Subject: Destination Marketing - Faculty of Management and Tourism, Hanoi University

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HANOI UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Management and Tourism
Destination Marketing
Topic: Promotion plan for Hue tourism
(Word count: 2,038 words, excluding Table of contents & References)
Teacher: Mrs. Ngo Phuong Dzung
Students: Mai Duc Ha 0506090022
Vu Hong Hanh 0506090024
Cong Manh Duc 0506090018
Nguyen Thi Hai Yen 0506090079
Bui Thi Thoa 0506090066
Mai Thi Anh Tuyet 0506090069
December 2008

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................1
1. Overview...............................................................................................................................................1
2. Branding................................................................................................................................................1
3. Objectives and target.............................................................................................................................2
4. Promotion tool ......................................................................................................................................2
II. DETAILED PLAN……………………………………………………………………………2
1. Communication tool……………………………………………………………………………2
2. Plan of message....................................................................................................................................3
3. Explanation of the website design ......................................................................................................4
4. Plan of launching ................................................................................................................................5
5. Kinds of other promotional activities to support or integrate with material........................................5
6. Plan for evaluation of effectiveness ....................................................................................................6
III. DETAILED COST..........................................................................................................................7
IV. CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
V. REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................II

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I. INTRODUCTION
I.1.Overview
Located in the central region of Vietnam, Hue city (part of Thua Thien Hue province) stands out
as an ancient capital city with many originally historical vestiges. So far, Hue has been twice
designated as the World heritage site by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization). Indeed, Hue is the destination where visitors, either domestic or
international, can immerse themselves in Vietnamese culture.
I.2. Branding
Logo: yellow background reminds tourists of the ancient capital city (yellow symbolizes the
king), Hue is stylized in red, white symbol is UNESCO’s one.
Slogan: “Immerse yourself in Vietnamese culture”
I.3. Objectives and target
Hue tourism aims to target tourists who are interested in exploring traditional culture of Vietnam
as well as enjoying beautiful landscape of Hue, specifically, foreigners from developed countries.
This report has been prepared to produce a promotional plan for Hue city. The plan aims to
market Hue:
- To become one of the top three destinations in Vietnam
- Build the image of Hue as a cultural city with beautiful nature, thriving arts and beyond under
the brand “Immerse yourself in Vietnamese culture”.
-In term of quantitative, after two years launching the website, the number of tourists coming
Hue increases 30%.
More specifically, this plan intends to persuade visitors to regard Hue as a cultural city with
particular traditions such as traditional folk songs for royal family (Nha nhac cung dinh), cuisine,
traditional arts and other cultural features.

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I.4. Promotion tool
In order to promote Hue, the Internet is the first choice for a number of good reasons that will be
presented as below. Indeed, Internet marketing has clearly taken a powerful role in tourism and
destination marketing strategies. With regard to the case of Hue, a website is created
(www.huetravelguide.vn) and it is expected that it will continue to play an important and
dynamic role as technology capabilities and user access expands together with the development
of the Internet.
The report begins with discussing the communication tool, i.e. Internet marketing and website. It
then shifts to analyzing the website design such as information choice, graphics, etc. which is
consistent with the promotional purpose. After that, the plan of launching the website including
media choice, time frame, etc. is presented. Other promotional activities and evaluation of
effectiveness are following parts. Detail costs are also presented. In addition, some appendixes
are included at the end of this report.
II. DETAILED PLAN
II. 1. Communication tool
Tourism destinations are fast developing and increasingly being promoted in the global
marketplace. That’s why an efficient and effective promotion strategy for destination marketing
is crucially important.
In the context of Hue city, Internet marketing with many advantages that outweigh disadvantages
is selected. It is the tool of turning a Website into a powerful medium to promote Hue as a
favourite destination in the eyes of visitors.
Advantage of Internet Marketing
Hue does have some website like www.thuathienhue.gov.vn, www.hue.gov.vn and
www.hue.vnn.vn, which are mainly used to update news, provide information… in Vietnamese
and English. However, travel guide is little in English, so foreigners find it hard to get
information they need about Hue. Even when domestic visitors log in these websites to read

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articles, information is not frequently updated. For this reason, designing website for advertising
Hue image in Vietnamese and foreign languages seems to be good way. Next, Website is open,
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For this reason, visitors are worldwide in reach. In addition,
travelers can leave their comments and suggestions easier and faster than other methods like
brochure or leafs. Lastly, updating your customers can be done almost instantly through email.
Visitors to your website can get up to the minute information on each visit.
Disadvantages of Internet Marketing
First of all, online marketing is not free. The cost of software, hardware, website design,
maintenance of your site, online distribution costs and of course, time, all must be factored into
the cost of providing the service or product. Secondly, there are a lot of competitions already out
there. By the time visitors finds Hue website, they have already been clicking many links. Unless
they can find what they are looking for quickly, they are gone. Finally, a connection to the web is
needed to access the information, which will be impossible if a computer and connection is not
available.
In short, everything has two sides; however, each of the disadvantages can be overcome, the
most important that reliability of website should be built. In consideration of pro and cons,
website seems to be attractive way to promote Hue as world heritage site
II.2. Plan of message
Domestic and foreigners, who interested in exploring traditional culture of Vietnam culture as
well as Hue culture, are our target customers. The first two month in 2008, Hue welcomes more
than 20,000 tourists, increasing 24% in comparison with the same period last year, among these,
there are 124,400 international tourists.
With the purpose of achieving foreigners, website seems to be suitable communication ting the
destination to the international tourism market because of following reasons:
• Firstly, there is not official website for Hue Tourism to advertise for international market.
Therefore, one more website will help to give tourists, especially, visitors can have close look
destination.

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• Secondly, because of foreign viewers, internet is very popular and convenient for
searching and finding out information, for this reason, website is the best choice to approach
overseas tourists.
• Last but not least, website seems to be the first taste for customers, if first taste is
“delicious”, next steps are going to occur. Understanding the important this, the website is
designed actual arrival, interesting and attractive pictures and video clips are available. More
important, some travels tips and capsules help foreigners more easily adaptable the difference of
weather and culture as well, which can avoid culture shock for travelers.
In harmony with the target and objectives of Hue promotion campaign, websites is created in a
way that truly reflects culture of Vietnam, especially Hue, capital culture.
II. 3. Explanation of the website design
The website’s homepage is intended to make good impressions on visitors. Hue is part of
Vietnam tourism industry and is under the common theme of the whole country. So, the logo-
slogan named “Vietnam - The hidden charm” is placed on the homepage of this website. Below
that is the logo of Hue which is highlighted by yellow (the color of kings) and the logo of
UNESCO. This is intended to remind everyone that Hue has been twice designated as the
UNESCO heritage sites in terms of culture.
Colour plays an important role in creating good impressions on visitors. In this context, red is
chosen as the main background colour due to the underlying assumption that red symbolizes
power, energy and passion that remind any website visitors of a royal ancient capital. Moreover,
it can be seen easily that red is very eye-catching. It is this colour that contributes to the success
of Coca-Cola.
Hue has so far become a favourite destination for both domestic and international tourists. So,
the website is displayed by English- the most widely used language in the world. French is also
added due to the fact that this is ranked one of the international languages and the number of
tourists from France has been increasing rapidly over time.

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Information page aims to provide tourist with useful and reliable guide to Hue tourism.
Information in this page ranges from brief introduction, recommended hotels, and restaurants to
tours in Hue. Links to other destinations in Vietnam such as Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, Phong Nha
Ke Bang, etc. are also added.
With regard to the interactivity, this website features “Testimonials”, “Feedback” as well as
“FAQs” (frequently asked questions) sections, in which visitors are warmly welcomed to post
their comments and receive response from the website admin.
II. 4. Plan of launching
When the website is put into operation, a press conference is organized and tourism officials,
reporters will be invited. The press conference aims to announce the public about the arrival of
the website. Next, about 10 PR articles or press releases about the inauguration of the website
will be posted onto some online and print English newspapers and magazines such as Travel
Guide, Vietnam tourism review, Lonely Planet, etc.
Next, link exchange with other websites will be carried out. It means links to these websites will
appear on www.huetravelguide.vn and vice versa.
Advertising service offered by Google named OTR Power will also be used. When Internet users
search for information about Hue, www.huetravelguide.vn will be on the top search list.
II. 5. Kinds of other promotional activities to support or integrate with material
Like other forms of media and communications, Internet marketing must be integrated with other
promotional activities to capture the greatest potential benefits. The purpose of the strategy is to
generate and maintain traffic to the Hue website (www.huetravelguide.vn), to provide trip
planning information to potential tourists, tour operators and other travel influences in our key
target audiences, and to establish ongoing relationships with these users to increase visitation to
Hue.

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Video clip is rather effective way to get attention. The video clip should be posted in famous
tourism website or in some television channels like Discovery, following with the address of our
website. When having awareness of Hue image, and they might go to website for further
information. Youtube is a website for free upload. So, the video clip will be posted onto Youtube,
and link will be pasted on Youtube as well.
Besides, in tourism exhibitions and annual Hue festivals, brochures, leaflets, handbooks, etc in
which the website’s name (www.huetravelguide.vn) is printed are prepared to given free to
visitors together with poster hung on the kiosk. Besides, Internet access will be provided to
participants to enhance the awareness of the website. By taking part in such activities, image of
Hue as well as its website is spread to a larger number of people.
II. 6. Plan for evaluation of effectiveness
Google Analytics is also a good tool for website administrator to manage the website. It provides
rich insights into your website traffic with Advanced Segmentation, Custom Reporting, Motion
Charts, and more. In short, the web admin can learn more about where the visitors come from
and how they interact with the website. This software is offered free but with limited services.
For further use of this software, purchase decision will be taken into consideration after six-
month use.
Another way to measure the effectiveness of using a website is to look at the number of online
questionnaire respondents.
The website is applied the new software, Web CEO 4.2 (WCEO), which helps evaluate exactly,
the numbers of viewers who participate in website, where they come from, the length of time,
which information they concern. Through this method, customers
During annual Hue festivals, one question “How do you know about the festival” will be asked.
If many visitors tick on “Via Hue’s website”, it means the website is operating effectively.

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III. DETAILED COSTS
Costs spent on promoting Hue tourism are estimated as below:
No Name Cost (USD) Description Note
1 Domain(.vn) $ 50 www.websitetittle.vn One paid
2 Hosting $ 150 Employ the space on
the Internet
One year
3 Website design (flash
effects)
$ 450 Design cost One paid
4 Website maintenance free Maintenance cost Within first 2
years
5 Language format $ 50 English, French $ 50 / language
6 Domestic advertising $ 5,000 PR articles/ banner
on tourism websites
Within first 5
months
7 International advertising $ 2,000 - OTR Power of
Google advertising
service
- Lonely Planet
5 months
8 Labour cost $500 2 employees are in
charge of updating
news, replying
feedback
monthly
9 Other costs $ 1,000 Costs may arise
during the launch of
website
Total costs $ 9, 200

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IV. Conclusion
Hue, cultural capital, is really attractive destination for both international and domestic tourists in
term of culture and landscape. Crafting website to promote this destination is considered the
most effective promotional tools in all senses. The detailed projected above, it can be believed
that the website has great contribution on achieving the goals and objectives of making Hue one
of the top three destination in Vietnam.

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References
1. http://www.vietnamtourism.com/Hue/
2. www.thuathienhue.gov.vn
3. www.hue.gov.vn
4. www.hue.vnn.vn,
5. Google Analytics: http://www.google.com/analytics/