National parks are increasingly recognized as playing an important role in the development of nature-based tourism destinations that promote effective management of natural resources and socioeconomic development. The paper was designed to evaluate the tourism attractiveness and performance of national parks in Vietnam. The tourism performance of 30 Vietnamese national parks was evaluated using multiple criteria decision analysis with the stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA) and preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) method; thirteen national park attributes were used to determine tourism attractiveness, measured by an exponential weighted acceptability index. It was found that the Phong Nha – Ke Bang, Cuc Phuong, and Ba Be National Parks were most attractive for more than 95% of all possible preference structures. In addition, 12 non-dominated national parks were identified, and for an average supporter of most non-dominated protected areas, the trail criterion appears to be the most important. A statistically significant correlation was found between tourism attractiveness and the number of tourists who visited national parks. Our findings offer potentially useful information for decision makers in developing effective tourism marketing and management strategies for national parks in Vietnam.

National park, nature-based tourism, PROMETHEE, SMAA, tourism attractiveness, Vietnam

Nature-based tourism (NBT), also known as ecotourism or nature tourism, defined as travel to enable the enjoyment of undeveloped natural areas, is a rapidly-expanding area in the tourism travel sector (Luzar et al. 1995, Goodwin 1996). Most nature-based tourism destinations are located in protected areas (Eagles et al. 2002, ICEM 2003, Spenceley et al. 2015) which attract large numbers of visitors: globally, terrestrial protected areas receive approximately eight billion visits per year (Balmford et al. 2015) and European national parks receive more than two billion visits annually (Schägner et al. 2016). Despite having a potentially negative influence on natural resources, affecting both the environment and the species within them (Steven et al. 2011), NBT could be a particularly effective tool in the conservation and management of protected areas. It can also bring potential social and economic benefits, such as funds for conservation and alternative livelihoods for local people (Bookbinder et al. 1998, Eagles et al. 2002, Balmford et al. 2009, Ballantyne et al. 2009). Many countries promote NBT in order to help them achieve their goals for both nature conservation and socioeconomic development, and for several countries such as Australia and New Zealand, NBT is considered a key component of export income (Eagles 2002)

In the Southeast Asia region, NBT is not only a high volume sector but also one that is growing rapidly. For example, Thailand’s national parks receive over 13.2 million tourists per year, which is approximately 16% of all tourists visiting the country (Phumsathan 2010), and Indonesia’s Komodo National Park sees an 18% mean increase of visitors every year (Erb 2015). For foreign tourists visiting the region, many countries such as Thailand and Vietnam have become popular destinations for NBT because they harbor extraordinary levels of ecosystems and magnificent natural scenery (American Museum of Natural History 2003). In contrast to general items of tourism activity, foreign tourists tend to be more interested in nature-based activities: about 51% of surveyed foreign tourists visiting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) preferred nature-based adventure tourism (ASEAN Secretariat 2016).

In Vietnam, NBT is increasingly recognized as playing an important role in national development, particularly of the national tourism sector, and one that supports socioeconomic development in the rural areas surrounding the protected areas. Around 51% of the 9.5 million domestic tourists and 33% of 1.2 million foreign tourists in Vietnam took part in nature-based tourism in 1998 (Luong 1999), and 5–8% of foreign tourists visiting the countryalso participate in nature-based tours every year (Le Van Minh 2016). Innovation policies highlight the significant efforts made by the Vietnamese government to promote the development of NBT. In particular, the introduction of economic and political reforms under Đổi Mới has helped the tourism sector develop from scratch since 1986. The first master plan of tourism development, for the period 1995–2010, released in 1994, mentioned the potential for natural resources to increase tourism; following this, NBT emerged officially as an important driving factor behind tourism development. The master plan up to 2020 views NBT as one of the key products of tourism contributing to national development (GoV 2013). In total, the Vietnamese government and their related bodies, public and private interests, domestic and foreign corporations, as well as local communities, are involved in various ways to enhance the development of NBT (Suntikul et al. 2010). However, Vietnam suffers from a lack of planning or strategies on the national level regarding NBT. National planning is also crucial in the management and development of NBT destinations such as protected areas, which enhance the country’s tourist attractions, including its natural environments, biodiversity, cultures and ancient history (Jansen-Verbeke and Go 1995, Hung 1998, Hong et al. 2002, Le Van Minh 2016).

Vietnam’s national parks (NPs) are protected areas in the national systems of special-use forests (SUFs), which are intended to protect nature. Other objectives include the protection of landscapes, cultural and historical sites, and the provision of recreation and tourism (GoV 2010). Since the first Vietnamese NP (Cuc Phuong NP) was established in 1962, their number had increased to 30 (1,077,236 ha, reaching ca. 3% of the total land area) by 2012 (MONRE 2014). According to the approved national planning system of SUFs, Vietnam will have 34 NPs up to 2020 (1.2 million ha, reaching ca. 4% of the total land area) (GoV 2014). The increasing number of NPs supports the conservation and sustainable development of natural resources in the SUFs (GoV 2014). Several ministries and agencies are involved in the governance of the protected areas; for example, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Provincial People’s Committee (PPCs) have the responsibility for managing national parks (see An et al. 2018). In particular, together with MARD, the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism guides and examines PPCs in the management of eco-tourist activities and promotes NPs as tourism destinations in the development of the tourism sector at a national level.

An area with special potential to acquire financial sources of funding for natural resource management in Vietnam is the use of NBT in NPs (An et al. 2018), which has been found to create alternative livelihoods for local people and support local socioeconomic development (Rugendyke and Son 2005, MONRE 2014). Effective protected area management encourages the expansion of benefits from NBT, particularly in the economic sphere (An et al. 2018) and NPs are attractive destinations for recreation and tourism. The total number of tourists visiting 11 NPs increased by over 17% in a single year, reaching 629,961 in 2010 (MONRE 2011). However, NBT is a competitive market and NPs have to offer high quality and unique environmental characteristics to succeed in tourism development. Many NPs suffer from a lack of any tourism development strategy in their management plans (An et al. 2018), and tourism facilities and services of protected areas (e.g. information services) are also limited (ICEM 2003). It is important to consider the characteristics of NPs and their potential value as attractive destinations for tourism development when implementing effective management strategies for protected areas and tourism, and encouraging the sustainable use of natural environment and resources. Protected area managers need to identify the attributes of NPs that induce tourism and set priorities for enhancing the attractiveness of tourist destinations and increasing the tourist flow to protected areas. Furthermore, an evaluation of the attributes of individual NPs, and of other tourism destinations in protected areas, is required to form the basis of local, regional and national strategic planning for NBT development, to enable effective management and planning of nature-based tourism destinations, sustainable tourism and socioeconomic development in the country.

The attractiveness of a travel destination is simply the ability of an area to attract and satisfy prospective tourists (Mayo and Jarvis 1981). This ability is enhanced by destination attributes, which can be classified in a variety of ways (e.g. see Cooper et al. 1993, Buhalis 2000, Morrison 2013). Two major approaches can be used to identify improvements to destination attractiveness that focus on the physical features of the destination (e.g. Leiper 1990, Backman et al. 1991) or the psychology of consumers/tourists and the perceived ability of destinations to satisfy their individual needs (e.g. Formica and Uysal 2006, Hsu et al. 2009). These approaches are also known as supply and demand aspects for evaluating the attractiveness of tourism destinations (Backman et al. 1991, Formica and Uysal 2006). However, most nature-based studies focus on tourist demand rather than on tourist destinations (Deng et al. 2002). Therefore, the present study examines the supply of destinations as characteristics of NPs, with respect to tourism attractiveness. It is necessary to identify the attributes that prompt tourists to choose one destination over another. This knowledge could help destinations to allocate resources and prioritize the investment and development of their tourism areas, and enable such destinations to fulfill and retain their potential. Determining and evaluating the attributes of a destination that play key roles in attracting and satisfying tourists is also integral to its management and marketing policy, particularly those oriented towards tourism strategies and plans to target markets (Buhalis 2000, Kim and Perdue 2011).

Furthermore, different strategies for tourism destinations can be evaluated by the broad application of multiple criteria decision support methods such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) (Deng et al. 2002, Hsu et al. 2009, Lee et al. 2010) or the preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) (Michailidis and Chatzitheodoridis 2006, Kovačić 2010, Ranjan et al. 2016). During the decision-making process, decision makers rank a set of decision alternatives with multiple criteria and choose the best, or at least a satisfactory, choice according to their preferences. In most multiple criteria decision methods, the preferences of the decision maker are modeled by a set of parameters, with a key role being played by the weight given to each criterion. However, in many real-life situations, decision makers are not able to give exact preference information (weights), nor is it possible to gain access to the decision makers to collect information about their preferences. Most of the associated information is uncertain or imprecise to a certain degree, and even relevant information can sometimes be missing (Lahdelma et al. 2000, Öztürk et al. 2005, Ranjan et al. 2016). In addition, when evaluating the attractiveness of tourism destinations, it can also be difficult to obtain weights when no single decision maker exists who could provide the necessary information, and in cases where the preferences of all potential decision makers (e.g. tourists) must be considered.

In these cases, stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA) can be used, this being a family of multicriteria decision-aiding (MCDA) methods for problems where uncertainty (incomplete, imprecise, and uncertain information) is a significant issue (Tervonen and Figueira 2008, Lahdelma and Salminen 2010). In contrast to the classical MCDA method, the SMAA method considers the evaluation space of all possible parameters (in the context of weights) (Lahdelma et al. 1998), which determines the significance of the percentage contribution of all possible weight combinations to a particular object specific rank. In particular, it indicates the most preferred combination, based on rank acceptability index (Lahdelma and Salminen 2001).

The aim of this paper is to explore the attributes associated with tourism attractiveness, and evaluate the tourism performance of national parks in Vietnam using stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis. More specifically, it assesses various attributes of NP-based tourism destinations and ranks NP destinations. The attractiveness of Vietnamese NPs as nature-based tourism destinations is evaluated by the SMAA and PROMETHEE methods. In addition, the correlation between tourism attractiveness and the number of tourists visiting NPs is assessed. The paper also discusses recommendations for NP management, particularly with regard to the attractiveness of nature-based tourism.

National parks in Vietnam are an essential part of the national development strategy for the countryside, as well as nature protection (PARC Project 2006). Hence, effective planning and management of tourism in NPs is crucial in order to ensure sustainable conservation of natural resources, achievement of long-term objectives of protected area management, and ready adaptation to national, regional and local development plans (Eagles et al. 2001, 2002). It is also essential to consider the characteristics of NBT destinations when supporting the management plans of protected areas (Puustinen et al. 2009).

The present study explores some of the attributes and characteristics of NPs associated with the initial evaluation of tourism attractiveness and destinations in 30 Vietnamese NPs. The findings not only contribute to a deeper understanding of the managerial context of NPs, but also provide information on the performance appraisal of NPs with regard to tourism. The study highlights the relative importance of attributes with regard to the tourism attractiveness of NP-based destinations and orders them into a ranking system.

The ranking of the national parks by the SMAA and PROMETHEE model suggests a degree of competition exists regarding the tourism attractiveness and tourism performance of protected areas. Our present findings indicate that Phong Nha - Ke Bang NP has the most competitive position. Phong Nha - Ke Bang is situated in Central Vietnam, 40km north of Dong Hoi City (Quang Binh Province) and 500km south of Ha Noi City, and possesses outstanding historical and cultural resources such as cave systems and indigenous groups (UNESCO 2014). Phong Nha - Ke Bang NP dominates other NPs: it had the highest acceptability index (70%) for the best rank, fairly high acceptability for the second and third ranks, and almost zero acceptability for ranks four to thirty (Table 3).

The competitiveness of NPs in Vietnam appears uneven: while the three best NPs (Phong Nha – Ke Bang, Cuc Phuong, and Ba Be) were the most attractive for 95% of potential tourists, 60% of NPs were dominated by the best NPs and were not able to compete effectively with them. According to the Vietnam tourism master plan until 2020 (GoV 2013), over half of the 12 identified non-dominated NPs (e.g. Phong Nha - Ke Bang, Cuc Phuong, Ba Be, Hoang Lien, Cat Tien, Tam Dao, Ba Vi) were considered tourist sites (zones) and were prioritized by investment projects for the development of national tourism. It is also important to consider these 12 NPs when developing nature-based tourism strategies or plans at regional and national levels.

It was found that each criterion (attribute) contributed a different value towards the attractiveness of the 12 non-dominated NPs (Figure 2, Tables 3, 4). The results are in line with those of Deng et al. (2002) and Lee et al. (2010), who found that selected criteria did not contribute equally to the weights determining attractiveness. The obtained central weights reveal the preferences of a potential tourist who visits a certain NP, and indicate the advantages and disadvantages of all 12 NPs (Figure 2, Table 4). Contrary to Deng et al. (2002), natural characteristics, such as biodiversity or rare species of animals and plants, were not considered to be the most important criteria supporting the attractiveness of a particular NP for tourists, which suggests that it is necessary to consider the knowledge and perspectives of both experts and tourists when making a decision. However, there is currently no shared biodiversity database or any biodiversity monitoring system applied to protected areas. These deficiencies constitute one of multiple challenges faced by decision makers regarding the sustainable development of natural resources and effective protected area management in Vietnam (MONRE 2011, 2014). Increasing the amount of available information regarding the updated biodiversity status of protected areas could improve the tourism attractiveness of particular NPs such as Ba Vi and Nui Chua (Table 4). In particular, NPs should highlight their unique and rare natural assets, such as flagship and iconic species, in order to distinguish them from other NP-based destinations. Even highlighting the engagement of organizations in conservation initiatives could become a valuable part of marketing activities for species and nature-based tourism experiences in protected areas (Ballantyne et al. 2009).

The trail criterion identified in the present findings plays a crucial role for supporters of most non-dominated parks; hence the trail attribute appears to be the most important of the recreation facilities affecting forest-based tourism attractiveness (Lee et al. 2010). As recreational facilities within NPs, trails are an attraction for both casual and serous hikers and may take tourists into a range of areas, such as natural ecosystems and the primitive interior of protected areas (Manning and Anderson 2012), and provide opportunities for a variety of outdoor recreation activities, such as walking and hiking. The high importance of the trail criterion was also connected with the fact that it is a weak point of Phong Nha - Ke Bang. In this sense, tourists who are attracted by long-distance trails are more likely to prefer other NPs, such as Chu Yang Sin NP (Figure 2, Table 4). NP managers should consider designing, developing and planning recreational trail networks for tourists that could help them appreciate natural resources or most attractive parts of NPs, provide and operate health enhancement facilities, and offer various levels and durations of experience (Eagles et al. 2001, 2002, Kim et al. 2003).

Moreover, it was found that other criteria with discriminating power were its international importance -this being the most important criterion for Pu Mat. Information services was a significant criterion for Ba Be, Cat Tien and Cuc Phuong. Education and research cooperation was the most important criterion for Ba Vi, and external access was the important criterion for Phong Nha - Ke Bang, Hoang Lien, Tam Dao and Nui Chua (Table 4). As one of the labels, or intangible elements, the international importance of an NP or NP areas is regarded as playing an important role in increasing its attractiveness and its successful marketing (Palmer 1999); for example, recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site is believed to draw millions of tourists to these sites (Yan and Morrison 2008). To attract tourists, NP managers (i.e. marketers) of internationally recognized sites should promote them as such in the mass media and guidebooks, and compare them with other NPs, e.g. Phong Nha - Ke Bang is the only NP under the UNESCO World Heritage List (see Table 2). The development of information services in NPs reflect partly the investment in the tourism infrastructure of a destination, but also contribute toward improving destination repositioning and may significantly increase tourist flows to protected areas (Puustinen et al. 2009, Castro et al. 2015). Extending education and research cooperation with domestic schools and universities also encourages the growth of educational tourism in Vietnam’s NPs; for example, by organizing educational tourism activities for students. Many of the domestic tourists visiting protected areas are students on school or university outings, and there is great potential for developing environmental education activities for them (ICEM 2003). Tourism cooperation, as one of the key components of the nature tourism industry, encourages tourists to visit destinations and promotes more positive images of destinations (Higgins 1996, Carey et al. 1997, Cavlek 2002, Dwyer and Kim 2003). The degree of external access to protected areas is influenced by the state of the public transportation infrastructure and multimodal transport in the region. Tourists will seek alternative destinations if accessibility to a preferred tourism destination is limited, for example by comfort levels and journey time in the transport system (Prideaux 2000).

Our present findings also suggest that the development of NP-based tourism destinations in Vietnam is uneven. In particular, the development of tourism in protected areas, where most NPs suffer from a lack of services and facilities for tourism, is faced by multiple challenges; several NPs are characterised by logging and unavailable trails (see Appendix 2). The issues are similar to those identified by the PARC Project (2006), which found that more than 60% of the state budget of the Vietnamese Government for protected areas went to infrastructure development. On the other hand, most NPs spent about half of their funds on conservation activities, and financial allocations for protected area management could also change over time (An et al. 2018). In this context, considering the allocation of financial sources and investment in tourism, particularly in tourism infrastructure, would be an effective contribution to the management of tourism in NPs. This would also help NP managers create a sound investment plan for their priority actions, such as trails/recreational facilities.

The tourism attractiveness of a NP, i.e. its attractiveness to tourists, significantly correlated with the number of tourists visiting it. This was consistent with the result for Phong Nha - Ke Bang NP, which was rated as the most attractive park and attracted the highest number of tourists in 2015 (Table 2). However, despite receiving a high number of tourists, some protected areas such as Mui Ca Mau, Tram Chim and U Minh Thuong NPs were assigned low acceptability indices to higher ranks, as low competitive strengths; for example, with a high number of 109,372 tourists in 2015, Mui Ca Mau had the highest acceptability (83%) for the 21–30 rank (Tables 2, 3). Hence, only about 29% of the criteria in the model explained the level of tourism attractiveness with respect to the tourist numbers. In other words, apart from 13 selected criteria in the study, NP tourism attractiveness could be predicted through other criteria, such as population density and tourist services outside the NP (Puustinen et al. 2009, Castro et al. 2015). Contrary to Mui Ca Mau NP, Bidoup-Nui Ba was found to be an attractive destination, but only about 7,500 tourists visited the park in 2015 (Tables 2, 3). This suggests that Bidoup-Nui Ba managers should promote marketing activities to highlight their potential advantages (i.e. trails, external access, international importance, and local community) and attract more tourists.

In addition to its methodological qualities, the results indicate that integrating the SMAA and PROMETHEE methods could serve as a useful approach for supporting decision making when ranking NP-based tourism destinations, and provide decision makers with information for determining the position of a destination. However, it may not be realistic to develop a decision model that fits all decision makers and every decision situation (Sirakaya and Woodside 2005). Although the main purpose of a NP is to protect nature and provide recreation possibilities, each NP has different objectives for natural resource management and tourism development. In this context, further research regarding the various aspects of decision making is necessary when making trade-offs between nature protection and tourism development in protected area management. Such trade-offs and conflicts between stakeholders are common, and the conservation of species and habitats and other natural values and the intensity in both of them tend to increase when a protected area-based destination becomes more attractive to tourists. For example, the most common basic sources of tension appear to occur between operators seeking greater and closer access to wildlife and the protected area managers seeking to restrict access and increase the distance between visitors and species (Reynolds and Braithwaite 2001). The conflict between the need to protect the ecological integrity of an area and to provide facilities for visitors requires careful management and long-term monitoring of tourist impact (Goodwin 1996). Moreover, trade-off analysis could bring together diverse quantitative and qualitative information for decision making, thus allowing tourism development options to be ranked on the basis of different stakeholder values (Brown et al. 2001).

In trying to evaluate the attractiveness and the performance of 30 Vietnamese NPs in the context of NBT management, the present study was limited to criteria that are easily measured. Other attributes of a protected area, such as image, climatic phenomena, landscapes and scenery, can be assumed to affect the tourism attractiveness and destination choice (Dwyer and Kim 2003, Hsu et al. 2009, Lee et al. 2010), but were not included in the present analysis. Even Lee et al. 2010 found that the uniqueness of forest landscapes and scenery and special climate phenomena are two of the most important attributes determining the attractiveness of forest-based tourism. In this sense, the beautiful scenic mountain landscapes of many Vietnamese NPs situated in relatively remote areas may have an influence over their tourism attractiveness and their tourist flows. The aesthetic of a tourism destination should also be considered when evaluating the tourist experience, as it has been found to be the most important factor for tourists (Dodds et al. 2010). In other words, a variety of diagnostic attributes that may affect the attractiveness of a NP directly and indirectly, as well as the implementation of tourism should be appraised for further study.

Furthermore, the present study lacks the perspective of decision makers or different stakeholders; for example, domestic and foreign tourists who not only directly use the natural resources of a NP but also can evaluate its attributes as a destination (Michailidis and Chatzitheodoridis 2006, Hsu et al. 2009). It is important to consider expert opinions when determining attributes and their relative importance (Lee et al. 2010), particularly in the context of managing the natural resources of protected areas, and their values and assets which could be essential when performing multi-criteria analyses and evaluating NP-based tourism destinations. In addition, the study does not examine perceptions or attitudes of tour operators and travel agencies; tour operators have considerable influence on the choice of travellers, tourism strategies, and the development plans of tourism destinations (Carey et al. 1997, Sigala 2008).

These approaches raise some key questions, e.g. how to use potential NP attributes to attract tourists, how to determine the attractiveness of NP-based tourism, how to involve stakeholders and evaluate their role in the tourism management of NPs, how NBT can be developed while maintaining a high level of ecosystem and biodiversity. Although the precise answers to these questions remain unclear, the approach taken in the present study is an effective method of evaluating the characteristics of NPs and their tourism performance. Such evaluation represents a crucial step in addressing these questions, as well as in improving the effective management of protected areas. Taking this approach will allow more effective planning and development of protected area-based tourism and sustainable tourism in Vietnam.

SMAA and PROMETHEE have been widely applied to deal with various real-world problems (Hyde et al. 2003, Brans and Mareschal 2005, Tervonen and Figueira 2008). The present study used an integration of SMAA and PROMETHEE methods, and it proposed a new index (i.e. the exponential weighted acceptability index) for the measurement of NP tourism attractiveness. Our findings indicate that Phong Nha - Ke Bang, Cuc Phuong and Ba Be NPs gave the best performance of 30 studied national parks in Vietnam, with respect to tourism attractiveness. In addition, 12 NPs were found to be non-dominated, and the trail criterion appears to be the most important central weight vector supporting most of these parks. A statistically significant correlation was also found between the tourism attractiveness of a national park and the number of tourists visiting it. However, improving tourism attractiveness should not only aim at increasing tourist flows to a national park. It should also facilitate the development of sustainable nature-based tourism and the main objectives of national parks. Further studies can build upon the present findings to obtain more precise strategies for fostering NP-based tourism in order to improve the effectiveness of management of national parks, and promote sustainable development of NBT in protected areas in Vietnam.

The authors would like to thank the managers of Vietnam’s national parks who gave time to respond to the survey. We would also like to thank the editor and reviewers for their useful comments and discussion on the manuscript.