Vietnam's Tourism Branding

Proceedings of the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on Global Business, Economics, Finance and Social Sciences

(AP15Vietnam Conference) ISBN: 978-1-63415-833-6

Danang-Vietnam, 10-12 July, 2015 Paper ID: VL515

1 www.globalbizresearch.org

Vietnam’s Tourism Branding

Tran Nhi Bach Van,

James Cook University, Australia (Singapore Campus).

E-mail: [email protected]

___________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

Tourism plays an important role in Vietnamese economy. Therefore, in tourism development

strategy of Vietnam destination (2020, vision to 2030), tourism is considered as leading

sector due to its magnitude impacts on economic, social and environmental aspects. The

objective of this strategy is to make Vietnam tourism sector into a developed one with

successful branding and high – quality tourism products by 2030. The key contents of this

strategy include seven sub-strategies about (1) tourism products, (2) infrastructure and

technical facilities for tourism, (3) human resource, (4) market development, (5) tourism

promotion and brands, (6) investment and policies for tourism development and (7)

international cooperation in tourism. Amongst, this paper is to examine the efficiency and

effectiveness of Vietnam tourism branding strategy. Accordingly, it focuses on three main

sections, including: branding strategy analysis; problems in building a strong brand for

Vietnam tourism; assessment and recommendation. Qualitative research method was

adopted through related document analysis to reach the aim of this paper.

___________________________________________________________________________

Key words: tourism branding, market development, Vietnam destination





1. Introduction

Nowadays, in a fierce competition of every country for the share of the world’s tourism

market, brand plays an essential part in marketplace. It helps the country distinguishable from

others. Also, branding element is fundamental to decision – making process of tourists as it

captures an image of core values of a destination (Rungo, 2011).

Reflecting back on case of Vietnam, it lies in the heart of South-East Asia, bordering

with China, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and East Sea. With the population around 89 million,

including 54 ethnic groups, Vietnam is known as the destination of marvelous history and

diversifying culture, such as: cuisine, traditional festivals and unique handicraft villages. In

addition, thanks to its diverse ecosystem, this country also attracts more and more tourist by

its natural heritages. According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, up to

present, Vietnam owns 10 World heritages, 30 National Parks and many other national

heritage sites (“Country Presentation”, 2012).

Despite its comparative advantages, Vietnam is not able to successfully compete in brand

positioning regionally and worldwide. According to Bloom Consulting (2013), Vietnam

tourism brand ranked 19th among Asian countries (Country Brand Ranking, 2013). In

addition, base on Bloom Consulting’s approach, Online Search Demand (OSD) is one of the

variables to measure the appeal of a destination to its potential customers. Among Asian

countries, Vietnam cannot be as attractive as, even left far behind its neighbors such as

Malaysia, Thailand, etc for this criterion. In term of Country Brand Strategy Ranking (CBS),

Vietnam’s position still is not high in the list (Country Brand Ranking, 2013). Thus, it can be

said that Vietnam still has a long way to reach its strategic goal of becoming a developed

tourism sector with successful brand by 2030.

In Vietnam, Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism functions to develop and promote

tourism sector. In addition, there is also another body named Vietnam Administration of

Tourism (VNAT). This organization, considered as Destination marketing organization

(DMO) in Vietnam, is a professional body under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism,

performing the function of advising and assisting the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism

on tourism services management in accordance with law. Specifically, this body is assigned

to be in charge with master plan, national promotion, action program, schemes and national

important projects on tourism. The studied strategy in this paper is developed by this

organization.

In tourism development strategy of Vietnam destination (2020, vision to 2030), there are

four main sections: (1) Perspective, (2) Objectives, (3) Solution and (4) Action plan. The first

section develops a general picture of Vietnam tourism in the future with sustainable and high

competitiveness. The second section defines both general and specific objective. In next





section, there are seven sub-strategy are developed to reach the goal by 2030, including (1)

tourism products, (2) infrastructure and technical facilities for tourism, (3) human resource,

(4) market development, (5) tourism promotion and brands, (6) investment and policies for

tourism development and (7) international cooperation in tourism. Amongst, when it comes

to branding positioning of Vietnam tourism in the future, VNAT places the focus on

developing tourism product brands, regional and local tourism brands as well as tourism

entrepreneur brands in order to promote national brand for tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Vietnam brand-building strategy plan.

Specifically, it examines the country’s current brand positioning, assesses the effectiveness of

the related policy and programs, such as selling proposition, marketing activities, human

dimension in brand-building. The structure of this paper is as follows: The first section

presents a brief literature review on tourism brand-building to support other latter parts of

discussion and evaluation of Vietnam Brand-building policy. The second section gives an in-

depth understand about the strategy of tourism brand-building of Vietnam. The third part

discusses some problems encountered by Vietnam brand. The last section will evaluate and

give recommendations in order to improve brand positioning for Vietnam.

2. Literature Review

Branding has become a popular marketing tool to promote the unique identities and

improved the competitiveness of a destination (Semone, 2011). Also, branding helps people

to differentiate and decide places they would like to visit. The notion of branding is defined as

a combination of a name, logo, slogan to identify the goods or service in markets, according

to Tasci & Kozak (2006) (cited in Gartner, 2014). However, building a brand does not mean

to appear with only logo and slogan. It is something dealing with country image in tourists’

minds. From a partially different perspective, Aaker (1996) states that a brand is associated

with functional, emotional, relational and strategic elements to sharpen the competitive

advantages. In addition, according to Hakimipour & Bozorgkho (2012), building a brand is

associated with some important factors, such as: advertisement, cultural heritages, public

awareness on symposium or conference, etc. In another study, Cai (2002) states that image is

the most important part of a destination brand. Besides, it also involves public awareness,

loyalty and quality of that destination (cited by Gartner, 2014).

There are some challenges that brand-building process encounters. First of all,

destination brand should fit its name and geographical features (Cai, 2002). Secondly, there

are variety of attributes, both tangible and intangible, relating to transferring a unified

message. Therefore, it is complicated to distill attributes and involved stakeholders while

keeping intact the core values of a destination (Buhalis, 2000). Thirdly, when a destination

identifies its brand, there is no guarantee that it will be accepted by everyone due to many

http://www.palgrave-journals.com.elibrary.jcu.edu.au/pb/journal/v10/n2/full/pb20146a.html#bib5





different needs from many different kinds of tourists. Besides, limited resources such as

marketing budget are also a challenge of brand-building (Morgan, Pritchard and Pride, 2002).

(cited by Cai et al, 2009).

In order to better deal with such challenges, Buhalis (2000) defines four tools. The first

one is the congruity between a brand’s strategies with a clearly defined target market. Also,

he focuses on stakeholder collaboration rather than competition among them. Fitting brand

with destination values, in terms of carrying capacity between physical and cultural elements

is also involved; and lastly, he mentions the stakeholders’ support for the vision of

development in that destination. In the same vein, Kotler and Gertner (2002) identify some

principles in building a brand. These include a catchy slogan visual images along with a

brand so that its image appears as appealing and distinguishable one; defining resources

forming a strong brand and effectively deploying them; unifying country's different local

branding by an umbrella concept; and creating special events to raise potential tourists’

awareness of destination’s images (cited by Cai et al, 2009).

So what makes a brand become successful? In the study of Morgan, Pritchard and Pride

(2005), a successful destination branding is featured with trust, quality and lifestyle

connotation that tourists can associate with. In addition, Zehrer (2007) places the importance

on brand management for effective use of resources to preserve and reinforce the core values

of a destination in order to stand out of the rest in a fierce competition among destinations

(cited by Semone & Kozak, 2011). Noticeably, not only branding activities like PR,

advertising, but also supporting elements such as financial and good conceptual planning

contributes to a successful branding (Semone & Kozak, 2011).

3. Vietnam Tourism Brand Strategy Analysis

Reflecting back on Vietnam, the current brand of Vietnam tourism is known as Vietnam –

Timeless Charm with a full blossom lotus as a logo, which is used for tourism promotion in

the period of 2012 – 2015. It symbolizes the everlasting beauty of the nation as well as

Vietnamese throughout the time. In addition, VNAT experts believe that such slogan is a

continuity of the previous one – Vietnam Hidden Charm, which was used in the period of

2008 – 2012, to further develop the brand. This new logo and slogan presents the brand

position of Vietnam which includes four main core values: Time, intensity, mystery and

commitment. In terms of time, Vietnam brand position attempts to identify Vietnam as a

destination where “time can stand till”. Intensity is about the variety of travel experience

from culture delights, natural wonders to city tours. Moreover, Vietnam’s brand sells the

image of exotic and authentic beauty of people, culture, etc. Also, brand position of Vietnam

is associated with a commitment of quality and friendly (“Vietnam Tourism Marketing

Strategy”, n.d).

http://www.emeraldinsight.com.elibrary.jcu.edu.au/books.htm?issn=2042-1443&volume=1&chapterid=1827413&show=html&PHPSESSID=fsekoqf7i25kj4ip3jbal42rm5#idbib64






Figure 1: Logo and Slogan of Vietnam tourism

(Source: Vietnam slogan and logo for tourism, n.d)

Besides, in the studied strategy, the national tourism brand is promoted on the basis of the

regional and local brands of tourism. Accordingly, the government will push ahead to

strengthen the coordination between localities as well as different sectors to construct and

develop tourism (“Strategy on Vietnam’s tourism”, 2011). Basically, there are seven zones

divided by geographic features to develop a tourism product system. In accordance with

branding strategy, there are four groups of brand products to be developed to meet the need of

different market segments:

(1) Culture;

(2) Coast;

(3) Eco – based;

(4) City – breaks.

(“Vietnam Tourism Marketing Strategy”, n.d).

Accordingly, localities’ brands will be developed in accordance with its tourism products

and therefore, contribute to develop national brand for tourism as a whole.

Table 1: Tourism Product System and Regional Brands

Area Provinces/cities Features Kind of tourism

1 Midland and mountainous

areas in North Vietnam

Lao Cai, Bac Kan,

Thai Nguyen, Cao

Bang, Tuyen

Quang, Ha Giang,

Lang Son and Bac

Giang, Hoa Binh,

Son La, Dien Bien,

Lai Chau, Yen Bai,

Phu Tho

Diversity of

ethnic

minorities’

cultural

identities

Eco-cultural tourism

2 Red River Delta and

coastal Northeast

Vinh Phuc, Thai

Binh, Ha Noi, Hai

Phong, Ha Nam,

Ninh Binh, Nam

Dinh, Quang Ninh,

Bac Ninh, Hai

Duong, Hung Yen

Wet rice

civilization and

local traditional

activities,

Sea sightseeing,

cultural tourism,

urban tourism,

MICE (Meetings,

Incentives,

Conferencing,

Exhibitions)

tourism.

3 North Central region Nghe An, Ha Tinh,

Thanh Hoa, Quang

Binh, Quang Tri

and Thua Thien-

Hue

World cultural

and natural

heritage sites

Marine tourism, eco-

tourism, historic-

cultural tourism





4 Coastal South Central

region

Khanh Hoa, Ninh

Thuan, Da Nang,

Quang Nam,

Quang Ngai, Binh

Dinh, Phu Yen and

Binh Thuan

Heritages,

marine culture

and cuisine.

Marine and resort

tourism, culture and

cuisine tourism.

5 Central Highlands Dak Lak, Dak

Nong, Kon Tum,

Gia Lai, and Lam

Dong

Unique cultural

values of

indigenous

ethnic groups

Eco-tourism and

cultural tourism

6 Eastern South Viet Nam Ba Ria-Vung Tau,

Binh Phuoc, Ho

Chi Minh, Dong

Nai, Binh Duong,

and Tay Ninh

Culture and

history

exploration

Urban tourism,

MICE tourism,

marine ecological

and resort tourism

7 Mekong Delta Hau Giang, Can

Tho, Long An,

Dong Thap, An

Giang, Soc Trang,

Ben Tre, Tra Vinh,

Vinh Long, Tien

Giang, Kien Giang,

Ca Mau, Bac Lieu

River life

culture, marine

ecological

features.

Eco-tourism, resort

tourism, and MICE

tourism

(“Strategy on Vietnam’s tourism”, 2011).

According to the above table, the center government has given the orientation for specific

areas to follow base on its natural and cultural features. Thus, the coordination in localities

plays an important role to promote a brand for the whole area in addition to each local brand.

Take Mekong Delta for example, this area is associated with river life culture and marine

ecology, which serves best to develop eco – tourism, resort and MICE tourism. However, this

area includes thirteen provinces/cities which have the similar geographical features.

Therefore, instead of severely competing between each province in this area, they should

collaborate and co – develop to promote the common tourism products for their branding. As

a result, an umbrella concept was developed by VNAT to cover and unify the country's

separate branding strategy activities in different localities. However, this strategy does not

mention how to cooperate and the level of cooperation so that each province can distinguish

itself among others to allure tourists.

In addition, following Buhalis’s (2000) principles about the congruity between a brand’s

strategy with a target market to promote the brand effectively, VNAT also clearly defines the

market segmentation matching with product brands, such as: North America tourists travel for

culture, coastal and mountain tourism while most North Asia tourists prefer city breaks and

special interests like MICE tourism, etc.

Besides, recognizing the essential role of public awareness in building and developing a

brand’ values (Gartner, 2014), in the strategy, VNAT implements a set of branding activities,

including: (1) Structure; (2) Legalities; (3) Financing; (4) Research and Analysis; (5)

Image/visuals; (6) Text; (7) Campaign (“Vietnam Tourism Marketing Strategy”, n.d). In






details, in addition with new logo and new slogan for tourism sector, the VNAT also did

research and analysis on target markets and segmentation to create proper tourism products.

Moreover, in the strategy, a clear financial budget needed was described to support branding

activities. In addition, VNAT has launched some oversea advertisements and campaign to

promote the new slogan for tourism. Specifically, there were Vietnam tourism roadshow in

Yaroslavl City, in Moscow (Russia); a program on strengthening tourism cooperation with

India, etc. The current approach adopted by VNAT to promote Vietnam tourism brand mostly

is marketing tools, such as PR, advertising and trade fairs. Unfortunately, it appears to be

insufficient in creating a strong brand for Vietnam tourism. According to Ritchie (2002),

there should be a move from promotion – oriented to a more holistic and strategic approach

on effective deployment of resources due to a changing trend in consumer behavior in order

to gain sustainable competitive advantage (cited by Bui & Perez, 2010).

4. Problems in Building a Strong Brand for Vietnam Tourism

No-one can deny the comparative advantages of Vietnam tourism. However, the

potentials cannot be commensurate with the development of that destination if lacking of

effective deployment. Although there have been a lot of brand-building efforts, Vietnam

tourism still appears unappealing brand and fiercely competes, especially with neighboring

destinations (“Vietnam Tourism Marketing Strategy”, n.d).

The first problem needs to be addressed is that Vietnam tourism’s selling proposition has

not illustrated clearly its image to differentiate itself from neighbor countries. The new logo

and slogan is not attractive enough to allure potential visitors. In details, the message for

tourism promotion has changed many times from Vietnam – a destination for a new

Millennium, Welcome to Vietnam, Vietnam – Hidden charm to Vietnam – Timeless charm

respectively for the past ten years. Such slogans are too vague and abstract to draw up a real

picture of Vietnam is minds of potential tourists. What is exactly the Vietnamese charm? In

comparison with Malaysia brand – Truly Asia or India brand – Incredible India, which can be

visualized as destinations of culture through their slogans, Vietnam brand slogan cannot

describe clearly its characteristics. Also, the video to promote for new slogan of Vietnam

tourism has not been appeared on official website of Vietnam Administration of Tourism.

There are many different versions of advertising clip for this campaign, but just received

4,458 views on Youtube and around under 2,000 views on other sites. These figures prove the

fact that this campaign to promote Vietnam tourism brand has not been successful up to now.

Marketing campaigns following to back up brand-building does not really match with the

real infrastructure. In other words, reality of Vietnam tourism does not live up to what were

advertised. To suppose that fact, many experts also state that most of tourists feel

disappointed when they come to Vietnam as it appear to be under their expectation (“Building





a strong brand”, 2014). Still, there is a distance between tourists’ expectations and

perceptions of Vietnam destination experiences. This problem is attributed to an ineffective

market approach and research as well as lacking of infrastructure investment. Consequently,

the power of words from those tourists vulnerably destroys the image of Vietnam in potential

tourists. In addition, a strong brand can attract tourists coming back. However, recent surveys

indicated that a portion of tourists stating not coming back to Vietnam was up to 80-85% with

various reasons such as negative social issues or environmental pollution as well. Meanwhile

another survey showed that tourists kept returning to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore

(“Building a strong brand”, 2014).

In terms of building strong brand for Vietnam tourism, the strategy did not focus much on

regional cooperation with other countries in Asia, such as Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, etc

to develop regional tourism brand and as a result, Vietnam brand is also upgraded. Besides,

coordination between localities with co – advertising and developing branding is still

underestimated. For example, in the Coastal South Central area, despite of many

geographical features in common, each province has developed its own tourism resources

regardless of co - advertising and coordinating to create wonderful package tours for tourists.

Even when a neighbor province has a festival to promote local brand, tourists in nearby areas

still did not know about that owing to lack of co – advertising.

It cannot be denied that budget is essential for promoting brand. As a matter of fact,

budget for Vietnam tourism marketing is still limited. Although the government pushes

ahead this plan and states that it would be on top of agenda, there is not much funding for

those relevant activities. According to the VNAT, although a new logo and new slogan –

Vietnam Timeless Charm has been in use, there are not much for following campaigns (“VN

to develop”, 2013).

As of now, the tourism sector has not succeeded in representing Vietnam’s image in such

an unique and attractive way. This consequence is attributed to a lack of professionalism in

brand-building strategy. For example, Vietnam tourism still lacks marketing websites and

formal overseas representatives in target market to promote the image of this country

(“Vietnam Tourism Marketing Strategy”, n.d). Therefore, Vietnam’s image is not

successfully transmitted to potential tourists to raise their awareness of Vietnam as an

appealing destination. Most importantly, among destination image attributes, human

dimension – both tourism industry employees and local residents is regarded as the most

crucial factor in destination image-building (Kilter, Donald, Rein, 1993; Freire, 2009) (cited

by Bui & Perez, 2010). As a matter of fact, Vietnam is lacking of high workforce and

professionalism in this industry to operate and promote well for the country’s brand.





5. Assessment and Recommendation

In the severe competition nowadays, a strong tourism brand has power to stand out the

country and make it become a distinguishable destination from its competitors. Having a lot

of World heritages and marvelous culture and natural beauty like Vietnam does not mean that

country could be successful in brand positioning.

To reach the goal of international branding for tourism, the main and foremost task

should be enhance the collaboration between localities as some researches state that when

tourists set foot in a place, they would utilize the chance to discover the whole region instead

of single province (“VN to develop”, 2013). Therefore, every locality in the same area should

develop a collaborative strategy on regional branding in order to support and coordinate with

each others to develop tourism industry, rather than competing among that area which could

results in waste of money and resources.

In addition, Vietnam tourism brand should be made from bottom up, which means not

only focusing on advertising campaigns, the government should also invest in infrastructure

for this industry, such as accessibility, accommodation, etc to create a better environment for

tourism in addition to preserve and promote national heritages. A successful branding is

associated with not only in-deep own national culture value but also tourists’ perceived of that

destination. As a matter of fact, what tourists’ self – image about Vietnam is quite different

from what Vietnam image is trying to disclose. Thus, a tourism environment should be

focused to create a better experience for tourists and consequently, it can enhance the

country’s brand.

Besides, there were some suggestions that Vietnam should make advantages of its cuisine

and effectively explore tourism industry basing on this kind of brand as cuisine is regarded as

an integral element of a destination’s culture as a survey conducted by Wego - tourism

website showed that local food is one of the main reasons for 60% of travelers choosing a

destination. The slogan follow would be ‘Kitchen of the World’ (“Building a strong brand”,

2014). However, from the writer’s perspective, Vietnam tourism should seize the chance of

its wonderful cuisine but not make it centre of the selling proposition as it will blur other

special and unique cultural as well as natural heritages of this destination, which plays an

essential role in Vietnamese daily life and tourism industry as a whole.

In order to build a strong and highly competitive brand, the government should have

tourism representatives in different target markets, such as: Japan, China, Korea, etc to

publicly advertise Vietnam tourism. To be more specific, a network of representative offices

and tourist information centers in major hubs of key and potential markets should be

established in order to make it more familiar with foreigners and potentially increase the

amount of tourism visiting Vietnam (“Building a strong brand”, 2014). Marketing activities





should be timely and consistently to keep boasting the country’s image. Also, the distribution

channels of Vietnam’s image should be various with both modern and traditional channels.

For most people, tourism advertising on television is the most attractive in all means of

media. However, this channel was neglected in promoting Vietnam tourism branding, which

results an untapped market of elder tourists who rarely use internet to search for a destination.

Human factor also plays an important role in brand-building process of Vietnam. As it

involves customer satisfaction and the attitude of people delivering tourist services, tourism

organizations should motive and train their employees to raise the quality and gain customer

satisfaction, consequently contribute to strengthen Vietnam tourism brand. Besides, as Kilter,

Donald, Rein (1993) identify the important of local residents’ attitude rather than other brand

attributes in image-building (cited by Bui & Perez, 2010), the DMO of Vietnam should also

focus on training local people who work in the tourism industry to create a positive image of

Vietnam destination.

Another valuable idea needs to take into account is building brands for major tourism

enterprises. In other words, currently, the size of many companies working in tourism

industry in Vietnam is mostly small and medium with small brands (“VN to develop”, 2013);

therefore, the competitiveness of service providers in Vietnam should be raised like

Saigontourist or Vietravel in order to compete worldwide and bring Vietnam’s image out to

the world easily. Once these entrepreneurs have such incentives for government, they are

able to firmly establish and develop, which leads to the development of tourism sector as a

whole and work effectively together towards carving out an identity for the country’s brand.

6. Conclusion

Developing Vietnamese tourism brand is one of the foremost tasks to promote the

country’s image and generate the competitive advantage to compete with other destinations.

Although there are more and more visits to Vietnam, the country’s brand position in tourism

is still not high in Asia. In this paper, some issues in policy and practice have been addressed,

such as: Vietnam tourism brand cannot be distinguishable from competitors; customers’ self-

image about Vietnam is quite different from what DMO is trying to disclose; human

dimension lacks profession in operating tourist services and promoting brand, financial

budget is not sufficient, lack of collaboration between localities. Those barriers are holding

Vietnam tourism back as well as make its brand cannot be competitive among Asian countries

as well as worldwide. In this paper, there are some suggestions for Vietnam tourism branding

on the basic of what were mentioned in tourism development strategy of Vietnam destination

(2020, vision to 2030). The first and foremost task is enhancing the level of collaboration

between localities in the same region. Moreover, the quality of infrastructure should be

focused to create a better environment for tourists and therefore, create an attractive image of





Vietnam in their mind. Besides, tourism representatives in target markets should be

established for better promotion of Vietnam tourism brand. More importantly, human

dimension, in terms of local residents and workers in tourism industry should be trained to be

more professional as they are the ones who directly deal with tourists and supply the services.

Once Vietnam strengthens its tourism brand position, it will push the country’s economic and

social development.

Reference

Azad, N., Hozouri, S., Zarifi, S & Khodashenas, Y. (2013). A factor analysis to detect factors

influencing building national brand. Management Science Letters, 3(3), 777-782.

Bui, T.L.H. & Perez, G.S.A. (2010). "Destination branding: the comparative case study of

Guam and Vietnam", Journal of International Business Research, vol. 9, no. Sl. 2, pp. 95

Building a strong brand for Vietnamese tourism. (2014). Nhan dan online. [Online].

Available from http://en.nhandan.org.vn/travel/item/2328502-building-a-strong-brand-for-

vietnamese-tourism.html. [Accessed: 2nd Aug 2014]

Cai, L. A., Gartner, W. C., & Munar, A. M. (2009). Tourism branding: Communities in action

bridging tourism theory and practice v. 1. GB: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.

Clancy, M. (2011). Re-presenting Ireland: tourism, branding and national identity in Ireland,

Journal of International Relations and Development, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 281-308.

Country Brand Ranking. (2013). Bloom Consulting. [Online]. Available from http://bloom-

consulting.com/sites/default/files/files/Bloom_Consulting_Country_Brand_Ranking_Tourism

_2013.pdf. [Accessed: 18th Aug 2014].

Country Presentation:Vietnam Tourism Master Plan to 2020. (2012). 6th UNWTO Asia-

Pacific Executive Training on Tourism Policy and Strategy. [Online]. Available from

http://asiapacific.unwto.org/sites/all/files/pdf/vietnam_1.pdf. [Accessed: 14th Aug 2014]

Gartner, W. C. (2014). Brand equity in a tourism destination. Place Branding and Public

Diplomacy,10(2),108.[Online].doi:10.1057/pb.2014.6.Availablefrom

http://jcu.summon.serialssolutions.com/?utm_source=Homepagelink&utm_medium=webpag

e&utm_campaign=OneSearch#!/search?ho=t&utm_source=Homepagelink&utm_medium=w

ebpage&utm_campaign=OneSearch&q=tourism%20brand&l=en. [Accessed: 15th Aug 2014]

Hakimipour, A., & Bozorgkho, H. (2012). An empirical study to find important factors on

building national brand: An iranian tourism case study. Management Science Letters, 2(8),

3073-3080.

HO CHI MINH CITY NAMES VIETNAM'S BEST TOURISM BRANDS. (2011). Asia

Pulse. [Online]. Available from

http://search.proquest.com/docview/862026144?accountid=16285. [Accessed: 2nd Aug 2014]

http://en.nhandan.org.vn/travel/item/2328502-building-a-strong-brand-for-vietnamese-tourism.html

http://en.nhandan.org.vn/travel/item/2328502-building-a-strong-brand-for-vietnamese-tourism.html

http://asiapacific.unwto.org/sites/all/files/pdf/vietnam_1.pdf

http://jcu.summon.serialssolutions.com/?utm_source=Homepagelink&utm_medium=webpage&utm_campaign=OneSearch#!/search?ho=t&utm_source=Homepagelink&utm_medium=webpage&utm_campaign=OneSearch&q=tourism%20brand&l=en



http://search.proquest.com/docview/862026144?accountid=16285





Lorenzini, E., Calzati, V., & Giudici, P. (2011). Territorial brands for tourism development.

Annals of Tourism Research, 38(2), 540-560. [Online]. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2010.10.008.

[Online]. Available from

http://jcu.summon.serialssolutions.com/?utm_source=Homepagelink&utm_medium=webpag

e&utm_campaign=OneSearch#!/search?ho=t&utm_source=Homepagelink&utm_medium=w

ebpage&utm_campaign=OneSearch&q=tourism%20brand&l=en. [Accessed: 10th Aug 2014]

PRESS RELEASE : Professionalising Tourism Marketing. (2012). [Online]. Available from

http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/vietnam/documents/press_corner/2013/20130530_en.pdf.

[Accessed: 18th Aug 2014]

Rungo, L. (2011). Destination Branding. Aarhus University: Business and Social Sciences.

[Online]. Available from http://pure.au.dk/portal/files/40642147/Appendices_Final.pdf.


Semone, P., & Kozak, M. (2011). Towards a mekong tourism brand. Asia Pacific Journal of

Tourism Research, 1-20. doi:10.1080/10941665.2011.635663

Semone, P., & Kozak, M. (2011). Towards a mekong tourism brand. Asia Pacific Journal of

Tourism Research, 1-20. doi:10.1080/10941665.2011.635663

Strategy on Viet Nam’s tourism development until 2020, vision to 2030. (2011). Government

portal. [Online]. Available from

http://www.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/English/strategies/strategiesdetails?categoryId=30

&articleId=10051267. [Accessed: 2nd Aug 2014]

Suggestions made for Vietnamese tourism branding based on cuisine. (2014). nhandan.org.

[Online]. Available from http://en.nhandan.org.vn/travel/gastronomy/item/2370402-

suggestions-made-for-vietnamese-tourism-branding-based-on-cuisine.html. [Accessed: 12th

Aug 2014]

Tourism bureau launches new Taiwan tourism brand. (2011). Business Wire.

[Online]. Available from http://search.proquest.com/docview/851600803?accountid=16285.


VIETNAM NOW BOASTS TIMELESS CHARM AS NEW SLOGAN. (n.d). Vietnam

Travel and Living guide. [Online]. Available from

http://www.vietnamonline.com/news/vietnam-now-boasts-timeless-charm-as-new-

slogan.html. [Accessed: 18th Aug 2014]

Vietnam plans to develop strong tourism brands (n.d). Vietnamtourism. [Online]. Available

from http://www.vietnamtourism.com.vn/news/vn/detail/150/20995/. [Accessed: 18th Aug

2014]

http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/vietnam/documents/press_corner/2013/20130530_en.pdf

http://pure.au.dk/portal/files/40642147/Appendices_Final.pdf

http://search.proquest.com/docview/851600803?accountid=16285





Vietnam Slogan and logo for tourism. (n.d). Danang Department of Culture, Sport and

Tourism. [Online]. Available from http://ttxtdldn.toancauxanh.vn/eng/the-gioi-logo/thiet-ke-

logo-va-slogan-du-lich-viet-nam-qua-cac-thoi-ky.html. [Accessed: 14th Aug 2014]

Vietnam Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2020 and Action Plan 2013 – 2015 (Proposed)

(n.d). European Union funded Environmentally & Socially Responsible Tourism (ESRT)

Capacity Development Programme. [Online]. Available from

http://esrt.vn/data/filedownload/file/FileDownload24.pdf. [Accessed: 10th Aug 2014]

VN to develop tourism brand. (2013). Vietnam national administration of tourism. [Online].

Available from http://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/english/index.php/items/5583. [Accessed: 12th

Aug 2014]

Workshop on Vietnam Tourism Marketing and Tourism Branding. (2012). Vietnam national

Administration of tourism. [Online]. Available from

http://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/english/index.php/items/4993. [Accessed: 12th Aug 2014]

http://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/english/index.php/items/5583

http://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/english/index.php/items/4993

Documents

Vietnam's Tourism Branding