Representative Tourism Products Must Be Created

9:04:24 AM | 8/7/2015

Vietnam has inherited abundant tourism resources, but it is still struggling with tourism branding development and positioning. With the guidance of the Government, the tourism industry once again gathers to discuss solutions to deal with difficulties, change mindset, promulgate new decrees, and waive visas for tourists from some countries. Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Dr Pham Trung Luong, Deputy Director of the Tourism Development Research Institute, on these issues. Thu Huyen reports.

The Vietnamese tourism industry is facing a new stage of development where it needs to change development thinking to match the new trend. Could you please talk more about this?

Up to now, the tourism industry still carries the mindset of subsidy. Many tourism companies are administered by ministries. This thinking has gradually renovated, at least when they are no longer affiliated to authorities. To develop tourism, we must change our ways of thinking and we must regard tourism as an economic sector. And, an economic sector cannot belong to any non-economic ministry. The separation of tourism sector of Ho Chi Minh City from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is an inevitable trend. That is the objective law of development.

The tourism industry must build a series of positioning strategies. For example, in the coming time, the tourism sector will focus on developing marine tourism products. It must base on competitive advantages of the sea and tourism facilities to outline directions for businesses and provide favourable conditions and environment for them to follow those directions. So, when the sector introduces strategies, it needs to have high concentration and have immediate actions in support of businesses.

In addition to changing the thinking, the tourism sector must also create unique tourism products. The sector once discussed concepts of specific products in the 2000s but they have not been carried out because there were no specific programmes and strategies for implementation. The sector only identifies the concepts and it will need to do a lot to carry out them.

How can Vietnamese brands be positioned? By number or by attractiveness?

It is not right to say tourism is developed by numbers but the tourism appeal creates brands alluring to tourists. These brands are based on two platforms: Comparative advantage or destination positioning advantage and differentiation. Tourists come to destination brands because they expect to experience certain destinations and products. Thus, we must define comparative advantages and differentiations when we build up brands. Vietnam is rich in tourism resources and it must position and build representative resources. For example, Vietnam has very peculiar caves but whether they are the main representatives or not?

Tourism brand is a long story that needs to be discussed further. It requires logical reasoning and practices to identify. It must have reasonable arguments and practices rather than emotions. The tourism sector of Vietnam must know what tourists want to look for them in its comparative advantages. Sometimes, they are not necessarily unique but must meet market tastes.

Recently, the Government has also issued a series of circulars and decrees on tourism development. The visa waiver is highly appreciated for its helpful support for tourism development. How do you assess this move?

The waiver of visas for six Western European countries is very good but it is just one factor. Tourists from these markets have high payment capacity but they are quite demanding. Therefore, to attract tourists from these markets, we need to position Vietnam’s tourism brands and create characteristic, attractive products to meet market demands. We must have tourism products they like to attract them.