FACTORS AFFECTING COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN KHMER FESTIVAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN MEKONG DELTA, VIETNAM

Abstract: The Mekong Delta has rich and diverse tourism resources, it is also a long-standing residence of the Khmer community with a specific culture. Exploiting community-based tourism from festivals will contribute to preserving ethnic and cultural identities, eradicating poverty, and improving people's living standards in the region. The objective of this study was to examine the factors affecting the community's participation in the development of Khmer festival tourism in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The research methods used include descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis. The data was collected from the results of a survey of 1258 travelers to the Mekong Delta. SPSS 20, and AMOS 24 software are used to analyze and evaluate the scale and test hypotheses. The research results show that the factors affecting the community's participation in the development of Khmer festival tourism in the Mekong Delta include (1) Economic benefits; (2) Cultural and community; (3) Resources of tourism; (4) Policies for the development of community tourism; (5) Community environment; (6) Tourism products and services. Some contents were discussed, proposed solutions with governance implications to attract community participation in the development of Khmer festival tourism in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.