To position Vietnam as the leading attractive tourist destination in Southeast Asia as set out by the Vietnam Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2030, the role of tourism promotion and promotion is certainly indispensable. calendar.

Tourists from other countries visit Ngoc Son Temple, Hanoi.  (Photo by HO HA)

In the context of many new tourism trends and needs, promotion and advertising work must also have new directions and new ways of doing things to affirm the position of Vietnam's tourism brand.

In 2023, Vietnam is honored to receive 19 top awards in the world and 54 top awards in Asia from the World Travel Awards; Of which, for the fourth time, Vietnam was honored as "World's Leading Heritage Destination"; For the 5th consecutive time, it won the title of "Asia's Leading Destination". Recently, the national tourism promotion website (vietnam.travel) of the Vietnam National Department of Tourism was ranked among the top in the region by the global website evaluation and ranking website similarweb.com, surpassing the tourism website. of Thailand in terms of access rate from international markets.

Recently, along with promoting the implementation of communication and promotion campaigns on digital platforms, our country's tourism industry has also proactively participated in many major international tourism events and fairs, contributing to promoting number of international visitors to Vietnam.

In the first three months of this year alone, our country welcomed 4.6 million international visitors, an increase of 72% compared to the same period in 2023 and an increase of 3.2% compared to the same period in 2019, before the Covid-19 epidemic. 19.

In the first three months of this year alone, our country welcomed 4.6 million international visitors, an increase of 72% compared to the same period in 2023 and an increase of 3.2% compared to the same period in 2019, before the Covid-19 epidemic. 19. This shows that recent efforts to promote and promote Vietnamese tourism have brought positive effects, helping Vietnam's image become more and more clearly recognized on the world tourism map.

However, it cannot be denied that our country's tourism advertising and promotion still has many bottlenecks, especially when Vietnam's budget for this work is only about 2 million USD/year, lower than much compared to the investment of more than 100 million USD/year of countries in the region such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia...

From the perspective of state management, Deputy Director of Vietnam National Department of Tourism Ha Van Sieu commented that there are many challenges that advertising and promoting tourism in Vietnam is facing, such as: Fierce competition among destinations in terms of attracting international tourists after the Covid-19 pandemic; High prices of services and air tickets due to increased prices of input materials; Political and economic conflicts in the world affect attracting visitors from some traditional source markets.

Not to mention, the emergence of new market and technology trends also requires research, forecasting and response to be more timely and effective. Meanwhile, the mechanism for disbursement of funds from the Tourism Development Support Fund has not been cleared; The tourism industry does not have on-site promotion forces through promotion offices abroad; The mechanism for exchange, sharing and cooperation between the central government and localities, associations and businesses is also ineffective. This situation requires Vietnamese tourism to have new and creative methods and approaches in advertising and promotion to meet competitive requirements and keep up with rapid changes in the market and technology. .

General Director of Oxalis Adventure Nguyen Chau A said that to have correct and successful tourism promotion solutions, special attention must be paid to market research. Currently, a large part of international tourists come to Vietnam on their own, not through travel companies, so in order to promote the interest of this number of tourists, there need to be ways to approach and new promotion, especially through digital media platforms.

Previously, we were still used to promoting by participating in fairs and working with international partners to have them send visitors. 80% of Vietnamese tourism businesses operate under the "B to B" model, meaning they only sell tours through foreign partners, so there is no need to invest in marketing costs, but as the number of self-sufficient tourists increases, , forcing businesses to pay attention to the "B to C" model, which means selling tours directly to customers, of course they will have to pay attention to brand promotion.

Mr. Nguyen Chau A

According to Mr. A, tourists in general, especially European and American tourists, often look for destinations that possess things that are not available in their homeland, so Vietnamese tourism needs to emphasize these factors when promoting destination information.

Ms. Dong Thi Ngoc Anh, Deputy General Director of Sungroup proposed: The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam National Tourism Administration need to promote connection with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to bring famtrip delegations including representatives of foreign countries. International travel agencies and journalists come to experience Vietnam's famous destinations, thereby widely spreading the image of Vietnam's country and people to international friends; At the same time, apply domestic foreign press channels to convey messages and images about Vietnamese tourism.

Ms. Anh also noted that when creating media content, it is necessary to show a thorough and methodical experience journey, helping tourists see that coming to Vietnam is very convenient and that they can control the journey and not be dependent on it. depends on the tour schedule or tour guide. While our country has not been able to establish many tourism promotion centers abroad, there should be coordination to make Vietnamese Embassies become connection channels, bringing information about Vietnamese tourism to the world. .

Regarding promotion methods, Deputy Director Ha Van Sieu said that it is necessary to deploy focused and key activities, each year selecting three to four promotional activities abroad to create breakthroughs and investment. Deployed investment at the national level with the contribution of businesses in terms of ideas, consulting and finance, creating a high spillover effect; At the same time, diversifying types and methods of market access, combining and optimizing integrated marketing communication forms, online and direct forms...

Faced with the current situation where businesses and localities are still mainly promoting and promoting tourism in a small and individual way, many experts also point out that tourism management agencies need to have a comprehensive plan. can create a common corridor for localities and businesses with accompanying establishments to participate, thereby mobilizing common resources to help improve professionalism and create stronger efficiency in tourism promotion and advertising.

Source: nhandan.vn