THE CURRENT SITUATION OF RESPONSIBLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN KIEN HAI DISTRICT, KIEN GIANG PROVINCE

Abstract

Kien Hai is a district-level administrative unit in Kien Giang province, located on the southwest coast of Vietnam, with an area of 24.61 km2 and a population of 17,591 people (2019). High-contrast and diverse terrain, unspoiled scenery, many gentle beaches covered with white sand, clear blue sea water, clean and warm climate all year round, diverse indigenous cultures, friendly and hospitable people are all important resources for the locality to develop many types of tourism, especially ecotourism and island tourism in responsible and sustainable direction. To analyze and evaluate the current situation of responsible tourism development in Kien Hai district, methods including surveys by questionnaire, field trips and secondary documentary reference were used. The
research results show that there are still some shortcomings in developing responsible tourism in the study area in terms of tourism product development, visitor behavior management, activities to provide information to tourists, benefit measurement and career development for employees, service price management, waste collection and treatment, safety in traffic and fresh water use in tourism.