The Vietnamese tourism sector has been around for decades but it has not yet come up with its own national trademark, said an expert.
Although foreign visitors to Vietnam is on the rise, tourism revenues are still modest compared to many other regional countries.
Speaking at a forum on August 22 on tourism trademark development, Associate Professor Dr. Pham Trung Luong, Deputy Chairman of the Institute for Tourism Development and Research, said despite ranking among the top ten countries with the highest tourism growth rate in the world, Vietnam’s tourism revenues are still modest compared to many other regional countries. In 2012, Vietnam attracted 6.84 million visitors, earning USD6.61 billion. Meanwhile the figures are 22.3 million and USD30.9 billion for Thailand; 25 million and USD19.79 billion for Malaysia; 14.4 million and USD19.38 million for Singapore.
Building and promoting a national tourism trademark helps to define a country’s image as an impressive destination to increase its competitiveness, but for Vietnam, the promotion activities have just been done in a traditional way. Even If the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) stops these activities, international travellers still come to Vietnam, because they know about the country through their friends’ introductions.
The global economic downturn has deeply affected the tourism sector, but many other Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia have still been actively promoting their countries as tourist destinations. This is considered to maintain momentum for their economic growth. Nonetheless, in Vietnam, despite being listed as one of the spearhead economic sectors, the matter of a national tourism trademark has just now been given some attention.
At the meeting, Head of the VNAT Nguyen Van Tuan, admitted that the local tourism sector faces the risk of unsustainable development with the current lack of diversified products and weak competitiveness.
He also noted that the national trademark is not merely a symbol, a slogan, or a product for a marketing campaign, but it should show products or destinations which are distinct from their rivals. Through the trademark, visitors can imagine products and services generally so that they can make quick decision.
Vietnam’s investment in tourism promotion activities is just around USD2 million per year, equal to just 1% of the investment of neighbouring countries. The level is ranked the lowest worldwide, which is among the reasons for the slow development of the sector. Therefore, a national tourism trademark of regional and world standards really needs a proper investment.