Shift–Share Analysis to Measure Arrivals Competitiveness: The Case of Vietnam,1995–2007

Vietnam has been recognized as a significant new tourist arrivals market in Asia. This study examines tourist arrivals in Vietnam compared with Thailand and China from 1995 to 2007. Shift–share analysis is used to test whether the emerging Vietnam market is impacting on the growth of the Thai or China markets. The findings indicate that shift–share analysis is a useful management tool when applied to measuring the competitive effect between rival markets. This analysis shows that Vietnam is increasingly specialized in attracting tourists from the Americas, Australasia and Europe, and that it has a competitive advantage over Thailand. It is also interesting to note that, since 1995, Vietnam increasingly has been losing ground in attracting more tourists from neighbouring Asian countries.