Vietnam's tourism communication, promotion, and marketing strategies are proving effective in attracting international tourists. However, given the increasingly stringent consumer trends and service quality demands of tourists, promotional and marketing efforts require groundbreaking innovations.
The Vietnam International Tourism Fair - VITM Hanoi 2024, with its many promotional and marketing activities to stimulate demand, attracted approximately 80,000 attendees.
The appeal of domestic promotional events.
Over the past period, the tourism industry has organized many programs and events to promote the image of the country, its people, and the beauty of Vietnam. Domestically, the most noteworthy are the large-scale, annual tourism fairs.
The Vietnam International Tourism Fair - VITM Hanoi 2024, organized by the Vietnam Tourism Association, has just concluded. It was a major event with numerous activities promoting and showcasing culture, tourism cooperation, and special offers. Over the four days (April 11-14), VITM Hanoi 2024 attracted more than 80,000 visitors, with thousands of products successfully sold.
Ms. Ngo Thanh Ha (Thanh Xuan district) was delighted to have "snatched" a package deal including round-trip airfare and hotel accommodation in Nha Trang from a travel agency for over 4.6 million VND for 4 days and 3 nights. "I came here to hunt for cheap travel packages and enjoy local specialties, and watch unique cultural performances," Ms. Ha said.
Ray Lin, the director of a travel company from Taiwan (China), shared: "I participated in the VITM Hanoi Fair with the hope of finding partners and creating more customer sources from your country."
The appeal of the VITM Hanoi Fair has contributed to effectively promoting the image of localities as well as leading tourist destinations in Vietnam. Over 450 booths from more than 700 units – 25% of which are international booths, the rest are from 55 provinces and cities nationwide.
The Hanoi Tourism exhibition area, themed "Thang Long Hanoi - A Charming Green Capital," was organized by the Hanoi Investment, Trade, and Tourism Promotion Center in collaboration with other units, showcasing the cultural and tourism essence of the capital city with a model of Khue Van Cac. The Central provinces' section strongly reflects the "Central Heritage Route."
International participants at the fair, from South Korea, India, Taiwan (China), and other countries, showcased their unique cultures, introduced high-quality tours, and highlighted attractive destinations.
A booth showcasing tour packages at the Vietnam International Tourism Fair - VITM Hanoi 2024.
In addition to the aforementioned event, the tourism industry also organizes the ITE Ho Chi Minh City International Tourism Fair annually, with a focus on technology and digital transformation in the tourism sector. The ITE 2024 fair is expected to generate 10,000 business meetings between international and Vietnamese tourism businesses.
Assessing the appeal of promotional activities at international tourism fairs, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh said that localities and units have organized promotions with very clear tourism messages. This helps tourists identify unique tourism products and interesting destinations that suit their needs, leading to positive trade results.
Spreading the image of Vietnam to the world.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam's tourism industry has had to make significant efforts to regain its growth momentum. Continuous communication, promotion, and marketing campaigns have been conducted. In addition to organizing domestic events, Vietnam has actively participated in numerous international tourism fairs abroad and promoted the message "Live fully in Vietnam."
According to the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, in 2023, despite limited resources, the tourism industry made efforts to expand the presence of Vietnamese tourism internationally. For example, the Vietnam National Tourism Administration organized a tourism promotion booth at the Mekong Tourism Forum 2023 (in Cambodia), the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2023, and the TRAVEX trade fair (both in Indonesia).
In particular, Vietnam's tourism industry participated in the ITB Berlin International Tourism Fair (Germany) on the largest scale ever; participated in the ASEAN - EXPO 2023 (in China); the Vietnam Culture and Tourism Promotion Festival in South Korea 2023; and showcased the image of Vietnamese tourism in Tokyo (Japan)...
According to Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Director General of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, expanding promotional activities in major markets has helped Vietnam's tourism industry increase the number of international visitors. In the first quarter of 2024, the number of international visitors to Vietnam reached 4.6 million, an increase of 72% compared to the same period last year. Major markets in Northeast Asia (South Korea, Japan) continued to experience strong growth; the Southeast Asian market showed stable growth; and the European market experienced vibrant growth.
According to Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho An Phong, promotional and marketing efforts have been quite effective, helping the tourism industry attract a larger number of international tourists than targeted, opening up hopes for significant growth this year. However, with constantly changing tourism trends and increasingly demanding tourists, promotional and marketing efforts need a more systematic strategy and a renewed mindset and approach.
Creativity from awareness to action
In 2023, Vietnam welcomed 12.6 million international tourists, nearly 3.5 times more than in 2022, representing a 70% recovery compared to 2019. This is a positive sign, but still insufficient to meet the requirements and potential.
In numerous meetings with the tourism industry, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung frankly acknowledged that the number of international tourists visiting Vietnam is still far behind many countries in the region, notably Thailand and Singapore. This poses new challenges for tourism promotion and marketing efforts.
At the 2024 tourism promotion conference, held on April 10th, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, Ha Van Sieu, acknowledged that there are many challenges to promoting Vietnamese tourism, such as fierce competition among destinations to attract international tourists; high service prices and airfares... which have affected the attraction of tourists from some source markets.
“The coordination mechanism for implementing tourism promotion and marketing activities has not met the requirements; the disbursement mechanism from the Tourism Development Support Fund has not been streamlined; the mechanism for exchange, sharing, and cooperation between the central and local governments, and between associations and businesses, is not effective. The tourism industry lacks a local promotion force through tourism promotion offices abroad…” - Mr. Ha Van Sieu further analyzed.
To ensure the effectiveness of tourism promotion in Vietnam, according to Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, it is necessary to identify key promotional events throughout the year, and then develop them into annual events to create a strong impression on domestic and international tourists. In addition, the management agency should study the mechanisms and formats for organizing "Vietnam Day" abroad.
Considering the issue from the perspective of a tourism business, Nguyen Huu Cuong, Director of Trang An Travel Company, believes that it is necessary to innovate the way of promoting and marketing through various direct and indirect methods. Technology can be applied to promotion and marketing on online applications and websites.
“Recently, the Vietnam National Tourism Administration’s tourism promotion website, vietnam.travel, surpassed Thailand and many other countries in the region. This reflects the positive effectiveness of implementing Vietnam’s tourism marketing on digital platforms. We need to take advantage of this and strengthen promotional activities on existing platforms,” Mr. Nguyen Huu Cuong expressed.
According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, this year, Vietnam's tourism sector will focus on promotional activities at three major international tourism fairs: VITM London; CITM China; and the ASEAN-China Fair. In addition, the tourism industry will participate in events and programs introducing Vietnamese tourism in North America, Australia, China, Europe, ASEAN, India, and other regions.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho An Phong stated that the requirement to improve the effectiveness of tourism promotion and marketing activities is set out in Resolution No. 82/NQ-CP and Directive 08/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister, which emphasizes the following factors: creating breakthroughs, changing mindsets; highlighting the brand, and achieving a level of excellence... Promotion and marketing activities will be effective when there is a breakthrough in both awareness and action. To achieve this, the joint efforts and cooperation of all levels of management, localities, and the business community are needed.
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