Branding – Launching Pad for Tien Giang Tourism

"Tourism branding associated with a distinctive image bearing cultural identity of Tien Giang River is a priority task of the tourism industry," Mr. Vo Pham Tan, Deputy Director of Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Tien Giang province, emphasized when talking about local tourism development orientation. Cong Luan report.

Facing the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, in order to promote the development of local tourism in line with the actual situation, what radical solutions has Tien Giang tourism applied?

The COVID-19 epidemic had a great impact on socio-economic activities in general and tourism in particular. Therefore, tourism enterprises faced many difficulties. In the first 9 months of 2020, the whole industry welcomed 620,479 arrivals of visitors, down 63.16% from the same period last year, reaching 28.2% of the year plan; tourism revenue reached VND 226 billion, down 74.48% from the same period, reaching 18.65% of the year plan.

To support tourism businesses affected by the epidemic, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism held two business meetings in My Tho city and Cai Be district to update and promptly record businesses’ proposals; advising the Provincial People's Committee to organize a meeting with enterprises to guide and implement policies in order to support enterprises affected by the COVID-19 epidemic; directing the Provincial Tourism Development Center to reduce the rental price of premises at the Center; at the same time, coordinating with relevant sectors to promptly implement Central and local policies to support enterprises damaged by the epidemic.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism also focused on synchronously implementing many solutions to support businesses and people doing tourism to remove difficulties and stabilize their operations quickly, such as: promoting domestic tourism demand, launching the program "Vietnamese travel in Vietnam"; supporting tourism businesses to restructure their operations on the basis of promoting the achieved results and overcoming the recent limitations; researching and developing new tourism products and services; building many attractive stimulus programs to attract tourists; enhancing tourism implementation and promotion in various forms (applying 4.0 technology to promote tourism; supporting businesses to participate in tourism events; organizing and joining famtrip groups…); taking measures to prevent and control the epidemic in tourism activities according to the guidance of the Health sector and local authorities to ensure safe destinations .

Promoting the image and brand of Tien Giang Tourism requires a long-term strategy through a unified identity and logo. What do you think about this statement?

The essence of tourism branding is the intentional transformation of a unique identity into an image in the mind of tourists. In the context of global competition to attract tourists, a tourism brand has great significance. It is essential to create an attractive local image with a clear position on its characteristics and advantages to attract economic resources, investment capital, people and tourism development in accordance with Resolution 11-NQ / TU of the Provincial Party Committee on Tien Giang tourism development to 2020, with a vision to 2030, which calls for: "professionalism, synchronous and modern technical infrastructure systems; high quality, diversified, branded and strongly competitive tourism products." Accordingly, the task and solution to enhance tourism promotion is "Building a provincial tourism brand associated with a typical image, bearing bold cultural identity of Tien Giang River". This is considered a priority task of the tourism industry in the coming time. Special attention is paid to the selection of slogans and symbols for Tien Giang Tourism in the direction of building a unified brand identity and the logo closely linked together, and reflecting the outstanding and distinctive image of Tien Giang Tourism to effectively promote the Tien Giang Tourism brand. Creating a different image will contribute to improving the efficiency of tourism promotion, creating a competitive advantage for domestic and foreign markets, helping Tien Giang tourism to develop more sustainably in the coming time.

Can you tell us the key missions of the tourism industry in the period 2020 - 2025?

While in 2015, Tien Giang tourism welcomed 1,525,129 visitor arrivals (517,198 arrivals of international tourists), by 2019, this number increased to 2,138,217 arrivals, an average increase of 9% for the whole period; including 850,293 arrivals of international visitors, an average increase of 7.5% over the period. In the recent time, the number of international tourists to Tien Giang has always increased and stabilized and Tien Giang has been one of the provinces with the highest number of international tourists in the Mekong Delta. Promoting the achieved results, in the period 2020-2025, the tourism industry continues to advise on the implementation of Resolution 11-NQ / TU of the Provincial Party Committee on tourism development of Tien Giang province to 2020 and orientations to 2030, which will focus on 5 key missions.

Firstly, reviewing and adjusting tourism development planning towards concentrating resources, building key areas, creating a driving force for tourism development; coordinating to strengthen investment invitations and supporting investors to accelerate the implementation of tourism projects; giving priority to inviting strategic investors and corporations that have paid attention to invest in forming a chain of resorts, entertainment centers, tourism services; developing festivals and typical events associated with the formation of a number of commercial business streets, night markets, pedestrian streets and flower gardens to attract tourists to visit and experience, especially in the central areas of My Tho city and Cai Be town.

Secondly, allocating appropriate state budget capital to invest in the development of transport infrastructure to key tourist areas and destinations in My Tho city, the Eastern and Western regions of Tien Giang province. To increase the attraction of social resources to invest in the development of the tourist infrastructure system and technical infrastructure; issuing policies to support the development of community tourism and agricultural tourism associated with the New rural area.

Thirdly, developing unique tourism products on the basis of typical natural tourism resources associated with local historical and cultural relics.

Fourthly, improving the efficiency of tourism promotion; strengthening cooperation to develop tourism among provinces, cities and regions in the country.

Fifthly, improving the efficiency of state management on tourism and the role of the Tourism Association to support and create conditions for tourism businesses in the province to connect with and support each other, and compete in a healthy way, contributing to improving destination quality.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum