The Effect of Tourism Growth on Local Economic Development: A Conceptual Review of Vietnam Concept

Abstract

High poverty and unemployment rates around the globe are proven to be two of the most important problems confronting the modern world. Tourism, however, has been identified as one of the potential solutions to alleviate poverty and unemployment as it could lead to numerous directly and indirectly related jobs being created. Although, there has been limited research on the impact of tourism on local economies, particularly in Vietnam. It is for this reason that this study is conducted to identify the impact of tourism on Vietnam’s local economic development. To achieve this objective, a descriptive literature review was conducted by primarily reviewing, summarizing and contextualizing previous literatures within tourism and its impacts on local economies. The findings of this study revealed that tourism has a long-term relationship with economic growth and development. Secondly, tourism offers an opportunity for job creation and income generation in Vietnam, and has helped to minimize poverty and boost the standard of living of the people of Vietnam. Although, tourism policies in Vietnam was criticized by previous scholars of failing to include reforms that directly address the concept of poverty alleviation. Thus, it was recommended that to sustain the significant impact of tourism on local economic development, policies and reforms that addresses the holistic growth of tourism at both the national level and the local economies should be encouraged. Thus, in sustaining the growth of local economic development, the living standard of the people of Vietnam will continually enriched.