Background and objective: Traditional craft villages are valuable cultural resources that play a crucial role in fostering sustainable tourism development in Ho Chi Minh City. This study aims to evaluate the tourism development potential of six representative craft villages: Thai My bamboo and rattan weaving craft village, Phu Hoa Dong rice paper village, Tan Thong Hoi bamboo screen village, Xuan Thoi Son basket weaving craft village, Le Minh Xuan incense stick making craft village, and Ly Nhon salt-making village.Methods: The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with field surveys and expert interviews to identify and compare key factors influencing the tourism development potential of each craft village.Results: The findings reveal significant differences in tourism potential among the six craft villages, reflecting variations in infrastructure, the level of cultural heritage preservation, accessibility, and the degree of local community participation. Accordingly, Le Minh Xuan incense stick-making village and Phu Hoa Dong rice paper village are assessed as highly favorable for tourism development. Thai My bamboo and rattan weaving craft village shows a moderate level of favorability, Ly Nhon salt-making village is considered less favorable, while Tan Thong Hoi bamboo screen village and Xuan Thoi Son basket weaving craft village are assessed as unfavorable. This evaluation of favorability provides an overall picture of the tourism development potential of each craft village, thereby serving as a basis for proposing solutions to optimize the value of traditional craft villages in tourism development in Ho Chi Minh City.Conclusion: The study demonstrates a clear differentiation in tourism development potential among the six traditional craft villages in Ho Chi Minh City. These findings provide a scientific basis for prioritizing investment and formulating targeted development policies. Specifically, villages with high potential should be positioned as distinctive tourism products; those with moderate potential require enhanced infrastructure and stronger market linkages; and less favorable villages need support in heritage conservation, capacity building, and product restructuring in order to gradually and effectively integrate into the sustainable tourism value chain.
Châu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.