Description
Book SynopsisThis study examines the intersection of entrepreneurialism and the tourism industry in modern-day Vietnam and uses case studies from private tourism operators in Ho Chi Minh City to analyze the effects of development policies and market reforms.
Trade ReviewEntrepreneurialism and Tourism in Contemporary Vietnam explores the entrepreneurial model of political governance in Ho Chi Minh City’s tourist industry. This is a thought-provoking book that provides important insights into the processes of development, entrepreneurialism, and tourism. This study is an intriguing and insightful contribution to tourism at the intersections of international capitalism, the state, and ongoing debates surrounding the changing face of Vietnam’s economy. -- Kimberly Kay Hoang, University of Chicago
Jamie Gillen’s fascinating study of everyday life in the tourism industry in Ho Chi Minh City illuminates complex entanglements between culture and economy and between entrepreneurship and government. Resisting an easy distinction between socialism and the market economy, Gillen details how culture serves as a malleable resource for entrepreneurs and for officials, many of whom have adopted an entrepreneurial approach to contemporary governance. This book offers an important counter-narrative to claims that a globally ascendant neoliberalism is the primary motor driving contemporary economic policy in Vietnam. -- Ann Marie Leshkowich, College of the Holy Cross
Focusing on the diverse entrepreneurial activities that have created a vibrant tourism sector in Ho Chi Minh City today, this work unravels the complex relationships between private actors and local government agencies in their quest for the tourism dollar. Providing a critical framework for the study of tourism entrepreneurship, and being highly cognizant of the nuances of a post-socialist setting, the author examines how entrepreneurial relationships are built less on distinctions between state and non-state enterprises, and more on an intricate blend of market opportunities and complex informal relations. -- Sarah Turner, McGill University
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Rethinking Entrepreneurialism through Cultural-Economic Registers Chapter 3: A Battle worth Winning?: The Production and Protection of Culture in the Reform Era Chapter 4: State-non-State Coordination in the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Industry Chapter 5: Commodifying Memory: Touring Warscapes in South Vietnam Chapter 6: Domestic Tourism in Vietnam: Disruptions of a Dialectic and a “Stereotypical” Response Chapter 7: Conclusion
