MARKETING COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN OF VIETNAMTOURISM FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURIST LUREMENT

1 TR NG I H C M TP HCM UNIVERSITY LIBRE DE BRUXELLS HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT MMA6 Author DO THE LONG & TRAN LE PHUONG QUYNH MARKETING COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN OF VIETNAMTOURISM FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURIST LUREMENT MASTER PROJECT MASTER IN MARKETING & ADVERTISING Tutor‟s name: SERGE BYWALSKY Ho Chi Minh City (2013) PLEDGE We commit that this thesis is our research which is accomplish under the instruction of Professor Serge Bywalski Figures and researching results represented in this thesis are honest and have not been proclaimed in any form We are hereby responsible for our research GRATITUDE We are most grateful to Solvay-ULB for giving us the opportunity which made our project possible We would like to thank Professor Serge Bywalski, Professor by Professors Philippe Biltiau and Alain Van den Eynde for helping us in choosing the appropriate idea for our project Our utmost appreciation is forwarded to Mr Kerry Kennedy – President of ITV Asia for his supporting in presenting ideas of the work We appreciate Mr Pham Quang Hung – Director of Vietravel Northern Brand for giving us precious travelling documentation and comments on the project Last but not least, our warmest thank to our dear friend – Mr Le Ha Tu – Assistant Cummunications of Nielsen Vietnam in helping us to design the logo of the campaign stated in this work TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Chapter 1: DESCRIPTION I Overview of Worldwide Tourism Since 2008 II Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) VNAT Description Achievements and Current Situation Issues of Vietnam tourism Case Description Chapter 2: ASSESSMENT & CRITICAL REVIEW I TOURISM BRANDING Positioning Vietnam tourism‟s image and core value Visual design II III TOURISM PRODUCTS COMMUNICATIONS Direct Marketing 1.1 Website Sales Promotion 2.1 Travel fairs 2.2 Contest Advertising 3.1 The TVC of “Impressive Vietnam” 3.2 Message Design 3.3 Message Performance 3.4 Media Selection 3.5 Print Advertising 3.6 Out door Advertising IV MACRO-ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS Socio-Culture Legal Economic Political Technological Ecological V SWOT ANALYSIS Chapter 3: RECOMMENDATIONS I II III IV V VI VII TOURISM BRANDING TOURISM PRODUCTS PRICE STRATEGY BUDGET DIRECT MARKETING SALES PROMOTION ADVERTISING TVC Display and Banner ads Brochure Outdoor Chapter 4: MARKETING COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN 2013-2015 I CAMPAIGN SUMMARY II BRAND POSITIONING III BRAND Reason for choosing Vietnamese cuisine as Vietnamtourism brand and image Reason for choosing target markets IV COMMUNICATION PLATFORM V COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES VI COMMUNICAION IDEAS VII INTERGRATED COMMUNICATION EXECUTION Advertising 1.1 TVC 1.2 Banner and Motion pictures 1.3 Print 1.4 Brochure DIRECT MARKETING 2.1 Website 2.2 Social Networks 2.3 Google Sales Promotion 3.1 Travel fairs 3.2 Contest EVENT 4.1 Festival 4.2 Entertainment PR COMMUNICATION TIME FRAME VIII BUDGET ALLOCATION IX COMMUNICATION EVALUATION & MEASUMENT CONCLUSION APPENDIX REFERENCE LIST LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: International tourist arrivals in 2012 Figure 2: International Market Share in 2012 Figure 3: The development of international arrivals to Vietnam from 2001 to 2012 Figure 4: The number of Tourist by Nationality in 2012 Figure 5: The number of Tourist defines by Purpose of visit in 2012 Figure 6: The Distribution of transportation modes in 2012 Figure 7: Total number of international visitors by countries in 2012 Figure 8: Logo, slogan and image of Vietnamtourism from 2000-2013 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations APEC Asia Pacific Economic Cooporation ASEM The Asia – Europe Meeting FDI Foreign Direct Investment GDP Gross Domestic Product GSO General Statistics Office of Vietnam MoCST Ministry of Culture Sport and Tourism MICE Meeting, Incentives, Conference, Exhibition PATA Pacific Asia Travel Association UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scinetific & Cultural Organization UNWTO World Tourism Organization USTOA U.S Travel Association VNAT Vietnam National Administration of Tourism VAT Value Added Tax WTTC World Travel & Tourism Council INTRODUCTION Vietnam has many beautiful dreaming scenes, various cultures, unique cuisine, stable politics, friendly residents and many other potentialities for tourism development With these advantages, the country is supposed to get a larger number of international arrivals annually However, due to the lack of good marketing efforts, the country is still lagging behind many other neighboring destinations This project will present the analysis of Vietnam tourism‟s campaign in 2009, and the recommendations on its branding, products and communication campaign,etc From threre, bring out a new and efficient tourism campaign to promote Vietnam tourism with the hope to introduce the country to global arrivals as a must-coming travelling destination Last but not least, to ensure the effectiveness of the campaign, a measurement part is conducted at the end of the project 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This communication campaign concentrates on attracting more international visitors to Vietnam by using Vietnam cuisine as the country‟s tourism image and core value Although Vietnam tourism has had an impressive increase in arrival number during these recent years, Vietnam still lags behind many other Asian countries and the nation‟s tourism potentiality has not been matched due to a lack of overall strategies and an effective marketing communication campaign To make a successful campaign, many issues such as the following need to be solved: - Monotonous, low quality and less competitive services and tour packages - Separate performance in strategic development and lack of co-operation amongst regions, areas, Ministry of Culture, Tourism, VNAT, and other tourism related businesses - Tourist length of stay too short time - Tourist spending still low - Tourist repeated rate are quite low To solve these above problems, solutions such as focusing on building tourism products on variety and having more leisure forms and discovery should be brought out Also, it is important to focus on Culinary tourism, MICE tourism, Eco-tourism, Beach tourism, etc Having promoting regulations and policies to develop tourism and create close relationships among tourism related industries from Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism (MoCST) to locality for visitor comprehensive development MoCST need to propose the Government for larger budget to promote tourism Focusing on advertising and choosing suitable media, especially social means and developing official websites The following steps are taken into considerations: TVC (building four different video clips and one general clip), banner and motion pictures, print, trade fairs, contest, festivals, entertainment and PR Through these steps, this project hopes to booster Vietnam tourism and bring more customers and financial benefits to the country 48 COMMUNICATION TIME FRAME (2015) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Website rebuilding TVC Banner & Motion ads Print ads Social networks Fairs Contests & Competitions Events PR BUDGET ALLOCATION BUDGET ALLOCATION EXPENSES 23% 42% 2013 2014 2015 35% Dec 49 VIII COMMUNICATION EVALUATION & MEASUREMENT The evaluation of the communication campaign will be measured by those elements: • • Customer satisfaction by research of potential and existing target via electronic questionaires, surveys Analysis of number of participants and visitors in events • Websites and email for click, engagement, feedback, install Google Analytics on the official website so it can track inbound traffic and analyze when and how a prospect converts to a lead • Feedbacks, comments, recommendation for the campaign through website, social networks Yearly measurement of number of arrivals, overnights and comparison of GDP Benchmarking on other competitors • • 50 CONCLUSION Vietnam need to promote positive images, values and competitive advantage in all aspects to improve the national image in international public The country should also build a visual designs associating with its brand whose functions is as brand recognition and recall These image and visual types accomplished with marketing campaigns will be able to communicate the core values of Vietnam tourism to the prospective international travelers Product development and focus marketing efforts are also important tasks to tourism in long term They help Vietnam approach various segments, and get more tourist visiting the country The industry needs to design and innovate tourism products and services to meet the customers‟ new demands With all the comprehensive marketing efforts, innovative operation, social awareness, cultural and natural preservation, Vietnam with its enormous tourism resources will have opportunity to become an ideal and favorite destination for tourists all over the world 51 APPENDIX VIETNAM TOURISM FACTS BASIC FACTS Lying on the eastern part of the Indochinese peninsula, Vietnam is a strip of land shaped like the letter "S" China borders it to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, the East Sea to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the east and south With 3,260 kilometers coastline long, Vietnam has many beautiful beaches stretch from North to South The climate has a considerable amount of sun, a high rate of rainfall and humidity In general, there are two main seasons in Vietnam, the cold season occurs from November to April and the hot season from May to October The annual average temperatures range from 22ºC to 27ºC, suitable for traveling all around the year Vietnam's natural richness is a valuable resource for the development of economy and tourism The country accounts to more than 54 ethnics who mainly live in remote areas They have their own languages and cultural identities In addition, in the colonial time under China, France and the U.S., Vietnam acquired their cultural quintessence which partly comprises to a diversified culture Its culture has been dramatically influenced from Chinese and French, seen through the architecture of temples, churches and housing With the long-lasting history, Vietnam has more than seven thousand heritages related to history, culture marking the periods of establishing, protecting and developing the country in the past The following information is the basic facts of Vietnam Also, the most popular destinations within Vietnam are shown on Figure General Information: Official Name : The Socialist Republic of Vietnam Independence Day : 2nd September 1945 (from France) Capital : Hanoi Political Party : Communist Major Tourist Destinations : Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Nha Trang, Danang, Hoi An, Hue, Ha Long Bay, Tay Nguyen, MeKong Delta, Mui Ne, Phan Thiet, Sapa, Dalat,etc Religion (of total population): - Buddhist 9.3%, Catholic 6.7%, HoaHao 1.5%, Cao Dai 1.1%, - Protestant 0.5%, Muslim 0.1%, none 80.8% Languages : Vietnamese, French, Chinese, English, Khmer, other dialects 52 Time zone : GMT/UTC +7 Internet country code : Monetary : Dong (VND) Geographic Characteristics: Region : East Asia and Pacific Location : - Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand - Gulf of Tonkin, East Sea & China, Laos and Cambodia Total Area : 331,210 square kilometers Land Area : 329,560 square kilometers Coastline : 3,444 square kilometers Terrain low, flat delta in south and north; central highlands; hilly, mountainous in far north and northwest Climate Characteristics: South: Tropical North: Moonsoonal May to September: Hot and rainy October to March : Warm and dry 53 Figure 2: Vietnam Map Source: Vietnamtourism.gov.vn Heritages: Recognized by UNESCO: Tangible Heritages: Complex of Hue Monuments (1993) Ha Long Bay (1994) Hoi An Ancient Town (1999) My Son Sanctuary (1999) Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park (2003) Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long - Hanoi (2010) 54 Temple of Literature stelae - Hanoi (2010) Dong Van Stone Plateau - Ha Giang (2010) Citadel of Ho Dynasty (2011) Intangible Heritages: Nha Nhac (the Royal court music) of Hue (2003) The Cultural Space of Gongs in the Central Highlands (2005) Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs (2009) Ca Tru singing (2009) Giong festival (2010) (Soure: Vietnamtourism.com.vn) 55 Vietnam sites in the World Rankings Source: http://tiin.vn/chuyen-muc/choi/nhung-thang-canh-viet-nam-trong-bang-xep-hang-thegioi.html Vietnam has many beautiful sites from the North to the South, in which many destinations have been ranked in the World‟s most prestige ranking tourist organization Ha Long Bay: The new Wonder of the World At the end of March 2012, New7Wonder officially recognized Ha Long Bay was one of the World‟s new seven natural wonders In the same list, Amazon forest in South America, Iguazu waterfall of Argentina and Brazil, Jeju island in Kora, Puerto Princesa of Philippines, Komodo island in Indonesia and Table mountain of Nam Phi were also named in 56 Sapa Terraced Fields: The most gigantic terraced fields in the World Recently, Travel and Leisure magazine of the United States claimed Sapa Terraced Fields as one of the seven most beautiful and gigantic in Asia and the World In the picture, Sapa was in fall, natural scenery was more beautiful with changeable moments in a day: morning bobs with cloud twisty around high mountain tops, afternoon is pure and vast, and the evening is with cool air 57 Nha Trang, Lang Co: Member of the World‟s Most Beautiful Bays Lang Co, original sea wonder under Hai Van mountain pass, with even seaside and deep green water has just become a member of the World‟s most beautiful bays Along with Ha Long Bay and Nha Trang, Lang Co is the third bay of Vietnam to be admit to this club Con Dao: One of the ten best and most attractive in the World Lonely Planet (England) World‟s famous magazine selected Con Dao (Con Dao suburban district, Ba Ria- Vung Tau district) as one of the ten best and most attractive in the World 58 Sixteen islands belonging to Con Dao is an immortal world with dense forests, has sea sapphire color and white spreeding sand-bank This is the gigantic and precious natural home of dolphins, turtles and beautiful sea corals Bai Dai Phu Quoc: the World‟s neglected and most beautiful seashore In 2008, Concierge.com – Australia tourism website listed thirteen most beautiful and neglected seashore in the World, in which Bai Dai of Phu Quoc island in Vietnam held at the top Bai Dai of Vietnam was introduced as neglected beautiful and suitable for relaxation Also the most ideal annual time to come here is from October to March, which are the most favorable weathers Cuu Van Fishing Village – Quang Ninh: Top of the World‟s most beautiful villages 59 Cuu Van Fishing Village lying amongst limestone mountains on Ha Long Bay has just become Top of beautiful villages which are worthy for tourist to visit once in their lives, according to Journeyetc.com – tourist consultant website People are surprised because of its history as well as limestone mountains enclose the village Watching the miraculous mountains on Ha Long Bay, hunting beautiful pictures of fishing village floating on sea water with colorful houses, people are amorous in Cuu Van‟s itself speciality One Pillar Pagoda: A pagoda with the Asia‟s most unique architecture 10th October 2012 at Faridabad (India), Asia Record Organization recognized One Pillar Pagoda as the Asian Record: a pagoda with the most unique architecture One Pillar Pagoda has its name Dien Huu, which means long-term blessing According to i Vi t S Ký Toàn Th , the pagoda was constructs in Ky Suu year, Sung Hung Dai Bao date (year 1049), Ly Thai Tong Dynasty Going through time, One Pillar Pagoda has been restored and maintained many times The current pagoda was built in 1955, Lien Hoa estrade is in square shape, tile-roofed, each side is three meters long, four curve roofs, four knives‟ tips are covered with dragon‟s head shapes 60 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