An evaluation of impacts of climate change on tourism development in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most complex challenges in 21st Century and failure to meet this challenge raises the spectre of unprecedented reversals in human development. The connection between tourism and climate change has been discussed for more than 15 years in tourism studies. More recently, debates have shifted to consider effective modes of adaptation and the complex role that tourism might play in this. The Mekong Delta Region of Vietnam is forecasted to face some of world's most severe impacts from climate change. There is a big knowledge gap in research on climate change impacts on tourism in this area. While climate change's impacts on agriculture and fisheries have received much attention from authorities and researchers, impacts on tourism have largely been ignored. Due to the low and flat of a typical river delta, tourism modes that are predominant in the Delta such as ecotourism, islet tourism, national parks tourism and mangrove forests tourism are highly vulnerable to climate change. This study presents findings from a field study the authors conducted to fill the research gap on climate change's impact on tourism in Mekong River Delta. The study is based on spatial analysis of the region and questionnaires and interviews with local tourism leaders, tourism businesses and tourists. The findings indicate that climate change poses a range of challenges for the region's tourism businesses, and communities relying on them. There are five principal impacts of climate change to the tourism sector in the Mekong Delta, consisting of: 1) Sea level rise, 2) Salinity intrusion, 3) Temperature variation, 4) Irregular rainfall and 5) Storms. The most important threat is sea level rise. Every impact has difference levels and consequences.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English