Toward sustainable tourism practice in the post-COVID-19: Perspectives from Nha Trang, Vietnam

Abstract

Although the impact of tourism and COVID-19 has been paid much attention, limited research considers the perspectives from local people working in tourism, especially those affected by the pandemic the most. This article examines the perspectives of tourism labors in Nha Trang, Vietnam on the dual impacts of tourism and the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives and the local economy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 participants working in different fields in a tourism sector. Results revealed that that before the COVID-19 hit Nha Trang, tourism had both positive and negative impacts on local people and economy. These impacts are differently among local people and economy. While tourism had improved the quality of local people lives who ran business relating to tourism activities such as hotels, restaurants, the tourism had damaged the local economy such as overloaded infrastructure and tourist facilities, lack of quality control of tourism, unfair competition between tourism companies, traffic congestion and floods in the city, and “zero-dollar tour”. When the COVID-19 hit, the local tourism firms had broken down, particularly firms target their services at foreign visitors. To deal with these challenges of tourism under the impact of COVID-19, this study also found out sustainable approaches such as diversifying sources of tourists, multiplying local people’s sources of income, and improving the local government’s tourism management. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.