Thuynga Thai Marketing Aspects in Tourism Development the Marketing
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ThuyNga Thai Marketing aspects in tourism development The marketing analysis of Vietnam tourism industry for long term development Thesis Fall 2011 Business School Bachelor of Business Administration International Business 2 SEINÄJOKI UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES Thesis abstract Faculty: Business School Degree programme: Bachelor of Business Administration Specialisation: International Business Author/s:ThuyNga THAI Title of thesis: Marketing aspects in tourism development. The marketing analysis of Vietnam tourism industry for long term development Supervisor(s): Cory Isaacs Year: 2011 Number of pages: 81 Number of appendices: 1 _________________________________________________________________ The objectives of this paper are to identify the shortcomings that have been hindering the development of Vietnam tourism and seeking for the solution for these shortcomings in the aspects of marketing. Vietnam is a country lying in the peninsula of South Asia and holds great potentials of nature, culture and human power for tourism growth. Despite much effort on marketing campaigns, Vietnam tourism is still lagging behind other giant tourism industries in Asia region. The thesis applied both qualitative and quantitative research methods, consisting of the data collected from the official statistics of the organizations namely World Travel and Tourism Councils, World Tourism Organization, Pacific Asia Travel Association, General Statistics Office of Vietnam; and an in-depth interview with Mr. Adam Bray, who is a travel journalist, writer and Indochina expertise. From the study, the writer suggests that Vietnam tourism should focus on four aspects of marketing, including branding Vietnam’s tourism image, designing effective advertisement to raise brand awareness, applying marketing into ICT, and developing tour offerings and focusing on niche market. Keywords: marketing, tourism, Vietnam 3 CONTENT Thesis abstract ...................................................................................................... 2 CONTENT............................................................................................................... 3 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ......................................................................... 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.................................................................................... 6 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 7 1.1 Thesis purpose ........................................................................................ 7 1.2 Research questions ................................................................................. 8 1.3 Research methods ................................................................................... 8 1.4 Thesis structure ....................................................................................... 9 2 GENERAL CONTEXT OF TOURISM IN 2010 ............................................... 11 2.1 Overview of worldwide tourism since the crisis year of 2008 ........... 11 2.2 Vietnam’s tourism strategy from 2001 to 2010 .................................... 13 3 VIETNAM TOURISM FACTS ......................................................................... 14 3.1 Basic facts .............................................................................................. 14 3.2 The current situation of Vietnam tourism industry ............................. 17 3.2.1 Achievements of Vietnam tourism ................................................. 17 3.2.2 Estimation and forecast for Vietnam tourism ............................... 21 3.2.3 Limitations in Vietnam tourism ...................................................... 23 4 MARKETING AND TOURISM ....................................................................... 25 4.1 Basic theory of marketing ..................................................................... 25 4.2 Marketing concept in tourism ............................................................... 26 5 BRANDING .................................................................................................... 28 5.1 Positioning country’s image and core values ..................................... 29 5.2 Visual designs ........................................................................................ 34 6 ADVERTISING ............................................................................................... 37 6.1 Advertising as a marketing tool .................................................................. 37 6.2 The executed commercials of Vietnam tourism .................................. 40 6.2.1 Message design............................................................................... 41 6.2.2 Message performance .................................................................... 44 6.2.3 Media selection................................................................................ 45 7 INTERNET MARKETING ............................................................................... 46 4 7.1 Internet’s benefits for tourism communication ................................... 46 7.2 Rebuilding the official tourism site ...................................................... 49 7.2.1 User-friendly content and design .................................................. 49 7.2.2 Enhancing supporting features .................................................... 51 7.2.3 User-generated content .................................................................. 54 7.3 Commercial websites ............................................................................ 58 7.4 Information and feedback ..................................................................... 59 8 TOURISM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND NICHE FOCUS ...................... 61 8.1 Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions tourism ................... 63 8.2 Spiritual tourism .................................................................................... 64 8.3 Volunteer tourism .................................................................................. 65 8.4 Eco tourism ............................................................................................ 67 8.5 Culinary tourism .................................................................................... 67 9 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 73 APPENDIX............................................................................................................ 78 5 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: International tourism arrivals, recipes and market share in 2009 Figure 2: Map of Vietnam Table 1: International tourism 2010 and forecast 2011 Figure 3: The development of international arrivals to Vietnam in last decade Table 2: The estimation and forecast for worldwide tourism industry’s contributions Figure 4: The total contribution of Vietnam tourism to GDP and employment from 2005 to 2010 actual, 2011 estimated and 2021 forecasted Figure 5: Total number of international visitors by countries in 2010 Figure 6: The official Vietnam tourism’s slogan and logo since 2005 Figure 7: The nominated slogan and logo for the period 2011 - 2015 Figure 8: Internet users by regions by March 31, 2011 Figure 9: The conclusion of the study 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS APEC Asia Pacific Economic Cooporation ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations GDP Gross Domestic Product GSO General Statistics Office of Vietnam ICT Information and Communication Technology PATA Pacific Asia Travel Association UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNTWO World Tourism Organization VNAT Vietnam National Administration of Tourism WEF World Economic Forum WTTC World Travel & Tourism Council 7 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Thesis purpose Today traveling became an essential demand and a dispensable part of modern life. Tourism is one of the most significant industries all over the world. It plays a key role in fostering the global economic growth and brings about developments of other sectors such as property, investment, hospitality, transport, recreation and service. Tourism industry is the great generator of a vast amount of jobs across national and regional economies, approximately contributing 6-7% of worldwide employment, both direct and indirect jobs (World Tourism Organization). For its enormous benefits, many countries recently have placed much more efforts on the sustainable development of this “smokeless industry.” To Vietnam, as seen from practicality, tourism industry affirmed an important position in national economy with every passing day. Vietnam has sufficient tourism resources like natural beauty and cultural values as neighboring countries. However, the number of international visitors to Vietnam is still much lower than other countries in Asia area. Many tourism experts and economists evaluated the contribution of tourism to Vietnamese economy has not been worthy of advantages and potential Vietnam possesses. From this issue, a search for an appropriate strategy for Vietnam tourism has been debating on media and economic references and drawn wide attention of various stakeholders like policy makers, investors, professionals and others who are interested in sustainable tourism in recent years. The role of marketing for sustainable tourism development becomes more essential and pressing than ever. This