Analyse changes made by tourism

Economic changes 

Vietnam's tourist arrivals has been on a rise over the years ever since Vietnam has opened its door to foreigners around a decade ago. As shown in the statistics above, the primary purpose of visitors coming to Vietnam is for tourism. This will definitely increase the tourism receipts spent by the visitors, especially now with its many attractive tourist attractions, like Ku Chi tunnels, Haylong Bay putting them first on the travel itineraries. With more tourist income, this will definitely boost the economy and improve the economic status of Vietnam. One of the key factors why Vietnam has recently dropped out of the world's poorest countries' list is due to the positive economic benefits of tourism. 


With the economic gains, Vietnam also improves its infrastructures such as public transport and telecommunications over the years, resulting in more and more investors flocking to Vietnam for businesses. Hence Vietnam is also gaining its status as one of the most popular business hub in Southeast Asia. 


With Vietnam developing at a rapid rate, even faster than its superpower neighbor China in some aspects, Vietnam is gaining the spotlight and economic status in Southeast Asia. 

Social changes

Tourism certainly has brought about both positive and negative changes to its people and society. The living standard and conditions of many Vietnamese has improved and not no longer at poverty level. The literacy rate of locals is very high as mention previous under mode of education, resulting in better educational levels as well as better trained for higher skilled jobs. These definitely help the Vietnamese in communicating and interacting with others in this globalized world. 


Unfortunately, the gap between the rich and poor widens despite the improved economy, as the rich becomes richer while the poor becomes poorer as they cannot afford their daily expenses due to higher living costs than before. Many parts of Vietnam are still undeveloped, and they are still living in poverty, and many times people from that parts of the country will be exploited for cheap labor, child and sex workers etc. This in turn will aggravate the situation of the poor families. Families still suffering from post war traumas as well as disabilities find it hard to accept foreigners as well as fitting back into the society too. 

Cultural impacts

As much as tourism has made changes to the people and society, the culture of Vietnam has been affected too. With tourism, many parts of the Vietnamese cultures have been preserved and tangibilized so as to showcase the specialty and uniqueness of its culture to the foreigners. At the same time, the new generations of the locals will have grown more interest in preserving and learning more about their roots. It also helps to build mutual understanding between Vietnam and other countries, especially war rivals as they can release social tension between ex war countries, and understand each other's suffering and past so that history will not repeat itself. It also helps the different countries to be more tolerant and acceptable towards cultural differences.


However, one must not deny the erosion of some parts of the local Vietnamese culture like parts of Saigon has been developed into industrial areas as well as high rise buildings instead of the old buildings and fields of the locals. The whole town looks more like other countries like South Korea or Singapore than its original states. People are following the pop and westernized cultures instead of their local cultures, like the disneyization illustrated above. The question of authenticity of the culture is also a problem in cultural aspects, as many cultural aspects shown to the tourists are purposely staged, and those are traditions that the locals are not no longer doing for its original purpose. 


Credits:
Vietnam Tourism Board for statistics