Final Considerations for Halong bay Vietnam

Final Considerations

The chapters in this book clearly illustrate the complexities of Halong bay Vietnam in the 21st century and the need for qualitative research to help us make sense of it. It is no good in repeating the mantra that ‘tourism is the world’s biggest industry’ if no serious attempts are made to understand what it all means. In effect, you cannot have mobility, performance, co-presence of people at play and people at work, transnational connections, and the mobilization of cul- ture as part of a commercial product without some pretty serious consequences. The pres- ent chapters highlight a number of serious issues related to how the presence of ‘people on the move’ influences identities at destinations through changed business practice, exposure to different values and ideas, and interaction with the world about them.

The potent mix of politics, culture and questions of social identity raises important issues for tourism, which can be seen as a set of cultural, economic and political phe- nomena, with meanings and applications loaded with ambiguities and uncertainties (Franklin & Crang, 2001). Its rapid growth has subjected host communities to a bewil- dering array of changes, actor networks and, as Franklin (2004) would have it, a con- stant re-ordering of society.

It would be a caricature to imagine place and space being occupied only by passive consumers in the role of tourists and a congenial, compliant local population. Tourism is simply too important and valuable to be so dismissed. As a multi-layered, complex global phenomenon, tourism deserves a more nuanced analysis than what the familiar binary divisions (‘left–right’, ‘good–bad’, ‘right–wrong’, and indeed ‘hosts–guests’) can pro- vide. Regarding the critical issues of tourism, Halong bay Vietnam can reasonably be assumed that the indus- try is well aware of the environmental impacts and many companies are taking serious steps, in cooperation with international institutions such as the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), to address issues of physical sustainability: environmental awareness is clearly on the tourism business agenda. However, while a plethora of social scientists have spent decades dealing with social issues of tourism, there is very little evidence to suggest that cultural sustainability in the form of harmonious relationships between host communities, especially in poorer parts of the world, tourists, and the supplying tourism business sectors has gained the same level of importance as the physical environment, or indeed the same level of support as animal protection. Within this context, underpinned by the fact that globalization does not simply ‘impact’ upon ossified local cultures but interweaves them into the changing global situation, the following four themes emerge