Determining the potential of American Vietnam veterans returning to Vietnam as tourists

Abstract Tourism is the world's largest industry, which brings with it foreign exchange, employment and a modern way of life. Vietnam is one of the latest Asian countries to declare the importance of tourism to national development. Although for almost two decades following the end of the Vietnam conflict it was illegal for American tourists to travel to Vietnam, studies have shown that people who have knowledge or experience of an area are likely to travel to the area. The re‐establishment of diplomatic ties between America and Vietnam has initiated a new era of commercial and cultural relations between the two nations. Because many American Vietnam veterans have a high degree of familiarity with Vietnam, there appears to be considerable potential for marketing tourism packages with American Vietnam veterans as the target market. This study was developed to estimate the potential interest of American Vietnam veterans in returning to Vietnam as tourists. Of those American Vietnam veterans surveyed in this study, the results are mixed with 48.9% of the American Vietnam veterans stating they had a low interest in returning to Vietnam as tourists, whereas 41.5% had a high interest in returning to Vietnam as tourists, with 48.5% of those stating they had a high interest in visiting war history displays and war museums. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.