The purpose of this paper is to argue for a people-centred approach to sustainable development and to explore how such an approach might be applied to destination management. Current economic models using sustainable development appear to be inadequate in delivering social outcomes while the Millennium Development Goals are to be used as measures of development. A contribution that tourism can make towards a new paradigm in development is through implementing a people-centred approach to destination development emphasising a social value system within sustainability. The notion of building social capital through tourism takes on increased importance when tourism is placed within a development studies paradigm in the context of developing country such as Vietnam.