"Tourism demand, destination and travel mode choice"
On May 24 Master of Economics Vo Van Can from Vietnam and Tromsø Business School defended his PhD thesis for the commission. The scientific title of the thesis was “Modelling tourism demand, travel mode choice and destination loyalty”. The thesis has implemented the tourism demand modeling and studied the behavior of destination and travel mode choice of Vietnamese tourists.
The dissertation for the degree of philosophise doctor with title: “Modelling tourism demand, travel mode choice and destination loyalty” will be defended on May 24th, 2013. This thesis addresses simultaneously
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| Foto: Rudi Caeyers |
three questions: (1) what are the most relevant factors to explain domestic tourism demand in Khanh Hoa? (2) what kind of travel modes domestic tourists choose for holidays in Khanh Hoa?, and (3) why domestic tourists wish to return to Khanh Hoa for their holidays?. Better knowledge of the domestic tourism demand, travel mode choices of tourists, and factors affecting destination loyalty could be of great assistance to marketers in planning growth strategies for both tourist retention and attracting new tourists, and contributing to promoting sustainable development of the Khanh Hoa tourism industry.
To achieve the first purpose, the dissertation has used the general-to-specific approach; for the second purpose, the multinomial probit model has been applied, and structural equation modeling has been used to accomplish the third purpose. The findings reveal that economic and non-economic variables have certain significant effects on the tourism demand in both the short term and the long term. In addition, in the study on travel mode choice, travel time and cost, mode quality, and income are key elements in explaining the mode choice behavior of tourists. Low-income tourists tend to be more sensitive to change in the travel cost; high-income tourists are much more likely to choose a plane or train rather than a coach. Furthermore, the findings also indicate that both satisfaction and switching barriers have significant effects on behavior of revisitation and recommendation to other visitors of tourists.
The commision
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| Foto: Rudi Caeyers |
Tutoring committee:
- Ass. Professor Espen Sirnes (HHT)
- Professor Nina Prebensen (HHT)
Evalutaion committee:
- Dr. Andreas Papatheodorou, Department of Business Administration, University of the Aegean, Hellas (1. opponent)
- Dr. Ossi Pesämaa, Hanken School of Economics, Finland (2. opponent)
- Professor Derek Clark, HHT
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My name is Vo Van Can, born in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, on the 22nd of December 1974. I am now a lecturer at Nha Trang University, Vietnam. I got the master degree from the University of Economy Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2008. The same year, I applied for the PhD programme in Social Science at the Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, Tromsø University, Norway. My research fields are both tourism and finance.
4. Contact.
Name: Vo Van Can
Institution / Department: Accounting – Finance faculty, Nha Trang University, Vietnam
Telephone / mobile number: 0084.913426858
E-mail: cankt34@yahoo.com; cankt34@gmail.com.
