SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE ONLINE MARKETING PERFORMANCE FOR DOMESTIC TOURISTS AT VNTOUR JOINT STOCK COMPANY

DUY TAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITALITY & TOURISM INSTITUTE SUMMARY GRADUATE THESIS THESIS: SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE ONLINE MARKETING PERFORMANCE FOR DOMESTIC TOURISTS AT VNTOUR JOINT STOCK COMPANY INSTRUCTOR: M.A TRAN THI TU NHI STUDENT NAME: DO THI BICH TRAM STUDENT CODE: 2320716431 Da Nang, 2021 The graduate thesis was completed at DUY TÂN UNIVERSITY The instructor: M.A Tran Thi Tu Nhi Defender:…………………………… The graduation thesis will be defended for the committee at Duy Tan University, at time .date month year 2021 This graduation thesis can be found at the library of Duy Tan University INTRODUCTION The statement After 24 years of development, when officially connecting to the global network in 1997, Vietnam's Internet has made great progress and had a strong impact on all aspects of today's social life The Internet has played an "indispensable" role in parallel with the country's socio-economic development In Vietnam, it is easy to see that the Internet has crept into all corners of life, even a farmer, a worker, a student, an engineer, a doctor and a worker can find information on the Internet According to the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center, Vietnam ranks 18th out of 20 countries in terms of the largest number of Internet users in the world, 8th in Asia and 3rd in Southeast Asia Moreover, according to the Digital Marketing report in 2019 of WeareSocial and Hootsuite, the number of Internet users in Vietnam is very high, Vietnamese users spend an average of hours and 42 minutes a day participating in Internetrelated activities and spend hours and 32 minutes using the social media, hours and 31 minutes watching streams or online videos and hour and 11 minutes listening to music Due to the availability of Internet access, people are more and more dependent on everyday activities Therefore, the Internet has become an important milestone, influencing many customer decisions This has led to the fact that the online promotion of products, brands or sales is something that any businesses or organizations need to to operate effectively Taking advantage of the online marketing market, businesses or organizations have seized opportunities and developed online marketing policies to attract customers to their products The strong explosion of the Internet has also brought a lot of opportunities for businesses, especially for travel services Along with that, the utilities that the Internet brings to users are quickness, easiness, 24/7 service and the introduction of a series of increasingly upgraded applications to fulfill the needs of visitors Facing this issue, in order to survive and develop, travel businesses need to actively integrate and learn how to adapt to the online marketing trend to optimize their business activities in Vietnamese travel business industry In the context of the strong development of the Internet in general and e-commerce in particular, the application of technology features and worldwide online marketing has become very common In Vietnam, they have not yet exploited these activities well as well as still have not paid attention to the application of search engines The promotion through the media is not effective In other words, most of the communication and advertising activities, product marketing still follows traditional trends There are also travel businesses that are interested in the growth of Online Marketing but not know how to rank high in the search engines? How customers find their business first while they're consulting a product line? It can be seen that the benefits that Online Marketing brings to travel businesses are great because this is the fastest and the most effective tool for customers to know and access to the products of travel businesses In 2020, due to the impact of the COVID -19 pandemic, Vietnam's tourism has suffered heavy losses But facing the difficulties and challenges, Vietnam's tourism has made efforts to proactively adapt, promote internal strengths and restore operations in the situation The policy of tourism development in 2021 is that domestic tourism will be an important lever for the industry to recover from the COVID - 19 pandemic and the target of Vietnam tourism in 2021 will serve 80 million domestic tourists To meet current practical needs, businesses need to pay more attention to new tourism trends, especially online marketing tools, in order to compete and attract more domestic tourists to their businesses while the number of travel agency is increasing and that of service is increasingly diversified In this situation, VNTOUR Joint Stock Company requires the policies reform and finds directions, applications, solutions to improve the ability to apply Online Marketing to business activities, which is essential for the company in the face of fierce competition among travel companies From the reasons mentioned above, I decide to choose the topic "Solutions to improve the efficiency of online marketing activities for domestic tourists at VNTOUR Joint Stock Company" will be the research topic, then provide solutions to foster online Marketing activities to attract domestic customers to VNTOUR Joint Stock Company Aims of the study - Research on the rationale of Online Marketing activities in the travel business - Analyzing the status of Online Marketing activities to attract domestic tourists at VNTOUR joint stock company - Proposing a number of solutions to improve Online Marketing activities to attract domestic tourists to VNTOUR joint stock company Subject and scope of the study - Subject of study: Online Marketing activities for domestic customers at VNTOUR Joint Stock Company - Study period: from March 1, 2021 to May 8, 2021 - Scope of the study: VNTOUR Joint Stock Company, Da Nang branch Study method - Document research method - Observation method - Synthesizing and processing data method - Collecting information method - Expert interview method Structure of the study In addition to the following contents: Introduction, table of contents, table of figures, appendices, references, the thesis will include: Chapter 1: Literature review of Online Marketing in tourism business Chapter 2: Current status of business activities and online marketing policies to attract domestic tourists of VNTOUR joint stock company Chapter 3: Some solutions to improve online marketing activities for domestic tourists at VNTOUR joint stock company CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW OF ONLINE MARKETING IN TOURISM BUSINESS 1.1 Overview of travel agencies and travel products 1.1.1 The definition of a travel agency 1.1.2 The product system of a travel agency 1.2 Literature review for marketing in tourism 1.2.1 The definition of marketing in tourism 1.2.2 Factors affecting marketing activities in tourism 1.2.2.1 Macro environment a Economic environment b Political and legal environment c Cultural and social environment d Technology environment e Demographic environment 1.2.2.2 Micro Environment a b c d Suppliers Customers Marketing intermediary Competitors 1.2.3 Market segmentation and target market selection 1.2.3.1 Market segmentation a Market segmentation definition b The requirements and criteria to segment the market in tourism marketing 1.2.3.2 Selecting the target market and options for selecting the target market a.Target market definition b.The importance of determine target market c.Target market selection options 1.3 Literature review for online marketing activities in tourism business 1.3.1 Online marketing definition 1.3.2 Advantages of online marketing 1.3.3 Online marketing tools 1.3.3.1 Marketing via Website 1.3.3.2 Marketing via social networks 1.3.3.3 Marketing via Email 1.3.3.4 Marketing via SEM – Search Engine Marketing 1.3.4 The role of online marketing in tourism promotion 1.3.4.1 For travel companies and agents 1.3.4.2 For customers and consumers 1.3.4.3 For the localities possessing tourism resources 1.4 Characteristics of consumer behavior in communication of the domestic tourism market 1.4.1 1.4.2 1.4.3 1.4.4 1.4.5 1.4.6 The trip purpose The time The mode of the trip The affordability The average length of stay Communication characteristics tourism and Chapter CURRENT STATUS OF BUSINESS ACTIVITIES AND ONLINE MARKETING POLICIES TO ATTRACT DOMESTIC TOURISTS OF VNTOUR JOINT STOCK COMPANY 2.1 Introduction about joint stock company VNTOUR - Company name: VNTOUR JOINT STOCK COMPANY - Business license number: 0312646818 issued by the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City on February 12, 2014 - English transaction name: VNTOUR CORPORATION - Company English name: VNTOUR JOINT STOCK COMPANY - Legal representative: NGUYEN THI PHUONG DIEM - Head office: 39B Truong Son, Ward, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City - Branch: 85 Ong Ich Khiem, Thanh Binh Ward, Hai Chau District, Da Nang City - Phone: 1900.5555.78 - Hotline: 0914.50.86.50 - Email: info@vntour.com.vn - Website: https://vntour.com.vn 2.1.1 The process of establishing and developing the VNTOUR joint stock company 2.1.1.1 Vision 2.1.1.2 Mission 2.1.1.3 Strengths 10 2.1.2 The organizational structure of the VNTOUR joint stock company 2.1.2.1 Organizational structure diagram of the VNTOUR joint stock company 2.1.2.2.Specific functions and duties of each department in VNTOUR joint stock company 2.1.2.3.Human resource 2.1.3 Tourism products at VNTOUR joint stock company 2.2 Business performance of VNTOUR joint stock company from 2018 to 2020 2.2.1 Business results from 2018 to 2020 Bảng 2 Business results at VNTOUR joint stock company from 2018 - 2020 Unit: Millions dong Criteria Revenue Cost Profit 2018 12797.57 8679.31 4118.26 2019 13970.72 9099.13 4871.59 2020 6524.33 3876.23 2648.10 (Source: Sales department of VNTOUR Joint Stock Company, 2021) 2.2.2 The current situation of attracting domestic tourists at VNTOUR joint stock company 2.2.2.1 The fluctuation of visitor source at VNTOUR joint stock company in the period of 2018-2020 2.2.2.2 The current situation of domestic tourists exploitation by regions at VnTour Joint Stock Company in the period of 20182020 2.3 Market segmentation and target market selection of VNTOUR joint stock company 13 impression to catch the attention of visitors In addition, the company still does not have regular staff members to directly answer customers' questions The website has not been updated to remove the outdated travel programs, and hence causing misinformation to customers - About social networks: Most of the customers not know about the website, fanpage of VNTOUR Company Although VNTOUR has used media sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Instagram to promote and advertise the program, it seems that these channels are not really effective The Facebook Fanpage is developed with the only form of posting and has not really be invested in running ads to reach customers The content of the videos posted on the Youtube channel is unattractive as they mainly provided information about the company Moreover, information is also gradually becoming out-ofdate, with no updates on tour programs or company-specific products The interaction of the video is also very low so the viewership is not high Most of them are from the staffs of the company, their friends and family members but not from the new customers or viewers - About Email: Although VNTOUR focuses on email tools, it has not yet effectively approached potential domestic customers It focuses more on the customer care of the old ones In addition, the company still does not have a specific plan to foster the database of potential customers and target customers Notably, it has indifference towards email content, therefore, most of their sent emails received no response from the customers - About SEO tools: VNTOUR has not paid attention to this type of tool since it does not have a team of experts in the SEO field, which 14 may decrease the effectiveness from the search engine and the keyword The reasons VNTOUR Joint Stock Company still has some disadvantages in Online Marketing activities that come from the following reasons: First, the company still has no clear strategy as the above-mentioned marketing activities are still sporadic, making online marketing even more difficult In addition, the company's human resources are limited, and hence the lack of professional staffs in charge of online marketing, website administration, and management of Facebook, Youtube and Instagram accounts The company still does not have designers and content marketing staff to focus on designing images and creating intriguing content As a matter of fact, the company only uses its available human resources Finally, the company has not allocated huge budget on online marketing If so, its marketing activities can be used more effectively and may attract the attention of the domestic customers 15 Chapter SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE MARKETING ONLINE ACTIVITIES FOR DOMESTIC TOURISTS AT VNTOUR JOINT STOCK COMPANY 3.1 Proposals and solutions 3.1.1 Development orientation of Vietnam tourism 3.1.2 The development of 4.0 technology for the tourism industry 3.1.3 Development goals and orientation of VNTOUR joint stock company 3.1.3.1 Business goals of VNTOUR joint stock company 3.1.3.2 Orientation of VNTOUR joint stock company 3.2 Analyzing the competitive environment 3.2.1 Macro environment 3.2.1.1 Economics environment 3.2.1.2 Social and Cultural environment 3.2.1.3 Science and Technology environment 3.2.1.4 Political and legal environment 3.2.1.5 Natural resources 3.2.2 Micro environment 3.2.2.1 Customers 3.2.2.2 Suppliers 3.2.2.3 Company resource 3.2.2.4 Competitions 3.2.3 SWOT analysis 3.3 Online marketing solutions to attract domestic tourists at VNTOUR joint stock company 3.3.1 Marketing via Website 16 • About the user interface of the website Firstly, the headers of the homepage such as introduction, domestic travel, foreign travel the color font is not very prominent and too simple Therefore, it is necessary to change the color for the home page headers with more impressive color tones such as red, making it more out-standing so that customers will pay more attention when looking for information In the middle part of the website, the company should only place two tour programs in tour series, then adjust the tour programs display time to change every 30 seconds It means that after 30 seconds, customers will see another two tour programs In addition, the company needs to carefully prepare the image appearing on the website because it has a great visual impact The more beautiful the image is, the greater impression the company may gain from the customers In addition, the company also needs to invest in designing a website which is compatible with the interface of mobile phones and more eye-catching on smart phones • About Website content The contents of the tour programs posted on the website must be planned in advance, built and carefully calculated to update seasonal tour programs, holidays tour programs so that the customers can easily access to and avoid such case as the programs no longer running but on the company's website still being posted for sale, causing the misinformation At the same time, some tours of the company, even having the same content of the same tour program, have two different prices Therefore, VNTOUR needs to carefully adjust these to create consistency in price in order not to make 17 customers’ hesitation, affecting their buying decisions Furthermore, VNTOUR also needs to update website content regularly with outstanding travel news and posts so that customers not only know about service prices but also can capture tourism information and the hottest travel trends In addition to high qu content, VNTOUR should include clear and unique images in the article to attract readers • About supporting, receiving information and handling customer requests VNTOUR has made a direct hotline through a voice calling application and also used the feature to integrate Facebook chat into the website with a supporting chatbox but this tool is not really effective Because the company still does not have a team of website specialists to answer customers' questions immediately Therefore, it needs to arrange and assign web staffs to advise and respond to customers as quickly as possible • About increasing the number of Website visits VNTOUR's website currently has a limited number of visitors, the company needs to actively increase interaction by regularly posting articles The content of the posts also affects the company's SEO Marekting activities, therefore, it should pay attention to the content of the articles and create attractive titles When writing articles, it had better use the most important keywords and phrases in the articles, especially tag them with common phrases This is also an optimal way to help increase the website's ranking to appear on the top, then facilitating easier access to VNTOUR website In addition, the company can actively share the website's articles on Facebook or other websites to attract more interactions from customers 18 3.3.2 Marketing via social networks 3.3.2.1 About Facebook: • Firstly, to form a first impression on the Fanpange page, the company needs to change the cover photo and the profile picture to create an attractive user experience when they get access to the company's wall • Secondly: Focusing on improving the content of the posts is important for the company to bring compelling information, capture the attention of users and increase the accessibility to the existing articles, and hence higher interaction The company should plan to post, update useful content and share social issues to attract likes, shares from people so as to reach more customers • Thirdly: The company needs to regularly increase the frequency of its posting activities In general, each day the page needs to publish from to articles to increase the frequency of appearance, coverage and the popularity so that users will see the company page more often As a resukt, the company's image and brand name will leave a deep impression in the user's memory • Fourthly: Currently people being online on social networks are very crowded and they surf the web at many different hours However, the golden times on Facebook are the most popular around at 9am, 2pm or 7pm Therefore, the company should also choose the time to post during the peak hours which remain the highest number of visitors • Fifthly: The company needs to invest more in high quality images and videos The company should post more vivid images and videos because Facebook users tend to be attracted to beautiful images and "like" them more than unattractive lengthy posts • VNTOUR Company should arrange some events, mini games with 19 gifts, promotional offers on Facebook Fanpage to create connection and to attract more customers to follow and know about the VNTOUR brand • Sixthly: The creation of a community using the company products is essential The company should create groups such as: "Travel addicts", "Check in with VNTOUR" where staffs can share information about products, attractive programs and events of the company as well as customers share their experiences about the trips, exchange new travel trends and potential destinations • Seventhly: The company should have a financial policy in running ads on Facebook VNTOUR can learn and cooperate with advertising media companies to increase the efficiency of product introduction to customers • Finally, in order to achieve the above effects, the most important factor is still the human resource Therefore, the company needs to have thorough training for employees in terms of expertise and skills in online marketing, especially on social networks and about effective Fanpage administration 3.2.2.2 About Youtube channel of VNTOUR: • First, one of the most important steps to increase interactions and views for VNTOUR's Youtube channel is to schedule and follow the plan of posting, at least one video per week • Second, the company should also have a professional investment in the images and the video quality Therefore, the company should hire a design team to carefully edit images and videos in order to have a careful preparation before posting videos on Youtube When uploading videos, it is necessary to be in high quality mode such as 4K, 720p, and 1080p HD for a more realistic experience An 20 attractive content and beautiful videos will be such a way to increase effective interaction with VNTOUR's Youtube channel • Third, if the company wants users to know more about the Youtube channel, it needs to shar the links of the videos on social networks like Facebook This is also an effective tactic to attract more views, more channel followers and to quickly advertise the channel • Lastly, whether to achieve the desired goal, high interaction or not, it may depend on a lot of factors and a long-term orientation The company needs to have clear directions, improve and enhance the video quality to help the channel operate more efficiently in the future 3.3.2.3 About Instagram - First, the company should choose a clearer, more eye-catching logo image When an Instagram user clicks on a profile, this will make the user more familiar with the company than a random photo - Second, Instagram is a social network that is filled with beautiful quality images To impress the followers, VNTOUR should have a plan to research, analyze, arrange layout and main color tone in order to cultivate a special look in the user interface Third, in addition to providing impressive images, Instagram also has the feature of viewing stories Therefore, VNTOUR should apply this tool to add pictures and videos of selling products, discounts and tour programs on the message board The company should also create attractive captions and follow a trend to help promote the customers’ interest and interaction Notably, a common Instagram trick is to insert hashtags in the captions to increase interest metrics for the company posts 21 3.3.2.4 About Zalo To improve online Marketing activities on Zalo, VNTOUR needs to have specific plans as: First, the company needs to invest a small amount of money to buy database to build potential customer profiles in order to expand the customer resources The company may use some software for free Second, the staffs at the company need to pay attention to the content as well as images to create more attractiveness to attract customers' interest to the products Third, in order to maintain a good relationship with existing customers, staffs also need to pay special attention by messaging the customers on the holidays, customers' birthdays or the occasion of launching hot products, great promotions to create good impression and a close connection with customers Finally, to increase the company profession, it needs to focus on the service and also the customer support is a very important factor 3.3.3 Marketing via Mail • The first thing is about the content of the Email: - Email Sender: The decision to open the email or not is usually entirely based on the email address of the sender To ensure readers will so by using company names - a VNTOUR branded email address For employees at VNTOUR, employees will use email under the domain name @vntour.com.vn to converse with customers so that the customers may find it easier to recognize the company brand - Subject line: The subject line of the email should be clear and contain a sufficient amount of outstanding information, specific details about the email and promotional offers These frequently stimulate the recipients to open and read them Also, the company should make sure not to 22 make the subject line too sensational, which can arouse suspicion and cause the email to be blocked and sent to spam - Email main content: + Recipient's address: If their name and company have existed in the database, personalize the email by adding the customer's name to the greeting part to make it friendlier like: “Dear Corporate Sales HUNG HOA "," Dear Ms Trang "," Hello Mr Thien " Customers will feel appreciated if they receive an email with their first and last name They feel that this email is not spam but an intimate conversation, only for them This will help the company's email have a positive increase in the number of responses as well as the click-through rate to read the email content will increase effectively + Be specific: Indicate who the sender is and why you sent the email in the first line + Main content: it should be short but concise, providing relevant information about the available travel programs of the company or promotions, customer gratitude gifts so that the recipients may find it helpful when receiving emails + Back to your website: Always think of ways to drive readers back to your company's website by calling to action (today, just now, call now, click now ) - At the end of a letter: Use a “thank you” or “hope you” phrase, instead of a greeting at the end This is also the respect of the recipient who has read the entire content of the company's email - Signature line: Email signature should be standardized on all emails as it is a way to identify the company brand • Secondly, VNTOUR not only focuses on Email marketing activities on domestic customers who have used services at the company but also 23 needs to collect more information data from various different sources to get access to potential customers, expanding advertising and marketing activities 3.3.4 Marketing via SEM 3.3.4.1 Increasing the effectiveness of SEO tool • Keyword research The company must know how to select specific keywords, understand the current search trends and properly describe the customer's needs, which will encourage customers to click on the company's website In addition, for a tour company like VNTOUR, it is essential to identify the main tour type the company has In accordance with the target aiming at exploiting the domestic market, the company needs to develop the specific keywords that domestic travelers often use to search to improve the efficiency of getting a website to the top of Google VNTOUR Company can use keyword research tools such as Google Trends, Google Adwords, Ubersuggest, and Keyword Tool to exploit and expand keyword search activities to achieve the highest efficiency and to meet their requirements • Page title Title should not contain more than 10 words but useful information for customers, and should be named correctly • Creating quality content VNTOUR Company should focus on article content to provide useful and interesting informatio with creative elements to increase the attractiveness and persuasion of the articles to readers • Improving the quality of staffs 24 Finally, to achieve the above steps effectively, the human resource factor is on the top list VNTOUR Company needs to build an SEO team with specialized skills, equipped with necessary knowledge, tools and experience to effectively implement SEO activities at the company 3.3.4.2 PPC tool ( Pay Per Click ) VNTOUR is still aiming for long-term development plans and restricted financial resources as well as a policy to save costs during the pandemic so VNTOUR currently does not focus on PPC tools In the future, the company should spend their budget just enough promoting PPC advertising in order to effectively reach potential customers faster and achieve the desired results 25 CONCLUSION With the achievements of the industrial revolution 4.0, it has brought many favorable conditions to the economic and social development, especially creating a big turning point for the tourism industry in Vietnam The innovation and application of technology in the tourism industry have greatly contributed to promote the country images to tourists, improve service quality and visitor satisfaction With the development of information technology and media, nowadays, the application of online marketing in tourism development management has become a particularly important business channel that no travel business can refuse It can be seen that the benefits that Online Marketing brings are extremely effective since it not only brings the company's product brand to everyone but also acts as an bridge to help businesses connect closer to customers At VNTOUR, the online marketing application has brought positive results in introducing products and services to people and helping the company to reach potential customers During my internship in the company, I have learned and experienced a lot of practical knowledge, enthusiastic instructions from the instructors at VNTOUR I myself also understand thoroughly about the working procedures, the tour organization, the marketing policies, especially the Online Marketing policies that the company has applied With the topic "Solutions to improve the effectiveness of online marketing activities for domestic tourists at VNTOUR joint stock company", I presented some shortcomings in the organization and developed some solutions to improve the effectiveness of Online Marketing activities to promote attracting more domestic tourists to the company Hopefully, with this research 26 topic, it can contribute a small part to complete online marketing solutions as well as to the business activities of VNTOUR Joint Stock Company to have strong progress in the future time During the internship, I have learned many things and besides that, there are also gaps in knowledge and information and there are also judgments from my personal side I look forward to receiving the instructions and suggestions from the teachers in Duy Tan University Hospitality and Tourism Institute, the instructors, and the leaders of VNTOUR company so that the thesis is more complete and perfect Once again, I would like to sincerely say thanks to all the management board, the employees of VNTOUR Joint Stock Company and my teacher Tran Thi Tu Nhi for always caring and helping, giving wholehearted guidance so that I can complete this thesis topic ... of VNTOUR Joint Stock Company, 2021) 2.2.2 The current situation of attracting domestic tourists at VNTOUR joint stock company 2.2.2.1 The fluctuation of visitor source at VNTOUR joint stock company. .. status of Online Marketing activities to attract domestic tourists at VNTOUR joint stock company - Proposing a number of solutions to improve Online Marketing activities to attract domestic tourists. .. department in VNTOUR joint stock company 2.1.2.3.Human resource 2.1.3 Tourism products at VNTOUR joint stock company 2.2 Business performance of VNTOUR joint stock company from 2018 to 2020 2.2.1 Business