Emphasising the brand of national tourism

The tourism brand development strategy aims to firmly attach company logos to the national tourism logo in to coming times. What is the reason behind this shift?

The strategy content has yet to be completed, but basically, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) will directly provide direct technical support to businesses through introducing a guidance set, and, as a second step to follow a step behind, will consult businesses about what tourism products Vietnam need to be developed.

Simultaneously, the national tourism brand will be linked to company logos to help/facilitate parallel image promotion during the whole development process.

VNAT is also willing to provide consultation to individual businesses to optimise operation efficiency.

What role will businesses play in the implementation of the strategy?

VNAT continually repeats that businesses will take a central role in the strategy’s deployment. Satisfying businesses’ demands in a timely manner means to elevate the position of Vietnamese tourism.

In 2015, when presenting the new slogan “Vietnam – Timeless Charm”, VNAT has introduced a set of instructions on the use of the Vietnamese tourism brand identity. We have scaled up efforts to promote this new brand identity nationwide.

Through surveys, we have learnt that businesses have strong aspirations to be supported via concrete and effective methods, thus clarifying the orientation of national tourism brand development provides them immense help to bring it to life. Therefore, the general development orientation and that of businesses must have a unity to create adequate synergy.

Is this the right time to introduce the strategy?

The demand has existed for many years and it is high time to present a strategy to boost the quality of promotion activities for the development of tourism products and associated services.

Accordingly, the strategy will introduce a basic development orientation for tourism products and specific markets. The national tourism development strategy to 2020 with vision towards 2030 identified tourism brand development as key to boost the sector competitiveness.

Each strategy and plan must have concrete targets. Relative to brand development, it is a continuous process. It is important to develop the country’s image in the way we want to, truly demonstrating Vietnam’s values and identity. Having regular assessments of key tourism markets is also a must.

Can we expect the strategy to improve marketing activities in the near future and what do you see as Vietnam’s key tourism markets?

We have determined that promoting the public-private partnership model is important when the strategy is deployed in 2016. Accordingly, VNAT will be in charge of branding activities. We will cooperate with localities in promoting tourism destinations. To synergise brand, products, and destinations with VNAT will be the responsibility of each business.

This way, the resources for promotion activities will not be as limited as in the previous years. The tourism development fund for 2016 will also be established.

Designating major markets in the national promotion programme will be conducted through consultation with the business community.

In the foreseeable future, key tourism markets will be Northeast Asian countries, such as China and Japan, which currently account for half of the international visitors coming to Vietnam annually. Our target markets in the upcoming time continue to be the five West European countries which have just become members to the visa exemption scheme, and North European countries that already enjoy it. Some other target markets are ASEAN countries, like India, Russia, and other Russian-speaking countries.