Positioning Vietnam tourism brand in the international arena

In the first quarter of 2024, Vietnam tourism will return to growth momentum as the number of international and domestic visitors both grow strongly.

The conference on tourism promotion in 2024 organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on April 10 in Hanoi focused on discussing issues surrounding tourism activities under the motto: "close connection - smooth coordination - extensive cooperation - comprehensive coverage - sustainable efficiency".

With the goal of being comprehensive, fast and sustainable, the conference reached a high consensus of the entire tourism industry and related departments and branches; along with the consensus of localities, businesses and people in the determination to reposition the Vietnamese tourism brand in the world market.

Overcoming limitations to progress quickly, comprehensively and sustainably

According to the report of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, in 2023, the total number of international visitors to our country reached 12.6 million, far exceeding the old target of 8 million. The number of domestic visitors also increased by more than 6% compared to the plan, when they earned 108.2 million. Overall, total revenue from tourism last year reached 678.3 trillion VND, exceeding the estimate by 4.35%.

Most recently, in the first quarter of 2024, international arrivals to our country are estimated to reach more than 4.6 million, an increase of 72% over the same period last year and an increase of 3.2% over the same period in 2019 - a year before the Covid-19 pandemic. These are encouraging signs showing the recovery of the tourism industry, creating a basis for hope that our country will achieve the goal of welcoming 18 million international visitors by the end of this year.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho An Phong commented: “With the growth momentum in 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, we can completely achieve the set plan. However, in the context of the world facing many difficulties, economic downturn, climate change, the tourism industry is also affected, posing both advantages and challenges. This requires our country to make more efforts to develop the potential and exploit the industry's space."

Reality shows that, in addition to the results achieved, Vietnam tourism still has many limitations that need to be overcome. First of all, mechanisms, policies and laws need to be further amended, supplemented and improved to suit the new context. Research activities, forecasts and market development orientations are not clear and closely follow reality.

Regarding management, at destinations, there are still problems with food safety and environmental hygiene. In many places, there are still cases of haggling, price gouging, illegal business and false advertising, causing frustration for visitors. Somewhere, there are still situations of disorder and insecurity, negatively affecting the image of Vietnam tourism.

Overview of the Conference on tourism promotion in 2024.

In terms of product quality, localities and businesses have not yet developed many unique tourism products that mark the country and create a unique brand for our country. At the same time, there is a lack of professionally organized, regularly and periodically organized international events that create an impression of each locality when tourists set foot in domestic tourist attractions.

In addition, the prices of tourism and travel services are not stable, especially during peak season. As a result, many businesses are in a passive position in building and providing product packages for customers.

In particular, the issue of tourism development linkages between ministries, sectors and localities is still not really tight in terms of management, promotion and product promotion. The role of enterprises and professional associations has not been fully promoted.

In some places, there is still a situation of "everyone doing their own thing" and a lack of partnerships for mutual development. Therefore, the whole industry still lacks many tourism service chains and stimulus campaigns at national and international levels.

Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu said that Vietnam's position is increasingly improving, and Vietnam's tourism brand is increasingly consolidated. All of these create opportunities for our country's tourism industry to easily position its value on its journey to the world. And tourism promotion is an important solution to achieve the 2024 goal of creating breakthroughs, changing thinking, highlighting brands, and building a unified, connected, and synchronized tourism industry.

Flow tourism marketing strategy

Given the difficulties the tourism industry is facing, promotion and advertising work needs to have an appropriate marketing strategy for the overall innovation process. At the same time, authorities and businesses need to define a long-term vision to position and promote the national tourism brand to develop quickly, comprehensively and sustainably.

Analyzing the marketing strategy for the tourism industry, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho An Phong said: “The nature of tourism marketing and promotion is the connection between the mobilization of resources from state agencies and businesses. Promoting this industry is like a stream, it must be continuously active because if it stops, all previous efforts will be lost. If we do not persistently organize an impressive series of activities, no matter how successful the product or brand was before, it will be forgotten.”

Vietnam has many potential markets. Given the limited resources for tourism promotion, management agencies are determined not to miss any events. Identifying key events can solve problems in mobilizing and allocating resources for the industry's promotion work, avoiding dispersion and dispersion.

According to Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho An Phong, tourism promotion activities are like a flow, must be implemented continuously, focusing on organizing highlight events.

“The key issue in promoting tourism now is to find and exploit outstanding events, build national and international highlights. In addition, it is necessary to focus on potential markets such as the United States, India, Dubai (United Arab Emirates)…”, Deputy Minister Ho An Phong emphasized.

On the other hand, it is not necessary to realize that tourism promotion needs to change from the way of doing things, the direction of approaching the market and marketing to customers. The focus is on innovation, diversifying forms of tourism marketing and promoting the application of digital technology.

On this basis, businesses can expand the scale, frequency, improve the professionalism and effectiveness of campaigns and programs introducing Vietnamese destinations. Management agencies strengthen business connections in source markets, creating opportunities to participate in major tourism fairs in the region and around the world.

Communication work also needs to be implemented in a diverse and flexible manner, in many forms, to suit the requirements of each market, in each stage. The team in charge of tourism promotion must effectively combine traditional and modern forms of promotion. At the same time, they must not be afraid to innovate methods, tools, content and increase the application of digital technology.

Therefore, the implementation of digital marketing strategies and plans should be closely linked to the results of analysis and evaluation from data collected in practice. Localities need to coordinate closely with businesses to focus on investing in content and producing creative products to serve tourism activities in each region. Only when each province and city in the S-shaped land can affirm its local tourism brand, then Vietnam can truly position its national tourism brand in the world.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/dinh-vi-thuong-hieu-du-lich-viet-nam-tren-truong-quoc-te-post382661.html