Potential and orientation for specific tourism products for Dak Nong’s tourism development

The Politburo Resolution No.08 on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector has brought about the advantages of promoting tourism activities by the exploitation of natural resources, reducing poverty, and boosting the citizen’s income. Under these beneficial conditions, Dak Nong province can have more opportunities to develop its local’ s economy by investing in tourism. However, the interrelation of both competition and cooperation with the Central Highlands provinces, Dak Nong, needs to determine its own way to enhance the competitiveness for tourism development. Based on the theory of tourist destination attractiveness, the authors confirm that designing specific tourism products to promote destination image and to build up the attractiveness of tourist destinations in Dak Nong are necessary. Through assessment of the current situation and potential of tourism development, by using secondary information analyses and in-depth interviews, the result shows that tourism in Dak Nong has not been effectively exploited. In the coming time, specific tourism products based on resources from Dak Nong Geopark can be the key factors to promote the tourism image of Dak Nong.