Tourism, Traditional Handicrafts, and Community Economic Development: A Value Chain Analysis of Phuoc Tich Heritage Village, Vietnam. Nguyen Duong Giang A thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2015 New Zealand Tourism Research Institute (NZTRI) Primary Supervisor: Professor Simon Milne i Contents List of Figures. vii List of Tables. x List of Abbreviations.
xi List of Appendices. xiii Attestation of Authorship. xiv Ethics Approval. xviii Chapter 1: Introduction .1 Rationale and significance of the study .1 Tourism and community economic development .2 The case of Phuoc Tich village.2 Research aim and questions .3 Organisation of the thesis.
5 Chapter 2: The Tourism Industry, Value Chain Analysis and Community Economic Development .1 The Tourism industry .1 Alternative tourism and its characteristics.2 Traditional handicrafts and the tourism value chain .1 Traditional handicraft commodity chain .2 Tourism value chain and traditional handicraft value chain .3 The governance of VCA .4 Upgrading the Value Chain .5 The strengths and weakness of VCA .3 Tourism, stakeholders and community economic development (CED) .4 The current status of tourism and community economic development in Vietnam.1 An overview of Vietnam .2 An outline of tourism development in Vietnam .4 Challenges facing the tourism industry .5 The current tourism management system in Vietnam .5 An overview of Vietnamese traditional handicraft .1 The characteristics of Vietnamese traditional handicraft .2 The roles of handicraft villages in Vietnam’s socio-economic and cultural development. 55 Chapter 3: Research Methodology and Case Study .1 Research design framework .2 The case study approach .3 Qualitative, quantitative and mixed approaches .5 Research process and participants .1 Preliminary visit to Phuoc Tich and secondary research .2 Semi-structured interviews .3 Self-administered visitor questionnaire .4 Key informant interviews. 81 Chapter 4: Tourism, Handicraft and Community Economic Development in Phuoc Tich .1 Phuoc Tich tourism value chain analysis .1 Current tourism in Phuoc Tich .2 Tourism value chain (TVC) and Phuoc Tich Heritage village .2 The pottery production chain at Phuoc Tich village .3 Summary and reflections. 108 Chapter 5: The Tourists and Their Motivations .1 Understanding the tourists’ motivations .1 The tourists’ profile .2 Pre-visit behaviour .3 Behaviour during the visit .2 The most appealing aspects of Phuoc Tich Heritage village .3 The least appealing elements of Phuoc Tich Heritage village .4 Summary and reflections.
157 Chapter 6: The Local Community .1 Perceptions of local residents towards tourists .1 Positive perceptions of local residents about tourists and tourism industry: .2 The offers of local habitants to tourists .1 Pride in the village .2 The introduction of heritage houses for visiting and homestay tourists .3 Developing visitor experiences at Phuoc Tich Heritage village .4 Regulatory and revenue factors .5 The importance of training .6 The obstacles to pottery development .3 Summary and reflections. 192 Chapter 7: Government Officials and External Stakeholders.1 Vietnamese government officials .1 Vietnamese government officials’ perspectives about the linkages between pottery, tourism and CED: .2 Investment from provincial and district government .3 Pottery raw material suppliers .6 The hotel industry’s role .7 Summary and reflections. 224 Chapter 8: Discussion of Cross-Cutting Themes .1 A higher-yield small-scale industry .2 A desire to increase pottery–tourism linkages .3 Better collaboration and communication .4 Education and management skills .5 Improved marketing activity.6 The need for research .7 Improving tourism-related facilities and infrastructure .9 The challenge of inequality .1 Value chains for the pottery and tourism industries .2 About the demand-side stakeholder: The tourists .3 About the supply-side stakeholders: The local community, government, and the tourism industry .4 Examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the value chain analysis (VCA) approach in the Phuoc Tich Heritage village setting .5 Examination how the value chain approach can be strengthened further, especially with respect to non-economic dimensions .2 Contribution to the value chain analysis approach .3 Contribution to broader research methodology .4 Contribution to Phuoc Tich Heritage Village .5 Contribution to collaboration theory for community economic development in rural areas .6 Contribution beyond Phuoc Tich Heritage village .271 Appendix 1: AUT Ethics Approval. 288 Appendix 2: Information Sheet - Local Residents & Potters.
289 Appendix 3: Information Sheet - Local Entrepreneurs. 292 Appendix 4: Information Sheet – Key Informants. 295 Appendix 5: Information Sheet - Tourists (Interviewing). 298 Appendix 6: Information Sheet – Tourists (Surveys).
301 Appendix 7: Consent Form. 304 Appendix 8: Semi-structured Interview Guide – Local Residents & Potters. 305 v Appendix 9: Semi-structured Interview Guide - Local Entrepreneurs. 306 Appendix 10: Semi-structured Interview Guide – Key Informants.
307 Appendix 11: Semi-structured Interview Guide - Tourists. 308 Appendix 12: Protocol for Observations. 309 Appendix 13: Observational Checklist. 310 Appendix 14: Information Sheet – Local Residents & Potters – Vietnamese.
311 Appendix 15: Information Sheet – Local Entrepreneurs – Vietnamese. 314 Appendix 16: Information Sheet – Key Informants – Vietnamese. 317 Appendix 17: Information sheet - Tourists – Vietnamese. 320 Appendix 18: Information Sheet - Tourists – French.
323 Appendix 19: Consent Form – Vietnamese. 326 Appendix 20: Consent Form – French. 327 Appendix 21: Information Sheet – Tourists (Survey) – Vietnamese. 328 Appendix 22: Information sheet – Tourists (Survey) – French.
331 Appendix 23: Semi-structured Interview Guide – Local Residents & Potters – Vietnamese. 334 Appendix 24: Semi-structured Interview Guide – Local Entrepreneurs – Vietnamese. 335 Appendix 25: Semi-structured Interview Guide – Key Informants – Vietnamese. 336 Appendix 26: Semi-structured Interview Guide –Tourists – Vietnamese.
337 Appendix 27: Semi-structured Interview Guide – Tourists – French. 338 vi List of Figures Figure 2.1: A simple commodity chain for brocade production .2: The tourism value chain including Internet channels .3: Elements of a complex tourism chain .4: Vietnam’s top ten source markets in 2012 .5: Training levels of employees in Vietnam’s tourism industry .6: Administrative divisions of Vietnam .7: Administrative system of Vietnam tourism .8: The establishment of new handicraft villages in Vietnam.9: Classification of Vietnam’s traditional handicraft villages .10: The condition of traditional handicraft villages in Vietnam in 2008 .1: Location of Phuoc Tich Heritage village, Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam .2: Interviewing an elderly resident of the village .3: A potter is telling a folk story relate to the pottery products .4: Surveyed tourists, with a heritage house owner (3rd left), and the researcher (1st right) .5: The flooded streets of Phuoc Tich village (November, 2012) .1: The demographic profile of the residents of Phuoc Tich Heritage village, 2012 (n = 314) .2: Inside the private museum at Phuoc Tich Heritage village .3: Ways to reach Phuoc Tich Heritage village from Hue city .4: The provincial administration structure of Thua Thien Hue province .5: The number of tourist arrivals to Phuoc Tich 2009–2013 .6: The current tourism value chain at Phuoc Tich Heritage village .7: The current pottery production chain at Phuoc Tich Heritage village .8: A leaflet about the pottery of Phuoc Tich Heritage village .9: Phuoc Tich pottery by gas-fired kiln .1: The gender of the tourist participants (n = 132) .2: The source countries of the tourist participants (n = 132) .3: The nationalities of the tourist participants, by type of research methods (n = 132) .4: The age of the tourist participants, by nationality (n = 132) .5: The education levels of the tourist participants, by source country (n = 91) .6: The annual income of the tourist participants, by nationality (n = 132; unit = US$) .7: The travelling companions of the tourist participants (n = 132) .8: The travelling companions of the tourist participants, by nationality (n = 132).9: The number of times each tourist respondent has visited Phuoc Tich Heritage village (n = 132) .10: Source of information influencing travel to Phuoc Tich Heritage village (n = 132) .12: Tourist information centres (TICs) as a source of information influencing travel to Phuoc Tich Heritage village (n = 102) .13: The tourist participants’ motivations for visiting Phuoc Tich Heritage village (n = 132) .14: ‘Want to buy pottery’ motivation of tourists at Phuoc Tich Heritage village (n = 132).15: Who organised the tourist participants’ tours to Phuoc Tich Heritage village (n = 132) .16: Who had organised the tours, by tourist participants’ nationality (n = 132) .17: Tourist respondents who ‘Disagreed’ with statements about Phuoc Tich (n = 132) .18: Domestic tourist respondents’ satisfaction in finding ways to and around Phuoc Tich Heritage village (n = 37) .19: A tourists map of Phuoc Tich Heritage village .20: Ineffective location of a signboard, and lack of a signboard to the TIC at Phuoc Tich Heritage village .21: Signboards within Phuoc Tich Heritage village are written only in Vietnamese .22: No signboards at the Temple of Pottery’s Ancestor .23: Activities and services the tourist participants had participated in during their stay at Phuoc Tich Heritage village (n = 132) .24: The activities and services that the tourist participants had used, by source country .25 : The tourist participants’ interest in knowing more about the history of the local pottery industry (n = 132).26: The tourist participants’ interest in making pottery with the guidance of local potters (n = 132) .27: A tourist making pottery under the instruction of a local potter is working in an awkward position .28: Some simple products tourists have made.29: Big pots are loaded before firing .30: Potters are making fish-shape wind chimes .31: The tourist participants’ personal expenditure at Phuoc Tich Heritage village (n = 132) .32: The tourist participants’ desire to buy Phuoc Tich pottery (n = 132) .33: The reasons why the tourist participants didn’t want to buy Phuoc Tich pottery (n = 96) 150 Figure 5.34: Places where the tourist participants prefer to buy Phuoc Tich pottery (n = 132).35: Positive comments in the visitors’ books .1: A candy flower made by a local resident .2: An amateur photographer photographs the potter at the kiln .3: Pottery exhibition at the kiln during festival week .4: Paths to an ancient house before and after cutting the green hedges .5: A tourist learning how to make traditional cake.6: An elderly woman trains her relative how to make traditional cakes .7: Temporary food and beverage stands serving tourists during festival week .8: A meal prepared for tourists, but displayed on non-traditional chinaware .9: Food for tourists should be served in Phuoc Tich potteries.10: Local residents doing tai chi at the river port .11: An old lime pot, which illustrates a love story for the residents of Phuoc Tich Heritage village .12: A class about hygiene and food preparation.13: A local resident practises how to prepare a bed for tourists .14: An old potter retells the history behind an old pot .15: Old potters demonstrating to tourists the traditional way of making pottery .16: Young potters making potteries for festivals, using the modern gas-fired kiln .1: Embanking the river bank around the village .2: Tourists biking on a sunny day on the village’s main road .3: The main road of Phuoc Tich village floods in the rainy season .4: The simple website of Phuoc Tich Heritage village .5: JICA experts and the local residents visit an ancient house that has fallen into disrepair .6: Phuoc Tich pottery catalogue produced in Japanese by JICA .7: One of just two retailers who sell Phuoc Tich pottery in Hue city is closed during the day, opening only after 4 p.8: Phuoc Tich pottery displays in the second major retailer in Hue city, Phuong Nam bookshop .9: Tourists enjoying a performance from kindergarten children of the neighbouring village .10: An advertisement for Alba Thanh Tan Hot Springs connecting with Phuoc Tich Heritage village .11:A souvenir shop in a four-star hotel in Hue City.1: An extension of Phuoc Tich pottery production chain .2: The integration of a traditional handicraft chain into a tourism value chain .3:The only signboard to Phuoc Tich Heritage village from Hue city .
