Exploring residents' support for integrated casino resort development: a new gaming destination in Vietnam

Integrated casino resorts have presented themselves as key strategic gaming destinations in many countries. Several countries including Vietnam have developed integrated casino resorts to attract tourists and to stay competitive. To achieve sustainable success, residents’ perceptions should be considered in strategic planning and execution of gaming destinations. This study explores residents’ perceptions of integrated casino resorts and how these perceptions are extended for identifying conditions influencing residents’ support in gaming destination development. A newly developed gaming destination, the Grand Ho Tram Resort and Casino in South Vietnam, was chosen as the research site. Semi-structured in-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted for data collection. NVivo was preliminarily used for thematic analysis and content analysis was further undertaken for analysing and interpreting the data. Favourable social and economic returns were found as necessary conditions to secure residents’ support. Efforts in improving cultural and environmental well-being of residents should be promoted to elicit residents’ support for sustained gaming destination development. Given residents’ perceptive insights into impacts of significance to them, the findings will be beneficial for strategic planning and execution of gaming destinations and future tourism development.