*4.4. Discussion*

The above findings indicate that investment in tourism infrastructure components positively impacts attracting international tourists to Vietnam. In the long-run, increasing 1% of investment capital in transport and communications infrastructure, the hotel and restaurant industry, and recreation facilities will increase international visitors to Vietnam by 0.7836%, 0.7503%, and 0.4026%, respectively. This indicates that capital investment

in transport and communications infrastructure and the hotel and restaurant industry plays a crucial role in attracting international visitors. This evidence lends support to the view that investments in transportation and hotels have played an important role in attracting international tourism, as many earlier studies have found (Khadaroo and Seetanah 2007a, 2007b, 2008; Prideaux 2000; Seetanah et al. 2011). In this study, the role of investment in transport and communications infrastructure (coefficient 0.7836) and investment in the hotel and restaurant industry (coefficient 0.7503) in Vietnam is higher in some areas such as in Mauritius, where the coefficient is found to be 0.36 for investment in transport infrastructure and 0.56 for the investment and hotel industry (Khadaroo and Seetanah 2007b) or 0.32 for investment capital in transport infrastructure and 0.54 for investment and the hotel industry (Seetanah et al. 2011); in 26 island economies, the results are 0.064, 0.16, 0.074 and 0.28 for investment in road, air, communications, and the hotel and restaurant industry, respectively (Khadaroo and Seetanah 2007a); and in 28 countries representing Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, these are 0.13, 0.18, 0.06 and 0.22, respectively, for investment in road, air, port and hotel (Khadaroo and Seetanah 2008). The impact coefficient of the hotel and restaurant industry in this study is lower than that of the hotel accommodation infrastructure in Singapore, from 0.839 to 0.855 in the study by Lim et al. (2019). However, it must also be seen that the different roles of the hotel and restaurant industry depend not only on each country, but also on how the variable that represents it is measured. This role is appropriate because Vietnam is a developing country with great tourism potential and scenic beauty. However, the terrain is difficult, and transportation infrastructure and hotel availability are still limited. With the efforts of the government and the community, the transport and communications infrastructure, as well as the hotel and restaurant facilities in Vietnam, have been significantly improved, creating a favorable environment for tourists, and strongly enticing international visitors to Vietnam. The research results also show that the government and private sector investors cannot expect to see a fast Return on Investment. Their investment in transport and communications infrastructure and hotel and restaurant facilities will only be evident in the long-run. This can be explained by the long lead-in time required by infrastructure works and hotel developments. The impact, therefore, takes time to be fully demonstrated. However, it should be noted that transport and communications infrastructure investment attract visitors and develops other areas of the economy and society, including the hotel and restaurant industry and recreation facilities.

Cross-section short-run coefficients show that, in the short term, the role of investment in the hotel and restaurant industry is decreasing, in this order source markets: the US, Germany, Japan, Australia, the UK, France, Malaysia, China, and Singapore. Meanwhile, the order for investment in transport and communications infrastructure is as follows: Germany, the US, Japan, China, Australia, the UK, France, Malaysia, and Singapore, respectively. This is consistent with the idea that inhabitants of developed countries are accustomed to modern, high-quality transport infrastructure and high-quality restaurants and hotels. Consequently, they prefer to find similar infrastructure in other countries. In contrast, tourists from less developed countries tend to be less demanding of these infrastructures.

Research results also show that investment in recreation facilities is also important to attract international arrivals to Vietnam. Although its role in the long-term is not equal to that of the other two areas of tourism infrastructure in this study, it is effective in both the long-run and short-run. Investment in recreation facilities will directly make destinations more attractive. Formica (2002) states that without attractions, tourism destinations could not exist; attractions are the basis for visitation. These findings are consistent with Vengesayi et al. (2009), suggesting that attractions are the main reason people visit specific destinations and not others. The role of investment in recreation facilities in attracting international visitors in this study is empirical evidence supporting the tourism infrastructure model of Mandi´c et al. (2018). Accordingly, recreational facilities with hotels and other forms of accommodation, spas, and restaurants form the main tourism infrastructure.

Usually, investment in modern amusement parks will require considerable investment capital. In contrast, investment in developing conservation and ecological tourist areas may require a smaller amount of capital if considered per unit area. The above order of roles of investment in recreation facilities in the short-run implies that in general, visitors want to improve recreation facilities in Vietnam, but visitors from China, France, Germany, and Japan require much more improvement than visitors from Korea, the UK, Australia, and the US. This finding is indicative of visitor preferences from source markets.
