Published:  23:39 Sunday - March 03, 2013

An international team of specialists will arrive in Vietnam on July 11 to help the country update the marketing strategy it currently uses for tourism and also to draw up plans for future tourism promotions.

The move is part of an EU-funded development programme to promote ‘Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism’ (ESRT).

Vietnam’s tourism officials and the specialists will help tourist companies, hotels and travel associations, tourism working groups and tour operators to gather the necessary information.

They will study the marketing strategy formulated by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation and compile and analyse data from its research on seven key market areas.

Before they leave, the team will update and adapt the country’s tourism marketingstrategy and put together plans for the 2013-2015 period. They will analyse the actual situation in the domestic and overseas tourist markets, tourism products, infrastructure, competitiveness and global trends in tourism.

After having evaluated the strong and weak points, the opportunities, challenges and strategic objectives, they will be able to make recommendations for change, to minimise the challenges and maximize the opportunities.

The Vietnam General Department of Tourism’s new slogan for the tourism industry, ‘Vietnam -the timeless charm’, will also be used for the ESRT project to support national tourism promotions in the 2012-2015 term.

The department and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism have recognised the important role trade promotions play in developing the country’s tourism industry and making it more competitive in the global tourism market.

The immediate move Vietnam’s tourism industry must take is to use the new slogan and promote the country’s tourism image overseas.

Some of Vietnam’s trade promotions have been spotlighted, such as the Tourism Fair in London, England in November 2012 and the International Tourism Fair (ITB) in Berlin, Germany in March 2013.

Reports from Vietnam’s General Department of Tourism show that even though most domestic industries are still facing difficulties, tourism has still been growing healthily over the last six months.

This can be evidenced by the 3.36 million overseas arrivals, the 17.5 million domestic visitors and a revenue of VND70 trillion by the end of June.

(VNA)