'Who are the 'Other' visiting my village?' Profiling the domestic tourist market to ethnic villages in Vietnam's Cetral Highlands

Abstract

Understanding tourist markets is important to design appropriate tourism products to satisfy certain types of tourists (Boley & Nickerson, 2013). By conducting a survey of 438 domestic tourists visiting the Central Highlands of Vietnam, the study found that respondents travelling to ethnic villages were highly motivated by Relationship, Novelty, Relaxation/Escape, and Nature factors rather than Host-site involvement or cultural exoticism. Approximately one-third of respondents were ‘true’ ethnic tourists, who were involved in intense ethnic tourism activities in both local private house (30.4%) and other settings (23.4% - 39%). Most respondents participated in superficial and commercial tourism activities in ethnic touristic attractions/facilities (74.9% - 93.5%). Despite being generally satisfied with their trip to the region, respondents were neutral about learning more ethnic culture or building long-term relationship with the locals.