Resilience of the communist party of Vietnam's authoritarian regime since Doi Moi

Unlike communist parties in the former Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has overcome crises to remain in power for the last 30 years and will most likely continue ruling in the coming decades. Strategies and tactics undertaken by the CPV are found to be identical to those canvassed in the extant literature on the durability of authoritarian regimes around the world. The present paper argues that the CPV's regime has been resilient thus far because it has successfully restored and maintained public trust, effectively constrained its opposition at home, and cleverly reduced external pressures. To support this argument, the analysis electively focuses on four aspects: (1) economic performance, (2) political flexibility, (3) repression of the opposition, and (4) expansion of international relations

A reflective–formative hierarchical component model of perceived authenticity

Discussions on authenticity have become prominent in tourism research, particularly in the context of heritage tourism. Quantitative approaches have become popular methods to investigate authenticity, especially from a tourist’s perspective. Previous studies, however, have failed to include multiple forms of authenticity into a single quantitative scale, as well as to use a formative approach for its measures. This study develops a comprehensive and reliable scale of authenticity, considering its multi-dimensional complexity and its formative nature. A reflective – formative hierarchical component model of perceived authenticity towards heritage experience, including three lower-order components of objective authenticity, existential authenticity, and constructive authenticity, is proposed. The scale of authenticity also indicates a strong predictive power over tourist satisfaction

The classification of heritage tourists: a case of Hue City, Vietnam

Heritage, especially with World Heritage status, is increasingly becoming the main attraction of many tourist destinations. Heritage tourism is also the major tourism product in Hue city, Vietnam. Hitherto, there are almost no official statistics and research pertaining to heritage tourism as well as heritage tourists in Hue. This study aims at providing a preliminary profile of heritage tourists to Hue city and identifying different categories of heritage tourists, with a special focus on package tourists. The international heritage tourists’ profile seems to be similar to official statistics of international arrivals, indicating almost no difference in socio-demographic profile between heritage tourists and general tourists in the context of Hue. Various significant differences were found between international and domestic tourists in terms of tourist characteristics, trip profile and the perception of Hue. Adopting McKercher’s [(2002) Towards a classification of cultural tourists. International Journal of Tourism Research, 4, 29–38] cultural tourist classification, five categories of heritage tourists were identified, including purposeful heritage tourists, sightseeing heritage tourists, casual heritage tourists, incidental heritage tourists and serendipitous heritage tourists. Among these, sightseeing heritage tourists and purposeful heritage tourists were dominant

Authenticity and commodification of Hong Kong heritage tourism

This study aims at examining the level of commodification and authenticity of heritage tourism in Hong Kong from a tourist standpoint. It also attempted to examine the influence of perceived commodification on perceived authenticity in the context of Hong Kong heritage tourism. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied, whereas the focus was on the later one. Findings indicated a fairly authentic heritage experiences perceived by tourists. Commodification was not considered as a problem by respondents although signs of commodification were found. The findings also suggested that commodification indeed “does not necessarily” ruins the tourist’s perception of authenticity

GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISES IN THE 20TH CENTURY AND LESSONS FOR VIETNAM

The research examines the general overview of major financial crises worldwide in the 20th century to answer the question of what creates a large-scale global economic crisis and relates to the potential risks for a crisis nowadays. The study indicates the contexts, causes, happenings/impacts, and measures had been done in three crises: (i) The Great Depression of 1929-1939; (ii) The 1973 oil crisis; (iii) The 1997 Asian financial crisis. From these, lessons and experiences for Vietnam are derived from each crisis. The lessons learned from the 1929-1933 economic crisis highlight that the interconnectedness of different sectors in the economy leads to the vulnerability of the stock market to bubbles, and the need for swift government intervention. Things we learned from the 1973 oil crisis are the importance of having reserves, energy independence, a focus on renewable energy, and a coherent regional strategy. Regarding the 1997 financial and monetary crisis, the lesson drawn is that market liberalization is dangerous, and there is a need for a reliable international financial regulatory mechanism and reducing foreign debt through foreign currency. Additionally, it is necessary to allow for more flexible exchange rates