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Vietnam to triple tourism ad spend as poor marketing blamed on low visitor numbers

Vietnam tourism hotspot Ninh Binh

Vietnam tourism hotspot Ninh Binh

The Vietnam government is to triple spend on tourism marketing in response to disappointing visitor numbers compared to rival destinations in Southeast Asia.

According to reports in the local press, Vietnam plans to spend US$5.24m on tourism marketing to raise international tourism visits to 15m by 2020, up from 4.7m this year.

Poor marketing was highlighted as one of the reasons tourism numbers have been low, along with inferior service quality and a lack of tourism packages, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien was quoted as saying.

Vietnam, with its ‘Timeless charm’ slogan, lacks a strong tourism marketing platform to rival ‘Malaysia, Truly Asia’, ‘Amazing Thailand’ or ‘It’s more fun in the Philippines’, and advertising spend also trails most of its regional competitors.

Singapore, which receives around double the number of tourists as Vietnam every year, spent US$20m on its huge SG50 campaign to mark its 50th year since independence.

From 2011-15 Vietnam’s tourism industry grew by an average of 7% a year, while Singapore’s grew by 10% and Thailand’s by 12%.

An editorial written by an expat suggested that Vietnam is simply not serious about sustainable, long-term tourism as Thailand is, despite having arguably a superior offering.

Tim Russell, who has lived in both countries, suggested that the main reason for Vietnam’s tourism industry is: “Because tourists are not made to feel welcome and are treated as a one-off opportunity to make money.”

He cited frequent scamming of tourists including at airports, haphazard development, and insufficient market research into what tourists want as other reasons for low tourism numbers in Vietnam in the article in TN News.

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