Entrepreneurialism and Tourism in Contemporary Vietnam - Hardcover

Gillen, Jamie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0739173308 ISBN 13: 9780739173305

Publisher: Lexington Books, 2016

Synopsis

Entrepreneurialism and Tourism in Contemporary Vietnam examines the intersection of entrepreneurialism and the tourism industry in modern-day Vietnam and uses case studies from tourism operators in Ho Chi Minh City to understand the effects of market reforms on Vietnam’s society. The primary argument undertaken in this study is that in order to understand changes to the Vietnamese economy, one must take an approach that combines the “cultural” with the “economic.” The tourism case studies presented here collectively demonstrate that there is no easy analytic distinction between the cultural and economic dimensions of the Vietnamese tourism industry. The empirical material is primarily drawn from interviews with private tour operators and participant observation on tours. This book also examines the collaboration between the private sector and the Vietnamese government in the tourism industry. These coordinative entrepreneurial relationships between two unlikely bedfellows are shaped by the interpersonal exchanges that produce the tourism cultural-economy. Lastly, there are links between entrepreneurialism, tourism, and other case studies in urban Southeast Asia illustrated in the conclusion.

About this title

About the Author:

Jamie Gillen is assistant professor of geography at the National University of Singapore.

Review:

Entrepreneurialism and Tourism in Contemporary Vietnam explores the entrepreneurial model of political governance in Ho Chi Minh City’s tourist industry. This is a thought-provoking book that provides important insights into the processes of development, entrepreneurialism, and tourism. This study is an intriguing and insightful contribution to tourism at the intersections of international capitalism, the state, and ongoing debates surrounding the changing face of Vietnam’s economy. (Kimberly Kay Hoang, University of Chicago)

Jamie Gillen’s fascinating study of everyday life in the tourism industry in Ho Chi Minh City illuminates complex entanglements between culture and economy and between entrepreneurship and government. Resisting an easy distinction between socialism and the market economy, Gillen details how culture serves as a malleable resource for entrepreneurs and for officials, many of whom have adopted an entrepreneurial approach to contemporary governance. This book offers an important counter-narrative to claims that a globally ascendant neoliberalism is the primary motor driving contemporary economic policy in Vietnam. (Ann Marie Leshkowich, College of the Holy Cross)

Focusing on the diverse entrepreneurial activities that have created a vibrant tourism sector in Ho Chi Minh City today, this work unravels the complex relationships between private actors and local government agencies in their quest for the tourism dollar. Providing a critical framework for the study of tourism entrepreneurship, and being highly cognizant of the nuances of a post-socialist setting, the author examines how entrepreneurial relationships are built less on distinctions between state and non-state enterprises, and more on an intricate blend of market opportunities and complex informal relations. (Sarah Turner, McGill University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0739173308
• ISBN 13: 9780739173305
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128