Vietnam Tourism Needs Brand Building and Managing Strategy

According to experts, before 2006, most Vietnamese tourism businesses were definitely unaware of the significance of brand building. Presently, most still do not have clear concept of branding and brand value and therefore do not have brand development strategies in their business strategies. Many Vietnamese tourism companies pay little attention to branding. Most believe that all they need is a name and logo to make a brand name and make it known to public on mass media. This misconception leads to the fact that not many Vietnamese tourism businesses have trademarks known to tourists, especially internationals.

 

In fact, only a handful of tour operators, hotels and resorts have focused on branding, gradually asserted their corporate brand values and created market recognition like Saigontourist and Vietravel.

 

Mr Nguyen The Vinh, Deputy General Director of Saigontourist Travel Company, said that “Building brand strategy is very important. Saigontourist Travel means the company's commitment to quality service for customers. This decisive criterion ensures the credibility of the brand. This criterion is accompanied by measures to raise staff awareness in customer service divisions like business, tour guide, driver divisions and support divisions like administration, marketing, finance, and product and service provision. Thus, the company has professional human resources with the sense of high consensus on importance and prestige in business operations."

 

Branding is important but keeping it is also a matter of survival. Dr Pham Trung Luong, Deputy Director of the Tourism Development Institute, said brand management is considered the weakest point of most Vietnamese tourism businesses. It is rare to see a Vietnamese tourism company regularly measures and evaluates its brand value. Hence, really good tourism products or brands are dropped while products which may not be better are accepted thanks to good brand management. That explains why sea resort brand name, Furama in Danang City, is well-known to domestic and international markets and more easily accepted while the standards and quality of this product may be equivalent or only slightly better than same marine tourism products created by Vietnamese tourism enterprises like Sun Spa (in Quang Binh province) and Vinpearl Land (Nha Trang City). Currently, the majority of widely accepted sea tourism brands in Vietnam are invested by foreign companies and based on their world-renowned brands as well as existing experience in brand development and management.

 

He stressed: "Brand management is probably cared by very few businesses and localities. We conventionally think that branding is finished when we create it. Brand management is the most important issue. In brand management, there are very important contents like strengthening and ensuring product value, controlling brand value, and making adjustment to protect brand value. These are three inseparable activities in brand management.”

 

Besides, policy shortcoming is also one of obstacles in brand building for businesses in general and travel firms in particular. According to current regulations, a company cannot use more than 5 percent of revenue for popularity boosting. This is considered a very small investment value for branding, especially when most Vietnamese companies are of small and medium scale.

 

Mr Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chief Tour Operator at Vietravel, said: No one can help a company to build a brand but it must do it on its own. The company has to determine its business strengths, markets and target customers to outline business plans where branding is inserted. New companies should seek opportunities in niche markets and fields they can get into.

 

Corporate branding is really essential to improve competitiveness in the current context. Branding is clearly not easy but not too difficult if we know about it ​​and do it right from the first steps. Perhaps, this may come from the self-awareness and operation of the company. Besides, policy support is a key factor to position the brand for Vietnamese travel businesses.

 

Hanoi - Red River Delta Traditional Village Tourism Festival 2013 under the theme of “Convergence of Red River traditional villages” is scheduled to take place at Quan Ngua Sports Centre, Hanoi from October 9 to 12, 2013. This is an important event in the National Tourism Year Programme 3013 in the Red River Delta - Haiphong, to honour the conservation and development of traditional handicraft industries in Hanoi and Red River Delta provinces, and tap values of traditional village for tourism development.

 

According to the organisers, this year’s festival is expecting more than 50 trades and industries across the country. The event will welcome 23 trades and industries from Hanoi like Bat Trang pottery, Dong Son fine-arts, Van Phuc silk, Ngu Hiep baskets, Chau Khe and Dong Sam jewellery, and Chuong conic hats.

 

The festival space is divided into sections, including a miniature of Hanoi traditional handicraft streets and villages; an area for tourism enterprises and airlines; a cuisine fair featuring specialties of Hanoi and its neighbouring provinces and cities; and an area for folk and sports games.

 

This festival specially focuses on tourism activities attached to handicraft villages. Mr Mai Tien Dung, Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Deputy Director of Festival Organising Board, said the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has invited foreign tourism companies to the festival and organised tours connecting to potential villages to introduce to foreign tourism companies.

 

Mr Vu The Binh, Standing Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, said one of major highlighted contents of the festival is, apart from introducing and honouring traditional cultural values ​​of the Red River Delta, travel companies will organise programmes to introduce their tourism products and organise promotional activities to stimulate year-end tourism potentials.

 

Besides, the festival is expecting nearly 50 culinary booths to introduce Hanoi culinary elites to citizens and visitors as this is a tourism strength of the capital city. Famous restaurants in the city will showcase at the festival.

 

To impress visitors, apart from traditional village design, the materials for construction are made from bamboo and traditional products from regional handicraft villages. This festival also is retracing worshipping procession rituals in Vietnamese villages like trade founder procession ritual in Bat Trang pottery village and Son Dong fine-arts handicraft village, snake dancing at Le Mat village.

 

Mr Mai Tien Dung added that in addition to exploring traditional trades and industries, citizens and visitors will also have the chance to practise making handicraft items like pottery, fans and hats to understand more about what villagers in Hanoi and 15 Red River Delta provinces and cities are living on.

 

The festival is aimed to honour, preserve and develop traditional handicraft industries in Hanoi and Red River Delta provinces. This is also a chance to promote cultural and tourism exchange and cooperation between Hanoi companies with domestic and foreign companies.