Student’s Journal of Travelling and Study Tour, Semester 2, 2017-2018

PERCEPTION OF TOURISTS TOWARDS VIETNAM WAR

AND THE COUNTRY’S TOURISM INDUSTRY
Muhammad Syukri Bin Abd Rahman
Department of Chemical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University of Malaya
(syukriabdrahman@yahoo.com)

ABSTRACT

Being a part of Indochina in South East Asia region, The Socialist Republic of Vietnam had been
tormented continuously for almost 25 years by the United States of America. The disastrous event that
is known by the Vietnamese as American War and more famous as Vietnam War globally had left
many remnants that are being used as tourist attractions today. Such regions remained today are Ho
Chi Minh City (used to be known as Saigon), Da Nang, Hue and Nha Trang whilst places like Cu Chi
Tunnel, Hoa Lo Prison, War Remnant Museum and Reunification/Independent Palace are either
designated for or the exact remnants of the war that are still being preserved today. However, as it
already more than 40 years since the last bullet was shot, this caused for a person to wonder how
relevant are these remnants today towards the country’s tourism industry? Thus, through inquiries,
observation and data acquirement, this study determines to uncover the exact reason on why the
tourists visited Vietnam via the factor of tourists' perception toward the disastrous Vietnam War.
Focusing on the region of Ho Chi Minh City, the study limits the subjects to neither an American nor
Vietnamese to avoid potential biasness in the general perspective towards Vietnam tourism industry,
however, the observational method was kept unlimited to help fill any voidage wherever needed or
necessary as per discussed in this article. Further study was also done to ascertain other factors that
drive these tourists to visit Vietnam while discussing any issue arose while they were touring and
dictate the outcome through the potentiality of them coming back or recommending this country to
other people. Finally, insightful recommendations are incorporated along with this article in hope that
whatever good about Vietnam today will be greater in the nearest future.

Keywords: Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Vietnam War, war tourism, Ho Chi Minh City, tourist perception

INTRODUCTION in the world and Asia, ranking at fourteenth

Vietnam or officially known as Socialist
Republic of Vietnam is a country on the
easternmost side of Indochina Peninsula in
Southeast Asia. Having an estimation of 94.6
million inhabitants in 2016, this led to Vietnam
being one of the few most populous countries
and ninth places respectively. Since the
reunification of Vietnam in 1976, Hanoi has
been the capital city while Ho Chi Minh City
has become the most populous city in the
country with population of more than 10
million.
Muhammad Syukri Bin Abd Rahman
Figure 1: Indochina, the group of countries involved in the Vietnam War.
Being a part of Indochina along with Laos and
Cambodia, Vietnam is bordered by these
countries on the northwest and southwest side
respectively. Meanwhile, the rest of the
country’s land is bordered by China to the
LITERATURE REVIEW
About the war
In the very first place when the Vietnam War
was initiated, United States was actually trying
to reconstruct the global political economy, in
which Southeast Asia especially Vietnam,
would play a critical role. This is however
being somewhat ironic as Vietnam was not
really valuable to the US directly. Nonetheless,
it still happened the way it was due to Vietnam
was somehow necessary to help reconstruct
Asia in becoming a Capitalist region to
“modernize” the country and help build a
bridge for US to connect with Japan as partner
in trade (Rotter, 1989).
However, Vietnam whom a country with a
considerable small power compared to US at
the time and still it is today was able brought
the latter to its knees while indirectly contained
whatever empire expansion the US was
planning at the time. Unfortunately, this War
had resulted to millions of Vietnamese and
north while the sea is bordered by Thailand to
the southwest across the Gulf of Thailand, and
Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia to the east
and southeast across the South China Sea.
thousands American troops killed while nearly
created a global crisis with grave consequences
(Buzzanco, 2017).
Aftermath of Vietnam War
As western world projected powerful images
of war and destitution in Vietnam (Gillen,
2010), this might have had consequently led to
low amount to almost non-existing travelers
count. Thankfully, the negative depiction of
this country is softening as the time goes by
(Kennedy & Williams, 2001). In turn, Vietnam
tries not to directly promote the country using
the War. As they are unable to completely
ignore this disastrous episode, they
consequently and in a way somehow cite it as a
localized or isolated event in the country
(Kennedy & Williams, 2001). However,
Vietnam’s urban entrepreneurs is still with
how to present urban Vietnam to tourists
(Gillen, 2010). Due to this, Vietnamese
government had resorted to campaigning as a
way to increase their tourism status. Such
campaigns were 1990 Tourism Year and 1995
Master Plan (Truong, 2013; Henderson, 2000)
Muhammad Syukri Bin Abd Rahman
Despite of the success of 1990 Tourism Year
campaign that lead to a sharp increase in
foreign tourists and the expansion of some
tourist sites, it however had failed to provide
sufficient hotels and flights. It also failed to
meet the demands for service quality,
infrastructure, facilities, and amenities. In the
second period, the tourism industry has faced
the challenges of ensuring the balance of
economic profitability, social sustainability,
and environmental integrity (Truong, 2013).
Thus, the 1995 Master Plan whom was made
by Vietnam National Administration of
Tourism that used various approaches to
classify their wartime heritage attractions
including through geographical location. These
locations are classified by three zones which
consist of Northern Part, Northern Central
Part, and South Central and Southern Part. Ho
Chi Minh City is situated in the zone of the
latter. These minor sites can be packaged and
collectively promoted to establish extended
cluster of which may help to encourage
development (Henderson, 2000).
Development Issue and Further Improvement
Vietnam possess a wealth of natural and
cultural tourism assets, but the country tourism
industries have been constrained by an initial
lack of government interest and investment
against a background of relative isolation and
chronic instability. Furthermore, poor
infrastructure and communications connected
to the general stage of development led to
more weaknesses in their tourism industries
(Henderson, 2007).
Further dispiriting, due to Vietnam status as a
third world country, Vietnam is assumed
negatively as to not being able to meet the
general needs in tourism industry.
Furthermore, social issues such as beggars and
burglaries had become some sort of setback in
the development of the country’s tourism
industry. Consequently, the fear towards the
impact of the weather in Vietnam such as
wide-scale flooding after rainstorms are also
one of the negative factors that impacted the
industry (Berger, 2005). Sequentially, this led to
Vietnam plans to invest billions of dollars to
upgrade its transport networks and other
infrastructure, a much-needed task in
improving the drainage system in the cities
(Lam, 1997).
Nevertheless, Vietnam is still geographically
suitable for tourism. Vietnam whom once has
limited resource can only act as stop over
status for people who are travelling in its
neighboring countries, however, with further
development, Vietnam can be sole destination
for tourism (Jansen-Verbeke & Go, 1995).
Besides, as neighboring countries such as Laos,
Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines have
similar historical and cultural backgrounds
with common tourism objectives and goals,
Vietnam would be getting a great advantage if
it works with those neighboring countries to
promote their destinations as a single package
(Lam, 1997).
Additionally, the lifting of the restrictions on
US investment in Vietnam should give a great
boost to tourism in that country (Forsyth &
Dwyer, 1996).
Sentimental Issues
Years after U.S. troops left peninsular
Southeast Asia, recollections of the past and
deciphering of the conflict continue to urge
publication of memoirs, novels and anthologies
as well as the production of Hollywood
blockbuster films and other popular culture
trends such as comic books action figures,
cartoons, music and computer games. These
cultural productions sell selected memories
and ideological war perspectives that are
mostly lacking of any substantive
representation of Vietnamese people, history or
culture and are usually instilled with elements
of anti-communist. Meanwhile, the underlying
American ideologies of democracy,
individualism, freedom and moral goodness
had caused the war to be seen as a tragedy for
U.S. veterans, families, and society while
neglecting its long-term devastating
 Perception of Tourists towards Vietnam War and The Country’s Tourism Industry
consequences for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
(Schwenkel, 2006).
Meanwhile, the War Remnants Museum in Ho
Chi Minh City is being deliberately provocative
by representing one-sidedly on the war.
Furthermore, some of the authors of the
museum use tourism as a way to generate
“new” truths about what the Vietnam war is
and how it affects the country today. Thus, this
somewhat had force the people to make sense
of the Vietnamese government’s perspective on
the war (Gillen, 2014).
Perceptions toward Vietnam War
While the Vietnamese’s government tries to
depict USA as savage through the War,
Vietnamese people however had moved on
and put the War in their past (Gillen, 2014;
Berger, 2005). As shortage of visitors in
Vietnam being one of the probable reasons,
Vietnamese people are very hospitable towards
all tourists including Americans and every
other people who came from the country that
were involved in the Vietnam War (Berger,
2005).
Simultaneously, general American citizen at
large only know that the United States had a
terrible war and suffered its only major
military defeat in Vietnam. Consequently,
these people still perceive Vietnam as a war-
ravaged country despite of any positive
exposure that they had encountered before
(Berger, 2005).
Conversely, based on interviews with USA
veterans that fought in, the level of interest of
the veterans to revisit Vietnam as tourist was
mixed with very low to low defeating the high
to very high interest. Furthermore, similar
result goes to the likeliness to visit battlefields
with former defeating the latter. However, the
result was vice versa in the case of the
likeliness to visit other wartime heritages such
as museums. Meanwhile, in term tourism that
are unrelated to Vietnam War such as natural
sightseeing, recreational activities and
industrial sightseeing and cultural sightseeing,
all of them are in favors to very low to low
level of interest over the opposite (Agrusa,
Tanner & Dupuis, 2006). This shows that USA
Vietnam War veterans are still considerably
bitter with their loss toward they opponent.
Literature Gap
Through thorough literature study, a literature
gap was found where perceptions from US
citizens, US Veteran and Vietnamese people
where elaborately discussed (Berger, 2005;
Agrusa, et al. 2006). However, there is not a
single publication found that compile, compare
and conclude any certain perspective from
tourist whom neither form US or Vietnam
especially in term of Vietnam tourism
industries.
Although it may seem irrelevant, however, the
study could be a pedestal to a new correlation
that could affect Vietnam tourism industry
despite whether it is related or unrelated to
Vietnam War. If it somehow unrelated, this
proves that Vietnam tourism industries are
moving beyond the remainders of the War.
However, if these tourists visited Vietnam due
to the War, this shows that the industries are
still greatly affected by the event and this factor
shall not be taken lightly despite of its place in
the distant past.
Understanding the Complexity
It was and still is a matter of debate whether
tourism can act as a peace offering (Farmaki,
2017). If it in any case is, Vietnam tourism
would probably the most ironic case of all as
their biggest attraction are based on one of the
country’s most disastrous events. However,
this bring into question whether this subject
really is matter in the first place.
To really understand the importance of tourism
and peace, all aspects from all side of
perspectives must be taken in account. Upon
thorough analyses, one of the sides that still
has not been discussed are the perceptions of
people whom neither from Vietnam or USA.
4
Muhammad Syukri Bin Abd Rahman
This is important in gaining views and
opinions that would be the least of biasness
and free from political influences. Hence,
Vietnam’s most populated city of Ho Chi Minh
is chosen as field study area with hope that as
much views and opinions could be obtained
from tourists of various backgrounds and
countries.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Once all the quantitative data are collected,
these data will be grouped as accordingly to
their respective variable stated in this research.
These data will then be analyze statistically to
determine the tendency of data distribution
using statistical method such as histogram etc.
Meanwhile, for qualitative data from
interviews, each information will be extracted
into singular data and will be grouped as
according to their similarities. Next these
groups of information will be evaluated for
biasness and filtered out. Finally, the remaining
information will be connected to the
quantitative data as elaboration and discussion
elements that helps to strengthen the
arguments presented.
Furthermore, any historical information
collected will be analyze comparatively with
the published one to ensure authenticity and to
differentiate whether such information is
historically correct or a part of a masked
“propaganda”.
Last but not least, any numerical data sampling
obtained (if possible) will be treated
statistically as periodical trends or in any way
that can help to determine whether population
used to obtain qualitative and quantitative data
are random but are still in controlled range or
not an outlier.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND
METHODOLOGY
This research will implement mix approaches
in its study to gain as much viable input that
can help in producing detailed elaboration and
justification on every aspect of analysis
possible. Quantitative will be done through
questionnaire meanwhile qualitative are done
through interviews and historical area
surrounding survey.
Initially, randomly selected tourists whom
neither an American or Vietnamese will be
approached and handed out the questionnaire
regarding this research and will be assisted
along the way to keep their point of views
solely within the aspect of this issues and to
remove any biasness that could arise from any
political or any unwanted factors.
While or once they filled the survey, they will
be asked some questions related to the survey
to obtain more elaborated notion towards the
matter. This will help to detect the level of
understanding or otherwise towards the
questionees regarding the issue discussed and
the questionnaire answered, thus, further
improve and filter any unrelated point and
disregard any invalid given answers.
Furthermore, several places related to the event
of Vietnam war will be visited such as War
Remnant Museum, Reunification/Independent
Palace and Cu Chi Tunnel to gain a direct input
from the people at the place along with
historical information that can be used to detect
and differentiate any misalignment with the
currently obtained literature data. Finally,
upon visiting these places, statistical data such
as periodical visitor count will be requested to
the places’ administration if possible. This
helps to broaden the view within the short
amount research time while increasing the
accuracy of this research.
The research will solely focus on getting the
opinion of tourists of neither from Vietnam nor
USA. This is remove any biasness that could
occurred directly or indirectly in this study.
However, any tourist that is neither from this
country but somewhat related in this War may
be accepted as alternative perspective that
might contain valuable insights. However, due
to budget restrictions, this study only be done
in Ho Chi Minh City. Specific places that are
 Perception of Tourists towards Vietnam War and The Country’s Tourism Industry
currently being proposed are War Remnant
Museum, Reunification Palace and Cu Chi
Tunnel.
This paper could gain valuable insights on
what exactly is lacking in Vietnam tourism
industries and their tourist area through
tourists’ perceptions. Furthermore, this also
could help disentangle the complex nexus that
are surrounding the issue of Vietnam War as
tourist attractions and Vietnam War as a
subject of peace offering through tourism.
FINDINGS
Cu Chi Tunnel
“The winner gets the right to tell the story”, a
simple condescending remark yet speaks what
is considered the possible truth from all
available perspective there is to be reviewed
regarding this research or anything related to
the Vietnam War. This sentence was quoted
from the tour guide whom preferred himself to
called as “Fat Boy” that showed us around the
relatively tiny part of Cu Chi Tunnel that was
available to be visited by tourist.
Our group whom consist majority of Caucasian
and Asian were further identified their origins
as to be from North America (USA), European
(Germany, UK etc.), Southeast Asian (Malaysia
and Philippines) and South Asia (India)
respectively in the order of highest to lowest
count.
Fat Boy who loves to joke around however was
deemed a bit insensitive and too outspoken
around the matter regarding Vietnam War that
it was obvious in a way causing a bit of
Figure 2: Panoramic view inside the Historical Truth room in War Remnants Museum.
discomfort towards the tourist under his
guidance especially the American. This case
whom probably seemed to be isolated were
actually a vise versa as during our resting
session in between tours, an American from
another group was seen and heard expressing
her discomfort to a Germany couple with the
ways of the tour guides working there. This
somehow dictates that despite of the
friendliness manifested by the tourist guide
towards the tourists, lacking of political
incorrectness behaviors presented showed that
there is a “hard feeling” hidden somewhere in
their hearts and was wrongly poured into
tourists who just wanted to have a good time.
War Remnant Museum
Despite of being surrounded by scamming
taxis, motorbikes and hectic streets, War
Remnants Museum still stands out from the
rest when its surroundings are occupied by old
tanks, aircrafts and helicopters. This view itself
is enough to summon people in without firstly
understanding the objectives behind the
construction of this place. Being one of the
most popular museums in Vietnam (Rodgers,
2017), there was never an exhibit or room in the
museum left unoccupied.
“It was all a lie.”, a subtitle aired on a TV
screen above the entrance of one of the room
on the ground floor called Historical Truths. The
subtitle whom was read by a lady from
Switzerland without even a single expression
of surprise on her face as it was all expected
from the beginning. She whom came to
Vietnam with her boyfriend was one of the
subjects questioned and interviewed for this
research.
4
 Student’s Journal of Travelling and Study Tour, Semester 2, 2017-2018
Historical Truths, Vestiges of War Crimes and
International Support for the Vietnamese People
were among the exhibit rooms that are
significance enough to bring out another
perspective of war unwritten in most of
mainstream medias. These room are filled with
propaganda poster and direct imagery
resistance from people and countries all over
the world towards USA on Vietnam War
including their current alias such as Canada.
One of the posters are a newspaper cover
below.
Figure 3: Poster exhibited inside War Remnant
Museum.
Through thorough observation, most of the
visitors that were spotted visiting the museum
were almost all Caucasian whom came either
from South America, Europe or Australasia.
Several East Asian and Vietnamese were
spotted but are mostly accompanying the
people from earlier and can be safely assume to
be either their associate or tourist guide.
Reunification/Independent Palace
Enclosed by silvery fences and greeneries,
Reunification Palace will somehow take a bit of
your breath with its classic infrastructure with
Vietnam’s modern surroundings. It is a place
dedicated solely for people who are interested
with the history of mostly post-Vietnam War
and glamorous interior of the palace.
Each room and hall provides captions that
explain their functionality along with any
significance historical event happened there
especially anything that were related to the
reunification of South and North Vietnam.
Based on these contexts provided, it was
obvious how this war affected the country so
significantly that anything that were in the side
of the opponent was punished or treated in the
strictly manners.
Most of the tourists came here by group tour
with a tour guide who can speak their native
language. Due to this, as scenery of buses and
vans coming in and out of this place are
somewhat a common view. Furthermore, the
tourists that visited here were seemed more
diverse than the first two places where almost
equivalently half of them comes from countries
all over East and Southeast Asia. This was
further proven when an audio tour provided
by the palace are offered in few languages such
as Vietnamese, English, French, Japanese,
Chinese and Korean with same price except for
Vietnamese whom is at lower price.
Significance of Vietnam War in Tourism
It was very obvious that Vietnam War still play
a significant role in the country’s tourism
industry. As can be seen in the Figure 4
attached in the appendices, these events are
publicized all the way from online travel
website to tour packages all around the world.
However, these are mostly applicable only for
cheap or low-cost packages. Some high class
packages only include up to the extend of Cu
Chi Tunnel in their itinerary while focusing
more on ecotourism and cultural tourism
instead.
 Student’s Journal of Travelling and Study Tour, Semester 2, 2017-2018

Figure 4: Publicized materials on Vietnam War places such as in A) Holiday packages, B) International
travel website [TripAdvisor] and C) Places to go map [Provided by Golden Dragon Water Puppet
Theatre].
Back to the low packages, the itinerary mostly
focuses on Cu Chi Tunnel as one of the main
attractions right after to Mekong Delta tour.
The means that for example, for a four-days-
three-nights tour, a day will be focused on
Mekong Delta while the other on Cu Chi
Tunnel. Meanwhile, for a three-days-two-
nights tour, a day would mostly be either
designated for Mekong Delta only or a half-day
Mekong and half-day Cu Chi on the same day
or a whole-day Mekong and half-day Cu Chi
on the very next day before departure.
Based on this observation along with the study,
this shows that although Vietnam War is still a
part of main attractions in the country’s
tourism industry, they however are not
considered the key player to give that
wholesome experience when visiting Vietnam.
Same goes to Reunification Palace and War
Remnant Museum where falls further below
under the list.
The People of Vietnam
Despite of the language barrier, most
Vietnamese can be considered friendly in
generally way. However, in any way possible
they must be approached in careful manner as
a person could be tricked in a scamming
scenario. This scenario is mostly found in an
area more crowded and rural of Ho Chi Minh
City.

Figure 5: Le Lai street nearby Ben Thanh Market or also known as “Malaysian street” where scammers
are abundantly found.
 Student’s Journal of Travelling and Study Tour, Semester 2, 2017-2018

In the same area, it is conspicuous that most of
the stuff sold there are without a price tag to be
seen. Hence, people are extremely advised to
rigidly turn down any approaches or offers
that they did not want and shall deny any
attempt to bargain unless they really want or
interested in it. The price also had been
markup up to 500% of the original price but is
still lower than the price that can be found in
the tourists’ respective country. This led to a lot
of tourist paying more than they should to
while feeling that they had saved a lot when
buying there.
On every other part of Ho Chi Minh City, taxis
and motorbikes are scamming people by giving
irregular price for their services to the tourists.
They usually offered a price which seem very
low the time of negotiation but took an
unexpected turn where the price paid would be
higher. While negotiation before riding is
crucial, people also need to take a stand when
paying the negotiated price. Furthermore,
despite of the possibility of higher price using a
standardize service such as metered taxis,
Grabcar, Uber etc., using these service however
could help secure the tourists from being
scammed and provide a peace of mind while
using the service.
Imagery of The War
Other than the three places visited, there was
almost non-existing of any context related to
the war seen anywhere but only a small
fragment of them still sold but somewhat
considerably negligible to make a profound
statement.

Figure 6: Propaganda materials found all over Ho Chi Minh City where A) Propaganda poster sold in
Saigon Central Post Office, B) Notebook with war propaganda cover sold in Saigon Central Post Office and
C) Stickers that consist of some old propaganda posters sold at a kiosk between Saigon Central Post Office
and Book Street.

logical as the Saigon Central Post Office and

These “propaganda items” are sold in a very
small scale in the form of small poster,
notebook cover and stickers (view Figure 6) in
places in the region of Saigon Central Post
Office to the nearby Book Street.
Upon interviewing the seller, these items are
sold as part of art and history appreciation
rather than promoting indoctrination. It seems
Book Street are literally flourished with such
items including books and souvenirs.
DISCUSSION
Perception of tourists
Upon analyzing all the findings through many
perspectives and methods, Vietnam War is still
Muhammad Syukri Bin Abd Rahman
significant as part of Vietnam War towards
certain group of people. Based on observations
and interviews, the most American who
embarked to Vietnam literally came to get their
share of view on the country that once defeated
theirs. However, for tourists who are neither an
Asian nor American, certain amount of them
come due to the war while the rest are due to
many other reasons. For Asian, most of them
came as part of many factors other than
Vietnam War but visited such places due to the
packages they took or suggestions they
received.
Most of these people knew about this War
either through educational mediums or
entertainments also visited Vietnam due to
several other reasons, few of them are
geographical and cultural sceneries and
infamous Vietnamese food, beef Phở, Bánh Mì
and coffee. Halong Bay is considerably one of
the sought geographical sceneries whilst
cultural sceneries consist of Vietnam’s streets
filled with rushing motorbikes and Vietnamese
carrying items using bamboo yoke.
Due to expanding interest towards Vietnam in
term of tourism (International visitors to Viet
Nam in December and 12 months of 2017, 2018)
along with the number of attractions available,
most of the tourists felt that Vietnam
infrastructure and public convenience is in
well-progressed state but still in need of much
further improvements. Despite of the
interesting view of motorbikes on the street,
this can pose a lot of safety issues towards
tourists and even to the Vietnamese
themselves. Other issues arose also around the
non-regulated safety precautions taken on
small scale construction around Ho Chi Minh
City especially on roadside and tourist
attraction buildings.
Publicizing Vietnam as Tourist Attraction
Almost every respondent felt that Vietnam is
worthy as a tourist destination respectively on
each different factor respectively given by
them. However, to get them to come back or
recommending it to other people is totally a
different story.
Due to certain unpleasant experience these
tourists encountered during their trips, most of
them think that one time would more than
enough to visit the country including
economical factor where they felt that visiting
the same country would be a huge waste of
money while they can spend it on a new one.
Meanwhile, there was a mixed feedback on
whether they will be recommending Vietnam
to the people they know. Generally, they will
somehow still recommend it for the purpose of
getting that “taste of differences” but will
include some precautions and safeguard tips to
their friends if they were to choose Vietnam.
In term of Vietnam War as tourist attraction,
other than Hoi An, Hue and Da Nang, lesser
recommendation was given to other place
related to the war including the places visited
for this study. It is also not really
enthusiastically recommended to visit the
places solely due to reminiscing the war as
such places “deserved” more than a war to be
toured upon.
Conversely, in national aspect, Vietnam whom
once was used to be only a “stop-over”
destination (Jansen-Verbeke & Go, 1995) has
now received visitors that came solely for the
country. One of the respondents from Germany
interviewed made Vietnam his sole tour whilst
planning another visit to South East Asia again
with Thailand and Malaysia be amalgamated
into one trip. This shows that although
Vietnam tourism industry and global
acceptance is progressing slowly compared to
most of the countries in South East Asia, it is
however something to be praised for and can
be considered as another step to a bigger
milestone in the near future.
Peace offering complexity
Vietnam is known globally due to the war,
however, for people to really visit the country
are due to many reasons that bring out the
 Perception of Tourists towards Vietnam War and The Country’s Tourism Industry
interest in people to really took their time and
invest their money towards the country.
As it is still a matter debate whether tourism
really contributed to peace (Farmaki, 2017), the
case of Vietnam War who initially took an
ironical turn somehow provided another
perspective that can be used to fill in the gap in
this complex nexus. Through overall
observation, places that directly associate to the
war provide unsettling sense to the visitor
rather than wholesome feeling. It is something
that should be left in the past but should not be
forgotten too. As it is still somewhat significant
as tourist destination to certain targeted group
of tourists, this shall remain as something to
help contribute to Vietnam economically but
shall not be allowed be something that defines
the country any further.
Furthermore, by progressing further from this
disastrous event and focusing on what really
significant and meaningful about Vietnam will
not only reflect the best of the country on
global scale but surely will help eradicate any
factor that act as a friction towards Vietnam
developments.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, despite of the remnants of war
that are still operating today as part of tourist
attractions, their influences toward the whole
Vietnam industry are reducing progressively.
Their significance in the tourism industry are
mostly applicable towards certain group of
people such as Americans and their alias and
people who are interested in history etc.
As Vietnam is progressing further from the
disastrous event, this in turn brought more
reasons and factors for tourist to visit the
country including but not all, their interesting
cultural and geographical sceneries along with
the local nourishments offered.
Despite of certain backlashes based on some
unpleasant experience encountered by tourists,
Vietnam is still in the hope to improve further
in their tourism development and if they were
able to overpower such shortcomings, they will
surely be among the key player in certain
specialized tourism especially among its
neighbor in the South East Asia region.
Last but now least, further diversification and
modernization of Vietnam attraction sites
along with the infrastructures and
conveniences provided will surely improve
people’s confidence towards the credibility of
the country in providing the top-notch services
and amenities not only for its people but also
for tourists who are planning to visit the
country.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First and foremost, I would like to thank
Associate Prof. Dr. Hanafi Bin Hussin for
approving my proposal to do research in
Vietnam despite of the country already being
chosen previously. Much thanks to Amanda
Tan, Nur Shakina, Nor Syazwani and Alia an
Nisa for their moral support and useful tips
that truthfully made my trip more meaningful
and worth to remember for years to come.
Muhammad Syukri Bin Abd Rahman
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Muhammad Syukri Bin Abd Rahman

SHORT-BIO

Muhammad Syukri Bin Abd Rahman or preferably known or be called as Syukri is a final year student
from Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya at the time
when this article was written. His eagerness towards this research derived from his many encounters
regarding this topic from multiple Hollywood movies and series and stayed due to his amazement
towards the strength of Vietnamese during the war fighting the widely known colonial country, USA.

Despite of many unpleasant experience discussed in this research, Syukri is more than happy to admit
that he will come back to Vietnam again not as researcher anymore but as a full time tourist. There is
more than winning a war to define a country and it is best to define it while encountering the great and
the worse of the country at the same time. Plus, the coffees were really awesome.

Figure 7: A) The amazing coffees that Vietnam famously known for. B) Very much informational trip to Cu Chi
Tunnels. C) Amazing view from the first level of Reunification Palace. D) The much awaking visit to the War
Remnants Museum.