO Travel (https://www.exotravel.com/), please feel free to contact Ms Thu Lan at thulan@exotravel.com who will be happy to help.

Contact

For any questions, please do not hesitate contact the organizers at tourism@buv.edu.vn and join our Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/2693235790748196/

References:

Alneng, V. (2002) ‘The modern does not cater for natives: Travel ethnography and the conventions of form’, Tourist Studies, 2 (2), 119–142.

ASEAN Secretariat (2017) AEC 2025 Consolidated Strategic Action Plan, [Online], available at: http://asean.org/storage/2017/02/Consolidated-Strategic-Action-Plan.pdf.

Cohen, E. & Cohen, S. A. (2015) ‘Beyond eurocentrism in tourism: A paradigm shift to mobilities’, Tourism Recreation Research, 40 (2), 157-168.

VNAT (2019) International visitors to Viet Nam in December and 12 months of 2018, [Online], available at: http://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/english/index.php/items/13551

Winter, T. (2009) ‘Asian tourism and the retreat of anglo-western centrism in tourism theory’, Current Issues in Tourism, 12 (1), 21-31.

WTTC (2016) Travel & Tourism Investment in ASEAN, [Online], available at: https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/policy-research/asean-tt-infrastructure-report-2016.pdf