From Cap Saint-Jacques to Vũng Tàu : the spatial path of a Vietnamese seaside resort

This paper aims to re-examine the universality of tourist spaces in relation to the change of tourist practices in a developing country. Using an approach of cultural geography, I would like to study the seaside resort of Vung Tau (South Vietnam) from its colonial inception to current period, and so put into perspective the long standing but ever-changing relationship between humans and the oceans. During the colonial period, Vung Tau used to be called Cap Saint-Jacques and was created for the benefit of French colonials, especially for those who lived in Saigon. Its primary function was to provide them rest during their holidays, often in link with medical infrastructures such as - but not limited to - sanatoriums. In order to compensate for emptiness of the mother country, Cap Saint-Jacques, like all the colonial resorts of Indochina, is spatially modelled on French seaside resorts of the Riviera, as can be seen from its urban morphology and the French-style architecture of the large residential houses. Following the end of the war period (1954-1975), Vung Tau remained one of the major seaside resorts of Vietnam. Currently, however, the majority of tourists are Vietnamese. The practices of the domestic tourists differ from those of the former French colonials because Vietnamese tourists have different conceptions of “beauty” and “rest”. In consequence, their tourist territories and the meaning ascribed to the place have profoundly changed even though its location and functions remain identical. Vung Tau thus provides a good opportunity to analyse the patterns and trends in how tourists mobilise the resources of sea, sand and shore in the specific framework of a developing Asian country like Vietnam – even more so as this former French colony currently under a socialist government has seen the successive development of two different tourist cultures