Proposed Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2020

NEWSLETTER NO. 4 - JULY 2013

ENVIRONMENTALLY AND SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE TOURISMCAPACITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISMVIETNAM NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION OF TOURISM

7 Key Responsible Tourism Messages

Training Need Assessment Results

Proposed Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2020

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development Programme and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.

Programme Implementation UnitAddress: Room 402, 4th Floor, Vinaplast – Tai Tam Building39A Ngo Quyen Street, Hanoi, VietnamTel: (84 4) 3734 9357Fax: (84 4) 3734 9359E-mail: [email protected]: www.esrt.vn

CONTENTS

Publication Authorisation Number: 181-2012/CXB/144-158/GTVT

3 Strengthening Tourism Marketing Strategy for Vietnam

6 Hotel Survey 2013

4-5 Proposed Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2020

8 Responsible Tourism Policy

12 7 Key Responsible Tourism Messages

7 Responsible Tourism Guides and Fact Sheets

11 VTOS for Small and Medium Enterprises

9-10 Training Need Assessment Results

9 Fact Sheet 1: Introduction to Responsible Tourism

Dear Readers,

It is my honor to be nominated for Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board (TAB), established on November 27th 2012. This is a tremendous honour

that I intend to take up with a great sense of pride and responsibility.

The establishment of the Vietnam TAB, within the Environmentally Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development (ESRT) Programme, is an initiative to promote communication, information and the sharing of knowledge between tourism businesses and government administration agencies. It is also aimed at providing support for the tourism industry in overcoming challenges during development.

The TAB’s main objective is to enhance Vietnam tourism business efficiency and competitiveness against other nations in the region. TAB will also provide consultancy for the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on sustainable tourism development issues. Through the framework of a public-private partnership, industry leaders and governmental officials will be able to leverage the resources of all stakeholders, enhancing Vietnam’s competitive advantage and promoting sustainable best practices in the industry.

In the second meeting of TAB on May 29th 2013, we focused on discussion concerning the Vietnam

Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2020 proposed by ESRT experts. The resultant recommendations of TAB were:

• Develop a separate marketing strategy for domestic tourism, as it is a large segment of the overall tourism industry.

• Prioritise for online marketing. 83% of leisure travelers and 76% of business travelers plan their trips online. It is recommended that 50% of the allocated budget should be spent on online marketing, and these marketing activities should be synchronised with offline activites.

• Focus on a viable strategy for domestic tourism promotion. Vietnam tourism service quality can be improved in both the public and private sector in matters of immigration, customs and other services at airports and harbours, as well as in local service providers such as hotels, restaurants, tour operators and local attractions.

• The Marketing Plan for 2014 should be developed as soon as possible, with a higher budget funded by the Government, an initiative to mobilize additional resources through public and private organisations and support from international partners and sponsors.

• Besides marketing activities, there is also a need to address environmental issues, the safety of tourists, and local management of tourist destinations. Concerning an extremely important factor, there should be a more flexible visa exemption policy to improve Vietnam’s competitiveness against other countries in the region (for example, Malaysia exempts entry visa requirements for 60 countries. However, Vietnam exempts for only 6-7 countries).

We hope that TAB operation will continue to play an increasingly-important role as a source of information for state management of tourism.

Strengthening Vietnam Tourism Marketing Strategy

Tran Hung Viet,General Director of Saigontourist



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JULY 2013NO. 4

The wheels of the ESRT Programme’s support to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism in strengthening its effectiveness in tourism

marketing are turning and starting to bear fruit.

Under the ESRT, a National Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2020 and Action Plan: 2013-2015 were prepared. The highly researched Strategy and Action Plan have been based upon international best-practice with the aims of finally bringing Vietnam up to par with its regional competitors who are aggressively investing in the marketing and promotion of tourism to their countries well-beyond levels seen in Vietnam.

The Strategy and Action Plan have been presented to the Tourism Advisory Board, a high level national Public-Private Sector Advisory Forum, also supported by the ESRT, with being broadly endorsed by all in attendance. It was recommended to proceed with minimal delay with the inclusion of a number of key areas for strengthening such as providing detail to domestic tourism marketing activities and breaking down the Action Plan into directly implementable one-year periods.

Following from this, the EU-Programme’s developed Strategy and Action Plan was improved with feedbacks

from the National Tourism Marketing Conference in Hanoi. Under support of the ESRT, the conference was attended by more than 250 delegates from 63 provincial Departments of Culture, Sports & Tourism, representatives of Tourist Information & Promotion Centers nation-wide, and other national tourism authorities.

Key elements of the Strategy and Action Plan that were presented include the need to take a strategic approach that matches tourism products to markets, in particular higher-yielding markets for greater sustainability; to focus greater attention on the domestic market, overhauling existing promotional material and replacing with tiered promotional material that fully optimises

Vietnam Tourism Marketing at a Turning Point Kai Partale,

ESRT Tourism Sector Specialist

the newly created brand; to expand inter- and intra-sectoral partnerships and public-private dialogue and co-operation in tourism marketing, investment, and development in order to increase efficiency, cost-effectiveness and generate higher impacts, and; to upgrade tourism research efforts and improve dissemination channels to industry.

Vietnam tourism should give a greater focus in marketing to the nearby markets of North East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea), Russia and Australia, markets that are still showing strong growth within the current global economic downturn environment. The Strategy also places strong emphasis on further developing the domestic market, which is recognised as the industry’s biggest market segment, increasing by more than 10.2% over the last decade.

If funded in full, it is estimated that the Strategy and Action Plan will increase visitor numbers by an additional 2.2 million to 7.7 million visitors in 2015 and 8.2 million in 2016, resulting in an additional $253 million in visitor expenditure from the international market alone.

The ESRT Programme will now further strengthen the capacity of the senior officers of the provincial Departments of Culture, Sports & Tourism and the Tourist Information & Promotion Center and conduct a training programme as they play a lead role in the coordination of the tourism offer and implementation of marketing activities, which should be based on the developed Strategy as well as on responsible tourism principles.



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By the time this newsletter goes to print ESRT will be drawing to the conclusion of its development of a range of Responsible Tourism publications that

will be instrumental in raising awareness of the need and benefits of Responsible Tourism and methods for putting principles into action.

Thus far, the following documents have been produced:

• ESRT Fact Sheet Series (Introduction to Responsible Tourism; Responsible Tourism for the accommodation sector, Responsible Tourism for the

tours and travel sector, Responsible Tourism policy and planning) • Responsible Tourism Good Practice Guides (cultural heritage protection, protected area management) • Vietnam Community Based Tourism Handbook: Using a Market Based Approach • Vietnam Tourist Information Centre Guide (integrating Responsible Tourism principles)

Targeting the needs of tourism authorities, the private sector and communities, the publications are expected to serve multiple purposes; on top of being complete stand-alone resources that can be used as references and as guides to Responsible Tourism, the publications will also be repackaged into a training toolkit. Key information from publication content will also be “lifted out” and developed into media releases to generate media attention on Responsible Tourism.

Distribution and dissemination of the publications is therefore expected to include a range of strategies designed to reach out to as many beneficiaries as possible: • Partners – Local organisations and industry bodies that share similar interests in promoting sustainable tourism will be targeted to assist distribute publications through their own networks, via their websites or internal mailing lists.

• ESRT website – Development of a resources section to house the Responsible Tourism publications and additional information for students, private sector, NGOs, and also public sector tourism departments to find out about more about RT. • Workshops and seminars – The content of the publications will be converted into a “RT awareness raising toolkit” that will form the basis of ESRT’s Responsible Tourism awareness raising workshops and seminars. • Email – ESRT’s friends, colleagues and other persons interested in ESRT project activities shall receive direct email notification of publications as they become available to the public. • Events – Where possible, limited copies of relevant material will be distributed to participants at conferences, seminars, workshops, and events attended by ESRT experts and staff. • Media - Press releases will be developed around key material that will be “lifted out” of the publications to generate additional media attention for columns and articles in magazines or newspapers.

Contact [email protected] if you wish to be put on the ESRT email mailing list to receive notification of the Responsible Tourism publications as they become available.

Vietnam Hotel Sector Survey 2013:

Encouraging signs

The results of the recent survey of the hotel sector in Vietnam (Vietnam Lodging Industry – Hotel Survey 2013) conducted by Grant Thornton Vietnam with

a contribution of the ESRT shows encouraging signs of progress in their awareness and management of the environment and quality standards in operation. The 2013 survey included three to five star hotels spread across Central Vietnam, Northern Vietnam and the South.

Slightly more the half (54,8%) of hoteliers indicate major changes in the awareness of environmental and social issues within their company in the last three years (more strongly identified in Southern Vietnam).

The increased importance of the environment is also being reflected in the implementation of organizational environmental management plans, with about 82,3% of all hotel respondents indicating they have an environmental plan in place. A further 64,5% of hoteliers indicate that they are strongly taking measures to improve energy efficiency and reduce waste and pollution (more commonly in the North and Central regions than in the South).

Hotels also appear to be spending time conducting training in environmental aspects of hotel operation (energy, water, waste, pollution), with nearly one third (30,6%) undertaking environmental training to some extent, and a further 51,6% undertaking environmental training to an even higher degree. Environmental training was more strongly noted in the 4 and 5 star hotels, based mainly in the North.

Over half of the interviewed hotels also indicate that they are aiming to achieve the VNAT Green Lotus Label for environmental and social sustainability, with 4 star hotels leading the charge (75% aspire to achieving Green Lotus certification), followed by 5 star hotels (64,7%), and finally 3 star hotels (58,8%).

Encouragingly, there are strong signs that the Vietnam Tourism Occupational Standards (VTOS) which aim to improve the overall performance level of service staff in hotels is being adopted. A clear majority of hotels (79%) indicate that they apply VTOS in their operations, with the majority coming from hotels in the North. VTOS are being mostly applied as internal standards (61,3%, predominantly in the Central Highlands and in the South), in training (58,1%, mostly in the North, closely followed by the South), in recruitment operations (56,5%, mostly in the Central Highlands) and in management (45,2%, primarily in the North).

Three star hotels mainly focus on the application of internal standards and training, with the same holding true for hotels in the 4 star categories. Five star hotels, however, put their main focus on applying the VTOS standard in recruitment (about 70,6%).

A majority of hoteliers (67,7%) also aspire to enhancing staff’s skills through gaining VTOS certification, mostly in the South followed by the Central Highlands.

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%North Central and

HighlandsSouth Total

Major change Minor change No change

53% 52% 60% 55%

26%15%26%37%

05%13% 15% 11%

Graphic: Changes in awareness of environmental and social issues in hotels

Workshops and

seminars

Distribution via partner networks

Email direct distribution

to ESRT mailing list

ESRT website

resources section

Media articles and

columns

Print distribution

at events

RESPONSIBLE ROURISM

PUBLICATIONS

Don Taylor, Responsible Tourism Specialist

Publicising Responsible Tourism



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JULY 2013NO. 4

Vietnam’s tourism sector is entering a new era of development; one defined by increased regional competition, maturing tourism products, more

discerning tourism markets, and increasing realization that more can be done to ensure a sustainable future for the sector while maximizing socio-economic development opportunities. Responsible tourism development is seen as the solution for balancing competitive growth with sustainability, encouraging business development while ensuring social development and resource conservation. Achieving such a future will depend greatly upon more effective management of the sector, and effective engagement of all stakeholders in the process.

To help address these challenges and opportunities the ESRT Programme and Vietnam National Administration of Tourism have set out to establish a Responsible Tourism Policy. The Policy aims to provide the sector (and it’s stakeholders) with an overall guiding document that is linked to specific actions, that the tourism sector’s stakeholder can take on to contribute to a more responsible tourism sector.

The Policy incorporates the directives and priorities of the National Tourism Strategy and the Tourism Master Plan and includes recommendations from industry and professional bodies, such as the Vietnam Tourism Association or the Vietnam Business Forum / EuroCham Hotel & Tourism Working Group and its Whitepaper 2013.

The Vietnam Responsible Tourism Policy is designed to provide direction and suggested courses of action for all stakeholders to take an active role in creating a more competitive, profitable, sustainable tourism sector during the next evolution of tourism sector in Vietnam.

The foundations of the Policy are 6 Pillars that are defined by guiding principles that capture key courses for action. The six pillars include:

i. Creating a Dynamic and Efficient Tourism Sector, ii. Supporting Competitiveness with Sustainability, iii. Creating Broad-based Socio-Economic Development, iv. Expanding Knowledge and Understanding, v. Investing in Human Capital/Resources, and the vi. Conservation and Enhancement of Natural and Cultural Resources.

For each pillar Key Issues and Action Points have been identified, along with suggestions of which stakeholders need to take responsibility and what processes can be followed to create real change.

Extensive stakeholder consultations are being carried out to ensure the actions proposed in the Policy match the priorities of the stakeholders and provide practical actions and suggestion of who will take responsibility to see them through. The Policy is expected to present short, medium, and longer term priorities, and it will be the sector’s stakeholders who will decide which actions to take on. This is responsible tourism in action.

As of June 30 the first full draft of the Responsible Tourism Policy has been completed, in the coming months further stakeholder consultations will be conducted through working sections/focus discussion groups conducted with the participation of representative government bodies, private sector, training institutes, local communities, international organization in Hanoi, Da Nang and Sai Gon.

If you would like to provide your inputs to the Policy development, please contact the ESRT office (e-mail: [email protected]).

Developing a Responsible Tourism Policy for Vietnam

Cao Dai Hung, Tourism Policy Expert

Douglas Hainsworth, Tourism Policy Advisor

The training needs assessment (TNA) of the Vietnamese tourism industry has now been completed. The study, which attracted close to

550 detailed responses from accommodation providers, travel agencies and tour operators, specialists from new and emerging tourism sectors, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Provincial Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Technical and Vocational Education and Training schools, provides information which can be used to plan for the future skills needs of tourism in Vietnam.

The focus of the TNA was very much on understanding future skill requirements, both with the existing workforce in the public and private sectors and in those areas which are becoming increasingly important as growth areas within Vietnamese tourism – tourism attractions, tourism services, food and restaurant businesses, sports tourism, nature/ eco-tourism,

Planning training for the future

Professor Tom Baum PhDHRD Tourism Speciatist

Source: vinaexplorer.com

ESRT is proud to announce the arrival of the first in a series of Responsible Tourism Fact Sheets that provide a simple accessible information on applying responsible tourism to specific areas.

ESRT Fact Sheet 1: Introduction to Responsible Tourism provides an overview of the Responsible Tourism basics that is easy to read and relevant for Vietnam.

Download: Vietnamese: http://bit.ly/esrt_factsheet1_vn English: http://bit.ly/esrt_factsheet1_en

Happy reading!

ESRT Fact Sheet 1: Introduction to Responsible Tourism



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JULY 2013NO. 4

VTOS for Small and Medium Sized Tourism Enterprises in Disadvantaged Areas Dr. Tran Thi Mai

ESRT Senior Tourism Vocational Education and Training Specialist

The Government’s 2011-2020 Socio-Economic Development Strategy aims at developing high quality human resources especially in ethnic and

mountainous regions as the proportion of untrained workforce in these areas is very high.

Various models of vocational training have been tried over the years such as employment generation through supporting enterprises to create jobs, mobile vocational training and community-based vocational training. However, these approaches have attracted a limited number of ethnic minority workers partly due to the fact that job opportunities are poorly paid and are far from home and therefore do not meet local needs. In addition, vocational training courses in local colleges require a basic level of education which many people may not have.

The ESRT focus for ethnic and mountainous regions is to work with existing small tourism enterprises to help them become more attractive to visitors, to improve the quality of their existing workforce and to provide training in basic skills for young people and women seeking jobs in the expanding local tourism industry.

Vietnam has attracted a growing number of adventure or eco-tourists to Northern Vietnam and other rural areas for international visitors who prefer untouched areas and the opportunity to explore local and ethnic culture, lifestyles and environments. Feedback from

tourists indicates an urgent need to raise the standard of accommodation and food services in these areas to provide a better quality basic tourism experience.

New VTOS (Vietnam Tourism Occupational Standards) have been developed especially for small and medium hospitality enterprises in these areas. Topics include guest relations, food safety and hygiene, food service and housekeeping and other key skills. The aim is to provide entry level skills development for minorities, youth and women to equip them with the ability to take jobs in the local tourism and hospitality industry.

Additional, trainer packages and trainee guides have been developed to provide a resource for ongoing training and coaching, as well as a series of assessment tools to capture the skills and knowledge of trainees. It is hoped that these resources, along with a series of train the trainer, local staff training workshops and a new set of qualifications from VTCB (Vietnam Tourism Certification Board) for these rural areas will enable the SME Tourism Enterprises to raise their service quality.

cultural tourism, crafts and retail tourism, MICE and the technology sector involved with e-commerce and electronic distribution.

Initial analysis points to a number of important conclusions:

• The private sector sees ‘soft skills’ such as communications, foreign languages, service skills and personal skills (problem solving, organizational skills, personality) as the most important determinants in selection of candidates and sees these as priority skills areas for the future.

• Traditional technical skills (restaurant service, housekeeping, front office, ticketing) are not rated as particularly important by enterprises – there is recognition that such skills can be developed quickly in the workplace if the right attitude and necessary ‘soft skills’ are in place.

• Technology and web-related skills are important for those working in the travel industry and small hotels but larger, international hotels and resorts make use of existing software and systems management so these skills are of less relevance.

• There is a shortage, in Vietnam, of the specialist skills required in some of the new and emerging sectors (for example, diving instructors, golf instructors, conservation and interpretation specialists, event organisers) and such staff are frequently recruited from overseas.

• Those working in public sector tourism have a sound theoretical understanding of tourism at a national and local level but could benefit from closer cooperation with and exposure to the private sector as very few of these staff have direct working experience in a commercial environment.

• College and university programmes are rated highly by the private sector in terms of skills development in communications, languages and service but poorly in technical areas.

• Colleges are responsive to the new and emerging skills requirements of the industry but are limited in the resources they can devote to new areas. Teachers are generally well trained in academic terms but lack recent and relevant industry experience.

In support of ESRT’s aims and objectives, the TNA also highlighted regional variation in the skills needs of the industry, shaped by the main tourism attractions and opportunities in specific provinces. This points to the need to develop training programmes which are sensitive to such variations and, maybe, even adapt VTOS standards to reflect local and regional needs where appropriate.

The TNA study also shows that women are well represented in the tourism workforce but do not have opportunities for promotion to senior positions within public or private sector organizations in tourism. Minority groups, disadvantaged in their general and vocational education, are under-represented in the tourism industry.

The TNA can be described as the first steps along a road in Human Resources development and management. The findings of the 2013 study will form a base line from which further skills changes in the future can be monitored. Replicating and extending the study methodology, both nationally and at a provincial level on a regular basis in the future, will enable the Vietnamese tourism industry to compete effectively and meet the demands of a rapidly growing international market.

Group dicussion in the Workshop on Training Need As-sessment in Tourism



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The Key Responsible Tourism Messages

Responsible tourism is not necessarily costly and in fact can

actually generate positive economic benefits. By examining

the way we do things and thinking about how we can do

them differently – in a more responsible and

efficient way, we are looking after the people

and the nature around us and creating a

more positive environment that will, by

default, result in greater net gains for all

– which includes economic benefits.

The tourism industry is a booming sector in Vietnam, but

poor planning, development and management will

negatively affect the sustainability of tourism and its

benefits for tourists, businesses and people.

Making tourism in Vietnam more responsible brings more

satisfying holiday experiences for visitors, creates increase

income for businesses, contributes to better lives for people

and limits harm to the environment.

We all make hundreds of decisions every day. Responsible

tourism demands that we are consciously aware of the impacts

of the decisions we make, and that wherever possible, we seek

to minimise any negative impacts and maximise positive impacts

of our decisions on the people and environment around us.

Both locals and visitors share something

in common – we both enjoy seeing and

experiencing the beauty of a clean and healthy

natural environment. If we look after the

environment not only for our own enjoyment

and health we are also developing a country

in Vietnam that is attractive for tourists and

will see them coming back over time.

71. “Not acting responsibly hinders tourism in the long term”

2. “Responsible Tourism benefits businesses, people, tourists and the environment”

5. “Responsible Tourism makes economic sense”

7. “Happy people make happy tourists”

6. “A healthy environment generates healthy tourism”

When you allow a local artisan to display his handicrafts in your

hotel, employ a local performance group, undertake a tidy up

campaign, pay a fair wage to your staff, or inform tourists about

the right way to behave in the community and environment,

you are engaging in Responsible Tourism. Almost all of us are

doing this already in some shape or form. We now just need to

expand on it.

4. “Responsible Tourism already exists”When we look after and respect each other in our work and

social lives we are happier people. By implementing fair

work practices, good work environments, employing the

disadvantaged and poor, respecting and celebrating cultural

differences and providing opportunities for expression we are

creating a happier people who will, by default, create a better

place for tourists to visit.

3. “Everyone can act responsibly”


12

Documents

Proposed Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2020