factors affecting tourists’ decision making to ba ria – vung tau major management of business administration

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION & TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY FACTORS AFFECTING TOURISTS’ DECISION MAKING TO BA RIA – VUNG TAU Major: Management of Business Administration Subject: Marketing Management Lecturer: Ph.D Nguyen Viet Bang Students: Nguyen Lam Thuong - 202207032 Nguyen Van Tung Vung Tau city – December 2021 i TABLE OF CONTEN The reason for choosing this topic 2 The research purpose 3 The research object and scope The research methodology Literature review of tourists’ decision making and tourism 5.1 Overview of tourism 5.1.1 Definition of tourism and tourist 5.1.2 Ba Ria - Vung Tau tourism 5.2 Literature of decision-making and research model of tourists’ decision- making 5.2.1 Definition of tourists’ decision-making 5.2.2 Previous research model of tourist’s decision-making Research model and research hypotheses 25 6.1 Research model 25 6.2 Research hypotheses 26 CONCLUSION 28 1 The reason for choosing this topic Vietnam is joining the trend of globalization nowadays As a result our economy is thriving in recent years, which raises the Vietnamese’s living standard People nowadays are now demanding for both physical and mental needs As a matter of fact, tourism is becoming an important industry in Vietnam to response to both domestic and foreign tourist as the number of tourist come to Vietnam in recent years is rising continuously In recent years, our tourism industry has developed rapidly and little by little asserted our position as an ideal destination for many tourists Vietnam is considered on of the most rapid growing tourism destination in Southest Asia In December 31st 2011 Mr Nguyen Tien Dung approved the “Strategy for Vietnam tourism development until 2020, vision 2030” which set out the views, goals, solutions and specific action programs to develop Vietnam tourism The demand to travel of people is proportional with the development of the world However, the travel demand now is not only simple that finding a place to relax, but including the need for sightseeing, discovering, studying and researching in order to accumulate more knowledge and satisfy the emotional need The concept of nowaday tourism is changing and broadening into new market demanding Ba Ria – Vung Tau is a leading province in term of tourism, famous for its beautiful beach, this province is becoming one of the leading tourist centers of the country Ba Ria – Vung Tau has the favorable conditions for the development of tourism with the ideal beaches, resorts that attract a lot of tourist each months Recently, the needs of international tourists traveling to Ba Ria – Vung Tau has increased so in order to satisfy the diverse needs of tourists, this province must have specific strategies that match the characteristics and strengths of their locals scenic and facilities Making decision on where to travel to is very important and it is a core factor of tourism consumer behavior In tourism industry, understanding the decisions related to the choice of destinations of tourists is the key to develop and promote tourism For Ba Ria - Vung Tau in particular and Vietnam in general, the research of factors affecting tourists’ decision-making is more than necessary in order to provide a clearer vision of what tourists are looking for when they decide to go traveling However, Vietnam in reality, there are not that many researches about this topic for government as well as tourism enterprises to captures the consumer trend to promote tourism and meet the needs and tastes of tourists With all the aforementioned reasons, the author would like to choose the topic of “Factors affecting tourists’ decision making to Ba Ria – Vung Tau” for this thesis The research purpose This research topic is conducted with the following purpose: - Synthesize and systematize theories about tourism including definitions and factors affecting tourists’ decision-making - Identifying the factors affecting decisions of tourists to travel to Ba Ria - Vung Tau - Determine the model of factors affecting decisions of tourists to travel to Ba Ria - Vung Tau The research object and scope - Object of this research: Factors affecting tourists’ decision to travel to Ba Ria – Vung Tau - Scope of this topic: Tourist and international tourist living who have already traveled to Ba Ria – Vung Tau The research methodology In this research, the authors used the method of synthesis For the method of synthesis, the authors acquired secondary data acquired from annual report, domestic and foreign publications as well as on the Internet Literature review of tourists’ decision making and tourism 5.1 Overview of tourism 5.1.1 Definition of tourism and tourist 5.1.1.1 Definition of tourism As of now, according to the author’s research, there has not been any official definition of tourism The Definition of Tourism varies source by source, person by person There is no consensus concerning the definition of tourism Therefore, the author synthesizes researches from international research to get a clearer look at the definition of tourism: According to Wikipedia: Tourism is travel for pleasure, also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours World Tourism Organization UNTWTO defined tourism as: “Tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes” There is a difference between travel and tourism as not all travel is tourism For tourism to appear, movement must occur People must travel using all types of transport Three criteria are used simultaneously to characterize tourism-related travel The offset should be: - This includes moving away from your normal environment This term is very important and will be discussed later - Purpose Type: Travel must be for purposes other than compensation within the site visited: Previous restrictions where tourism was limited to recreation and visiting family and friends are now extended to include a wide range of purposes - Duration: Only the maximum duration, not the minimum, is displayed The movement of tourists can occur with or without accommodation Let us examine the characteristics of public transit visits from a conceptual and statistical point of view 5.1.1.2 Types of tourism Tourism activities can be grouped according to different groups depending release criteria Currently, the majority of experts on Vietnam's tourism divide types of tourism by group types according to the following basic criteria: Table 5.1: Types of tourism Base on Groups Types Type of natural environment - Cultural Base on purpose - tourism touris m Base on - Natural Adventure Base on territory - tourism - Recreational International geographic - tourism - Domestic features Coastal tourism - Mountain tourist tourism - Leisure tourism - Ecotourism - Sport tourism - Festival tourism - Religious tourism - Drug tourism - Business tourism - Dark tourism - Culinary tourism - … tourism - National Tourism tourism - Urban tourism - Countryside Tourism (Source: Self-synthesized) Beside the basic criteria like natural environment, purpose, territory and geographic features, there are some other criteria to set the division of tourism, for examples: by transportation (sea traveling, air traveling…), by ages (teenagers, middle aged, elderly…), by trip duration (short term or long term), by form (group, individual or family) , by contract (packages or partial)… 5.1.1.3 Definition of tourist and international tourists According to Wikipedia: “a tourist is a person engaged in tourism—travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes.” In more detail, we can define tourist as: “A person who is supposed to leave his/her hometown (permanent place) on temporary, basis for the purpose of seeking new experiences, having fun & entertaining, doing sports, seeing cultural & historical places (attractives) etc On the condition that she/he should stay no less than day and no longer than 12 months, make use of a tourist facility for accomodation and spend her/his own Money through their holiday.” To sum up, we can understand that tourist is “The person who is supposed to leave his/her hometown in order to visit a diffirent area for the purpose of leaving an experience of shopping, entertaining, visiting, cultural & historical attractives having fun and so on the condition that (subject to) she/he should return to his/her own place, stay no longer than 12 months, make use of a tourist activitiy and spend his/her on money Similar to tourists, international tourist is defined as: “Any person who travels to a country other than that in which s/he has his/her usual residence but outside his/her usual environment for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from with the country visited, and who stay at least one night in a collective or private accommodation in the country visited.” 5.1.2 Ba Ria - Vung Tau tourism Ba Ria-Vung Tau (Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu) is a province of Vietnam It is located on the coast of the country's Southeast region It also includes the Côn Đảo islands, located some distance off Vietnam's southeastern coast Vũng Tàu is an important tourist destination, being particularly well known for its beaches, for its colonial-era architecture, and the Christ of Vũng Tàu, a large statue built by Vietnam's Catholic minority The most beautiful famous location of Vung Tau is Thuy Van beach is also known as Back Beach located in Thuy Van street Along the coast of Long Hai, Xuyen Moc has many beautiful beaches and large resorts: The Grand Ho Tram, Vietsovpetro The famous tourist resorts include the famous Ho Tram Osaka, Lan Rung resort there are a lot of popular hotel with Pullman Hotel, Imperial Hotel, Intourco Resort hotel, DIC Star hotel Historic, cultural relics of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province's diverse and influenced in various levels of age-old cultures associated with the seas Part of the historical, cultural offers possibilities for tourism operators Group of historical, religious architecture includes the architectural temples, pagodas, churches including Christ Statue, White Palace are good places to be developed into tourist attractions Festivals, spiritual, historical groups, revolutionary and resistance reflects the struggle to protect the nation's people's waters in two wars, such as Long Phuoc tunnels, Pursuant to Minh Damm, Bau Sen, Loc An, Con Dao prison are famous historic sights for tourist sightseeing type The sea food specialties of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province is quite rich, distinctive, refined processed, meet the demand for public enjoyment of tourists Ba Ria – Vung Tau took actions to improve the tourism environment clean and beautiful, rectified the situation of vendors sales for improvement and raising the provincial tourism landscape Travel service prices were and will be relatively stable and reasonable, the rescue and salvage were better organized to minimize the risk of accidents, drowning on the beach at the peak The construction of tourism planning continues to be implemented in order to create prerequisites to attract tourism investment projects with large capital size, diverse product types and characteristics, in accordance with international tourism market, which would change the fundamental quantity, and quality of the province's tourism product However, travel products have not created many groundbreaking innovative and high added values The association and cooperative in tourism development is still limited and spontaneous result in wasting potential effectiveness and comparative advantages to develop tourism Services still have not been diversified, lack of entertainment parks, performing arts centers and lack of proper investment The propaganda and promotion was not effective enough, resources are limited lead to low performances Promotional activities were still conducted under short-term plan Business advisory orientation, proposing forms of advertising, the provincial tourism promotion have no breakthroughs and have not meet the requirements of tourists in practice Businesses has not really care or contributing supports to promote the propaganda of advertising, lack of investment, upgrade, implementation of the regulations on registration and listing price has not been done properly, need more proposing new products and services as well as tours, new routes to attract tourists coming to Ba Ria – Vung Tau 5.2 Literature of decision-making and research model of tourists’ decision- making 5.2.1 Definition of tourists’ decision-making 5.2.1.1 Definition of consumer behavior There are different definitions of consumer behavior by researchers and economists Following are some typical definitions: According to Philip Kotler (1999): “consumer behavior is the buying behavior of final consumers” or “Consumer behavior include mental activity, emotional and physical that people use during selection, purchase, use and dispose of products and services that satisfy their needs and desires” Michael R Solomon stated his concept of consumer behavior to be “the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires” So researches on consumer behavior aim at answering the questions concerning motivation of consumers, "why consumer behaviors occur?” Answer to this question is included in the definition of consumer behavior Consumer behavior is to meet the needs and demands of him Behavior is a tool to achieve objectives and target consumer derives from his needs and desires Consumer behavior is also a process: Consumer behavior, including the selection, purchase and consumption of goods and services that include elimination of three steps before buying activities, purchasing activities, activities after purchase.(Rostami, 2001) Moreover, this process is affected by factors, external and internal Those factors vary from person to person, throughout time and places Understanding those factors and consumer buying process, business and manufacturers can apply these insights onto their strategies of products from the perspective of consumer, to make their goods and services meet the demand of consumers better in the long run 5.2.1.2 Definition of decision-making In psychology, decision making is defined as a cognitive process in which a belief or course of action is selected among several alternative possibilities Every decisionmaking process leads to a final choice You may or may not take action Decision making is the process of identifying and selecting alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker Tourism selection and decision-making has become one of the cornerstones of research in the tourism literature that spans 50 years of theoretical and empirical developments (Smallman and Moore 2010) In other words, decision-making is the process of choosing the best among various alternatives It is an act of choice Organizations and departments have numerous alternatives Making a decision is defined as choosing one of the best alternatives All alternatives with known advantages and disadvantages should be evaluated before making a decision This will help you make better decisions It is also one of the important management functions It cannot without other administrative functions such as planning, organization, directing, controlling, and staffing Because decisions are very important in this management function 5.2.2 Previous research model of tourist’s decision-making 5.2.2.1 Customer-Based Destination Brand Equity Modeling: The Role of Destination Resources, Value for Money, and Value in Use A study by Tatyana Chekalina, Mathias Fuchs, and Maria Lekshagen, published in Journal of Travel Research in 2016, promotes knowledge about transferring the concept of customer-centric brand equity into the context of travel destinations This study proposes a need-based model of brand equity for destinations, which consists of five subordinate constructs, including awareness, loyalty, and three destination brand promise constructs that make up the inner core of the model: destination resource, use value And value for money Hypothesis The stronger the perception of the destination, the more positive the client's perception of the destination's (a) tangible, (b) intangible, and (c) social resources Hypothesis 2: The more positively customers perceive (a) tangible, (b) intangible, and (c) social object resources, the more positively consumers perceive use value Hypothesis 3: The more positive the customer's perception of (a) material, (b) immaterial, and (c) social resources, the more positive the customer's perception of cost value This study conducted a field survey in Georgetown from December 13 to 17, 2017 The self-completed questionnaire was distributed to 450 visitors using a convenient sample and 435 questionnaires were returned For the final analysis, 94% of the total responses were included, including 423 questionnaires excluding incomplete questionnaires This study presents descriptive statistics and Cronbach's alpha (α) using SPSS version 20 Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate measurement and maximum likelihood estimation structural models using statistical software Mplus7 The results show the mediating effect of TPB composition on behavioral intention to revisit the Cayman Islands Examining the relationship between TPB components and Cayman Islands revisit intention, subjective norm showed the strongest association with behavioral intention, followed by attitude and perceived behavioral control The results show that attention to destination has a significant impact on attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control over behavior TPB design also has a positive effect on return intention This study enriches the tourism literature on small islands and tourism decision making 5.2.2.7 A modified theory of planned behavioral: A case of tourist intention to visit a destination post pandemic Covid-19 in Indonesia This study, published in Heliyon in 2021 by Pahrudin Pahrudin, Chienteen Chen, and Li Wei Liu, in Heliyon in 2021, is a conceptual and theoretical framework to explain the decision of local tourists to visit local destinations in Indonesia after the coronavirus pandemic developed 19 The global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic (pandemic) has affected the tourism industry, especially travel destinations This study investigated awareness of Covid19, non-pharmacological interventions, and health consciousness using components of the theory of planned behavior In this study, health consciousness is a moderator variable for predicting the decision to visit a tourist destination This model showed that the theory of planned behavior has been successfully extended in the decision of tourists to visit their post-COVID-19 destination to account for nonpharmacological interventions and health concerns 18 Hypothesis Attitude significantly affects intention to visit destinations after COVID-19 Hypothesis 2: Subjective norms have a significant effect on intention to visit destinations after COVID-19 Hypothesis Perceived behavioral control has a significant effect on intention to visit destinations after COVID-19 Hypothesis 4: Awareness of COVID-19 has a significant impact on nonpharmacological interventions Hypothesis 5: Non-pharmacological intervention has a significant effect on visit intention 19 Hypothesis 6: Health awareness has a significant effect on visit intention Hypothesis 6a: Health perception as a moderator variable significantly affects visit intention through attitude Hypothesis 6b: Health consciousness a moderator variable has a significant impact toward intention to visit through the subjective norm This study used as an online survey method to collect potential data List of questions in the questionnaire was sent to local tourist in Indonesia who want to visit a local destination postpandemic covid19 The number of questionnaires was sent out to the respondent around 350 respondents while collecting data from September to October 2020 The total of 200 useable participants of local tourist for the study were collected through the collection data process Structural Equation ModelPartial Least Square (SEMPLS) was used to analyze the construct of study The validating model in this study with small sample size because SEMPLS particularly used well with small sample size The results showed that generally the constructs of Theory Planned Behavior are significantly impacted in intention to visit a local destination in Indonesia, except Hypothesis of subjective norm and intention to visit was rejected The variable health consciousness through intention to visit also was rejected The framework also used moderating variable health consciousness between subjective norm and intention to visit was rejected This study was given insight an issue of covid19 in the tourism sector, and the implication was providing government, stakeholders, tourism marketers and policy making with considering nonpharmaceutical and health consciousness during and postpandemic covid19 5.2.2.8 Tourist Mental Health Drives Destination Choice, Marketing, and Matching The study, published in Journal of Travel Research in 2021 by Marianne Cooper and Ralph Buckley, focuses on destination and recreational tourism, including mental health Therefore, tourism marketing means can be analyzed as a means of mental health investment to satisfy the needs of tourists Mental health systems are particularly relevant to parks and natural attractions because the mental health benefits of nature are well 20 known Authors are using a large-scale qualitative approach to test one world-famous destination before and during the COVID-19 pandemic Tourist perceptions and choices involve powerful components of mental health and well-being, and are derived primarily from autonomous sources of information and are source dependent While park agencies focus on factual cognitive aspects, travel businesses and destination marketers use an emotional approach to addressing the mental health of tourists The research tested this approach for a globally iconic nature tourism destination, Chilean Patagonia with 138 prepandemic interviews, 70% with tourists and 30% with destination stakeholders and 33 postpandemic interviews during 2020, 75% with domestic tourists and 25% with destination stakeholders The Results find that mentions of mental health are very prevalent in both choice and marketing Mental health was by no means the only theme, but it was a major one This applies both prior to COVID19 and even more so midpandemic The findings, from an internationally iconic nature tourism destination, provide support for a theoretical framework of destination choice and marketing that includes individual investment in leisure tourism as a mechanism for maintenance of mental health It contributes to the structure of tourism, nature and health, adding a marketing element to the earlier analysis seen for the first time 5.2.2.9 When and Where to Travel? A Longitudinal Multilevel Investigation on Destination Choice and Demand 21 Published in the Journal of Travel Research in 2016 by IpKin Anthony Wong, Rob Law, and Xinyuan (Roy) Zhao, this study seeks to reconcile two opposing research perspectives on travel decision-making The first view asserts that tourists are unable to travel due to limited resources, while the second view asserts that tourists are interested in traveling to more destinations as they are looking for funds to develop a travel career This study uses a stratified design to evaluate the tourism travel ratio relationship between three outbound markets: domestic market, overseas domestic market, and international market through a longitudinal study Hypothesis 1a: Attendance to a target market (frequency of visits [FOV]) is negatively related to visits to other target markets Hypothesis 1b: Target market visits (frequency of visits [FOV]) are positively related to other target market visits Hypothesis 2: The economic situation of the source market, that is, the unemployment rate, affects the travel frequency of individual tourists Hypothesis 3a: The relationship between different target market perspectives is determined by the economic situation in the source market because the relationship is negative when things are bad (eg high unemployment) Hypothesis 3b: The relationship between the research areas in the target market is dependent on the economic situation in the source market, because the relationship is positive when things are favorable (eg low unemployment) 22 This study used a longitudinal plan to collect data from Hong Kong residents who traveled abroad in the past 12 months between 2001 and 2010 The data contains 12,634 complete answers, on average 1263 Multicollinearity was estimated using variance inflation (VIF) vectors prior to time-wave responder data analysis General Method Bias (CMB) was estimated using a one-way method in which variables are forcibly loaded into one factor using the maximum likelihood method This study models situational factors (the unemployment rate) at the macro level, showing significant cross-level constraint effects on the relationship between travel frequency in domestic and international markets This finding not only shows which of these two perspectives is more appropriate for certain situations, but also enriches theories related to traveler careers, destinations, and distance reduction From a broad theoretical perspective, this study provides answers to the aforementioned questions by rationalizing the proposed relationship and synthesizing the existing literature from various sources 5.2.2.10 How Far Is the Ideal Destination? Distance Desire, Ways to Explore the Antinomy of Distance Effects in Tourist Destination Choice 23 Published in Journal of Travel Research in 2019 by Jingjing Cao, Jinhe Zhang, Chang Wang, Huang Hu and Peng Yu, this study examines the antagonism of distance effects in travel destination selection, revealing catalytic effects and functional mechanisms To express the catalytic effect of distance, the concept of 'desire for distance' is presented, and the properties and subjective dimensions of this concept are also analyzed A tourist destination decision model is constructed to study the relationship between corresponding behavioral variables and tourists' travel intentions Hypothesis The attitude of tourists has a positive (+) effect on the intention of tourists to travel Hypothesis 2: Tourist's subjective norms have a positive effect on tourists' travel intentions Hypothesis 3: Tourist's perceived behavioral control has a positive effect on tourists' travel intention Hypothesis 4: Traveler's desire for distance has a positive (+) effect on traveler's intention to travel Hypothesis 5: Tourist's attitude has a positive (+) effect on tourists' desire to distance themselves Hypothesis 6: Tourists' desire to keep distance mediates the relationship between tourists' attitudes and travel intentions This study used an online survey in collaboration with a specialized research firm (www.wenjuan.com) The survey was conducted from June to December 2017 A total of 4,620 questionnaires were retrieved, of which 1256 were excluded from the sample due 24 to lack of key data and incomplete answers, and 54 were excluded due to issues related to Hong Kong and Macau the final number of valid samples was 3310 and the effective questionnaire recovery rate was 71.65% 1,902 patients were excluded from the sample because they had a previous visit to Xinjiang Therefore, the final number of samples surveyed was 1,408 SEM (Statistical Structural Equation Model) method was used to verify the hypothetical relationship between the proposed complex model and its variables, and ML (Maximum Likelihood) method was used to estimate the structural equation SPSS statistical software version 22.0 was used to account for potential variability in the common method (CMV) and validate the data The results of this study show that withdrawal impulses and attitude toward tourists, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are important variables that have a positive effect on tourists' travel intentions It has also been demonstrated that the desire for distance plays an intermediate role between the attitudes and intentions of tourists and the subjective norms and intentions of tourists Implementing the desire for distance can improve and extend the interpretive and predictive capabilities of destination decision-making models Research model and research hypotheses 6.1 Research model In this research, the authors follow the model proposed by Girish V.G, Eunkyoung Park based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) The reason why authors choose this model is that the research of Girish V.G, Eunkyoung Park was conducted in Cayman Islands, a place with geographic characteristic and population is similar to Vung Tau city and based on the TPB As Craigwell (2007) puts it, tourism is seen as an engine of economic growth on many small islands Differentiating offers by destination is always a challenge on these islands (Croes, 2010) It is this problem that Vung Tau tourism must face Island tourism is also vulnerable to vulnerability, isolation, and natural changes (Lim & Cooper, 2009) This theory was first published by Issek Aizen with the aim of improving the predictive power of information behavior theory TPB has been used to study the relationship between beliefs, attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors in various areas of human life The TPB describes attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived 25 behavioral controls that lead to behavioral intentions Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of a behavior determines the degree of an individual's attitude toward the behavior (Ajzen, 1991) According to Girish V.G and Eunkyoung Park, factors from antecedents which is Destination Source Credibility, Destination Image and Destination Fascination, affect Attitude, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioural Control Under the theory of planned behavior, Attitude, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioural Control affect the Intention to visit the island 6.2 Research hypotheses Girish V.G and Eunkyoung Park formulate the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 1a Trust in the source of a destination is positively related to attitude Hypothesis 1b Trust in the source of a destination is positively related to subjective norms Hypothesis 1c Trust in the source of a destination is positively associated with perceived behavioral control Hypothesis 2a Destination image is positively related to attitude Hypothesis 2b Destination description is positively associated with subjective norms 26 Hypothesis 2c The target image is positively associated with perceived behavioral control Hypothesis Attitude is positively related to behavioral intention to revisit the Cayman Islands Hypothesis Subjective norms are positively related to behavioral intentions to revisit the Cayman Islands Hypothesis Perceived behavioral control was positively associated with behavioral intention to revisit the Cayman Islands A field survey was conducted from 13 to 17 December 2017 to evaluate the suitability of the model Field explorers reached out to visitors vacationing in and around the Georgetown area The purpose of the study was explained to obtain the consent of the visitors before distributing the questionnaire The self-completed questionnaire was distributed to 450 visitors using a convenient sample and 435 were returned For the final analysis, 94% of the total responses were included, including 423 questionnaires excluding incomplete questionnaires Reliability of destination sources was assessed using a six-point scale taken from Veasna et al (2013) To measure the destination image, Prayag and Ryan (2011) 7-point scale was used To measure the attractiveness and uniqueness of a destination in two dimensions, a scale developed by Liu et al (2017) was used, and each dimension was evaluated in three dimensions The four factors representing the components such as attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention to revisit the Cayman Islands were taken from the study of Song, Lee, Kang, and Boo (2012) Respondents' opinions ranged from 'strongly disagree' (1) to 'strongly agree' (5) using a 5-point Likert scale Three tourism educators were consulted to check the items on the questionnaire and their feedback was used to reconstruct the questionnaire according to the study A pilot study of 25 nonCaimanians was conducted to verify the structure's contents prior to investigation Girish V.G Eunkyung Park presented descriptive statistics and Cronbach's alpha(α) using SPSS version 20 Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to study measurement and maximum likelihood estimation structural models using statistical software Mplus7 For SEM, a measurement model was used to evaluate the potential configuration putative using confirmatory factor analysis 27 The model and hypothesis are proved to be dependable through the research and survey Therefore, it could be applied for the case of Ba Ria Vung Tau for further research and study in the future 28 CONCLUSION The busier the life is, the more people’s demands for tourism increase As a result, the tourism industry is growing and influencing people's life and the country's economy In this thesis, the authors have conducted research on factors which affecting tourists’ decision to travel Ba Ria – Vung Tau This researched mentioned to the following parts: Firstly, provide the reason to choose the topic, the research purpose, object scope and methodology Next, we synthesize the definitions of tourism and tourists as well as an overview of Ba Ria – Vung Tau tourism as well as the general theory of purchasing decisions, clarifies the concepts studies and studies models of tourist decision-making behavior in the past Thirdly, based on theory of planned behavior of Icek Ajzen, we follow a model proposed by Girish V.G and Eunkyoung Park for this research with the specific research hypotheses specific to each element And finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Mr Nguyen Viet Bang – our lecturer and inspirer, and for the knowledge that have been transmitted for us We hope that Mr Bang would achieve more and more successful in the future career Although we have tried our best to conduct researches, there are inevitable mistakes due to limits in term of knowledge, experiences and materials We hope to receive suggestion and recommendations from lecturers and readers to improve this thesis 29 REFERENCES Afshardoost, 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A Longitudinal Multilevel Investigation on Destination Choice and Demand Journal of Travel Research 31 32 ... of factors affecting decisions of tourists to travel to Ba Ria - Vung Tau The research object and scope - Object of this research: Factors affecting tourists’ decision to travel to Ba Ria – Vung. .. as tours, new routes to attract tourists coming to Ba Ria – Vung Tau 5.2 Literature of decision- making and research model of tourists’ decision- making 5.2.1 Definition of tourists’ decision- making. .. Overview of tourism 5.1.1 Definition of tourism and tourist 5.1.2 Ba Ria - Vung Tau tourism 5.2 Literature of decision- making and research model of tourists’ decision- making 5.2.1 Definition of tourists’