By Trung Châu. From The Saigon Times – Thời báo kinh tế Sài Gòn, vol 28-2009 (968), issued on July 02, 2009, pp.28-29
You can find the online mag here: http://www.thesaigontimes.vn/epaper/TB-KTSG/377/25470/28/
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Alright, haven’t written anything for a long time. May the hustle bustle air of working life has penetrated my lung, preventing the oxygen to enter some blood cell and traveling to add energy for this crazy brain hoho…
I’m no scholar (tự bít ók cá mừh), so this is (not) a stupidity-show-off (hoho) Plus, there must be many things I don’t know behind the scenes and the circumstances. Anyway, just some thinking after reading the article. Un-arranged and non-censored hahaha
Oki doki, let’s keep the long story short! Vietnam Bureau of Tourism – BoT- (something like that, I don’t know the political terms thingie) is running an advertisement of national tourism on BBC starting June 11, 2009 – a campaign which costs $204K (source: http://www.vietnewsonline.vn/News/Lifestyle/Entertainment/6355/BBC-airs-Vietnam-tourism-ad-worldwide.htm) . The article has 2 parts:
1. (tourism) business people are hesitated:: Some people thought the scale of this campaign is too small as for national one. Other thought it’s such a waste in this sensitive period (crisis and A flu). The baits (sale off campaign…) are not “sexy” enough. And, last but not least, the tourism industry (infrastructure, service…) itself is not ready in quality to serve.
2. tourism department says “dun worry”:: A personnel from Bureau of Tourism answered: yes, the campaign is small but VN is poor so we have to spend with the available. According the Mr. Binh, even though it is too difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of this campaign but in certain aspect, obviously it brings possitive consequences. (I translate word-by-word this sentence esp’ly) Plus, the ad in late 2007 brought in more tourist in early 2008, only from the haft end of 2008 and 2009, the figure droped due to A flu >> so it’s the best time to boost up the spirit and this year budget will be MUCH higher than the budget $300K of 2007 with broader spread, ie. on BBC, ESPN, Star Sports… On top of that, BBC is chosen because it offered 40% off compared to normal price (!!!) Beside BBC, the project with Star Sports is also on the way, project with CNN is waiting for cheaper price (than the 1st one in 2007). And some smaller jobs to promote VN. …
Now, first I agree with most points in first part, especially that this is not a very good time to advertise about tourism and the quality of tourism too SUCKS to serve .
With the economic crisis, luxury expenditure is dropping tremendously. In term of money, we won’t expect to raise much even with a large amount of tourists flood in. And with the A flu, do we really want to have a bunch of “potential virus vessels” to enter this country with so much difficulty to control (all the first patients were from overseas and it’s hell to keep track, u can track back the articles along this threat on news). So, shouldn’t BoT take B. of Economy and Health care to cafe and get some discuss a bit more?
With the current state of VN tourism, when you walk out and receive the so-called “service” and the so-called “hidden charm – but never appear”, you just wanna … OMG! I myself in love with the landscape of this nation. I always wanna go around but I wanna poke if there is “tourist service” around – nothing but annoyance and a thread to be throat-slitted >_< On top of that, I don’t think it’s very safe here for walking around. Moreover, accommodation, hygiene, transportation, and air pollution give more to concern.
However, I don’t think the budget of $204K is very small for an ad (and don’t forget they said the budget is MUCH higher). For me, I think “how much” is not a point to attack but “how they do it” is more important, ie. who is the target? what to offer? where to show? and when is the time?
Vietnam has not yet to set up a national tourism trademark. Even the current slogan “Vietnam-The Hidden Charm” is not powerful enough to attract visitors.
Professor, Doctor L K Jago, director of the research centre of tourism and hotel of the Victoria University in Australia held that such a slogan is not clear and transparent so it would fail to attract international visitors.
He took the example of other countries with more attractive slogan such as “Malaysia – Truly Asia” , “Uniquely Singapore” or “Incredible India”.
Ms Ton Nu Thi Ninh, former vice chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Committee for External Affairs, shared the same view with Doctor Jago “the current slogan of tourism sector is not a clear message and doesn’t feature Vietnamese characteristics.
Images using for advertising the land and people of Vietnam is not impressive while souvenirs selling at shops are not unique.
It’s reported that the sector will spend around VND 16 billion (US $ 1milllion) in late months of the year on advertising tourism on international media. This is not the first time the sector has spent such an amount for the advertisement. However, the amount is unable to ensure the efficiency of advertisement.
Last October the image of Vietnam was broadcast on CNN for three months with a 30 second long clip. This cost US $30,000. (a small note: it should be $300K). However, it did not bring a high result as Vietnam’s potential tourists from the Republic of Korea, Japan and China did not see this English channel. While European audiences could not access the information as the it was broadcast on CNN for Asia.
(source: Do H., Vietnam tourism is lack of advertising and marketing, Luxury Travel Blog, posted on: http://luxurytravelvietnam.com/blog/?p=620Aug 20, 2008.)
Who is the target? _ let’s solve the first problems, “who do we want to come to this country and become our lords (thuo.ng de^’)? who can be the potential customers and those bring in t he most profit materially and non-materially?”. We have to be clear which class we serve? Dubai attracts all the richest people in the world. Vung Tau gathers thousands of foreigners who help litter to the sea as they stay. Not to be discriminated but the type of people we attract here depends on the way we present ourselves & act (just like a person).
Who we aim at and what to seduce, impress them? Is the message we try to make is clear to the right target? Experience is not one-size-fits-all.
For that, we think of what to offer _ Ho Chi Minh city used to attract many Japanese and Korean young tourists (who well-known for shopping in style) but they are leaving. Why? because we don’t offer what they wanna enjoy here. These days I see mostly Chinese elderly. (and more, I know from my J-K friends they know about VN via the local shows, not for the efforts of VN BoT)
An interview to Mr. Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh
Q : It is a fact that the number of foreign visitors returning to Vietnam is very modest. What are solutions for this problem? _ A:According to our statistics, more than 30% of international visitors plan to return to Vietnam.
(source: Advertising Campaign Needs for VN Travel, VietnamTimes, posted on http://www.footprintsvietnam.com/Travel_News/August07/AdvertisingCampaign-VietnamTravel.htm, Aug 20, 2007)
More than 30%? which means nearly 70% never wanna come back again (real figure must be even less since statistic is… !!!). Didn’t he gets too (dangerously) optimistic about the situation? If you have shopped in Seoul, will you wanna come back? If you have travel to LA, don’t you wish to be there again?
What have we got?
So I will skip the last 2 questions when and where to go straight back to the most fundamental of why they choose to make an int’l ad campaign now?
First, They say it’s too difficult to evaluation the effectiveness>> how can you spend so much money and say you can’t pre-cal the effects? and certain aspects >> what aspects? personally I never am satisfied with such answer coming from my sub-ordinates or co-workers, let alone my boss.
Second, we all know “tề gia, trị quốc, bình thiên hạ”, sounds so big, but applying to this case, it simply means “we have to start with the recognition from within, then spread to outside”. The Vietnamese people are not aware of the foreign ad of BoT. The VNese are not educated about their own country’s beauty.The VNese don’t have the pride of “our values”. Why searching for an ambassador of the tourism to run around screaming in timid voice “hey, oi, look at me!”? Why not turn each person of this 80 mil, and hundred thousands spreading around the world, into an ambassador?
Like what happened with Ha Long Bay last time. How much have the gov let people know about the event?My friends and I thought it was a joke when we saw an ugly-cheap-looking-red-banner hanging in front of the entrance of one cave in Ha Long said: “Let vote for Ha Long Bay in World Wonders” (sth like that). We confirm it at night when we got back to Hanoi and check on world wonders website for the info o___O (it was 2007 spring btw).
And for the message “hidden charm”. Do we have a national ad for it, to show for the very VNese first?
When & where? $200K will be more than enough to create a nice national ad and show on VTV, VTV4 for the whole year =P
Just the last point before I get to sleep. Get back to the part I highlighted in article above. Don’t tell me they do ad on BBC just because the price is down!?!! O___o
(1) As other people wrote above, our main source of tourist come from E.Asia .(2) Don’t they know “I’m giving u a special price, never before” is almost the learn by heart line of every sale people T__T and (3) I wish they would spend some time to search in modern marketing books. There are plenty of cheap-and -effective marketing solutions, online & offline, more than TVC (eg. website ad, informative website, m-to-m, etc. or make a movie like Ongbak hahahah).
Ok, I planned to write for 30 mins and it’s been 2h T__T gotta sleep or I’ll sleep in office tmrw kk.
If you have any idea, a different idea to argue or discuss, shout it loud! ^_~ welcome! (cuz i still hav much more to say hahahaha 8 hok chịu đuợc =P)
Filed under: @sEE@rEAd@thInk | Tagged: marketing, tourism vietnam critics reading
