University Graduation Thesis

HANOI UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Management and Tourism
* * *
VIETNAM’s TOURISM BRAND
Submitted by
MAI DUC HA
Student ID: 0506090022
A thesis submitted as a requirement for the degree of
Bachelor of Tourism Management
Hanoi, December 2009

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Mai Duc Ha – TR05 Page 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of contents................................................................................................... i
List of figures ........................................................................................................iii
Statement of authorship .......................................................................................iv
Acknowledgement ................................................................................................ v
Abstract ...............................................................................................................vii
I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................... 1
I. 1. Background.............................................................................................. 1
I. 2. Overview of the research problem ........................................................... 2
I. 3. Attempts to solve the research problem .................................................. 3
I. 4. Overview of the thesis.............................................................................. 3
II. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE........................................................................... 5
II. 1. Rationale................................................................................................. 5
II. 2. Contributions of the research .................................................................. 5
III. LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................... 7
III. 1. The concept of branding......................................................................... 7
III. 2. Importance of destination branding........................................................ 9
III. 3. Brand building process......................................................................... 11
III. 4. Challenges of destination branding...................................................... 14
IV. RESEARCH METHOD.................................................................................. 16
IV. 1. Research objectives............................................................................. 16
IV. 2. Research questions ............................................................................. 16
IV. 3. Research design.................................................................................. 16
IV. 4. Data collection method ........................................................................ 17
IV. 5. Research data analysis........................................................................ 21
IV. 6. Ethical issues....................................................................................... 22
V. RESEARCH FINDINGS................................................................................. 24
V.1. Importance of destination branding to Vietnam tourism....................... 24
V. 2. History of Vietnam tourism brand .......................................................... 28
V. 2. 1. Before 2000 ...................................................................................... 28

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V. 2. 2. From 2000 to 2005............................................................................ 28
V. 3. Current situation of Vietnam tourism brand.......................................... 33
V. 3. 1. Market research & brand identity development................................. 34
V. 3. 2. Brand launch and introduction .......................................................... 37
V. 3. 3. Brand implementation....................................................................... 38
V. 3. 4. Challenges of destination branding in Vietnam................................. 46
V. 4. Foreign tourists’ perceptions about “Vietnam- the hidden charm”..... 50
VI. IMPLICATIONS OF FINDINGS .................................................................... 57
VI. 1. Implications for policy makers.............................................................. 57
VI. 2. Implications for tourism enterprises & others....................................... 58
VII. CONCLUSION............................................................................................. 60
VII. 1. Summary ............................................................................................ 60
VII. 2. Limitations........................................................................................... 60
VII. 3. Future research opportunities............................................................. 61
Reference .......................................................................................................... 63
Appendix ........................................................................................................... 71
Questionnaire................................................................................................ 71
Questionnaire results .................................................................................... 72
Interview script 1 ........................................................................................... 73
Interview script 2 ........................................................................................... 78

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Origin of tourists .................................................................................. 50
Figure 2. Brand awareness................................................................................. 50
Figure 3. The opinions of foreign tourists about the slogan................................ 52
Figure 4. Time of brand awareness.................................................................... 53
Figure 5. The influence of the slogan on tourists’ decision to Vietnam............... 53
Figure 6. Overseas promotion ............................................................................ 54
Figure 7. Domestic promotion............................................................................. 55

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
"Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no
material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis or any
other degree or diploma.
No other person's work has been used without due acknowledgment in the main
text of the thesis.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any
other tertiary institution."
Student’s signature
Mai Duc Ha
7th
December 2009

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing this thesis has been indeed a long journey, during which the research
was at times seemingly unattainable. Now, when I reach a completed result, I
have a chance to express my deepest gratitude to all people who have
encouraged and guided me throughout the past months. Without their generous
support, I would not have completed this thesis.
First and foremost, I would like to thank all of my teachers at the Faculty of
Management and Tourism who delivered valuable lectures and tutorials to me in
the past four years. I have gained a lot of priceless knowledge and experience in
this supportive learning environment. My special thanks should go to Ms. Ngo
Phuong Dung, who is my supervisor. She has been always by my side and
supported me whenever I was in need. Thank you for your patience, and for your
belief in me and my work!
Secondly, I am grateful to Mr. Nguyen Duc Hoa Cuong, who delivered a very
useful lecture on research method at the beginning stage of my research process.
His lecture indeed helped me understand basic elements of a graduation thesis.
Moreover, I am indebted to Ms. Pham Le Thao and Mr. Le Tuan Anh, who are
both my visiting lecturers and research interviewees. Their in-depth knowledge
on the tourism industry is an invaluable asset to my thesis.Thanks to them, I
gradually gained a good understaning about the past and current situation of
tourism brand building in Vietnam.
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to family, friends and relatives for
always supporting me! The love and encouragement of you is so great for me. I
want to send thousands of thanks to my dear friends: Dang Minh Hoang, Dinh
Hieu Minh and Dao Thanh Huyen, who helped me to deliver a large number of
questionnaires to foreign tourists. It is so kind of you all!

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Besides, I must not forget to say “Thank you” to all foreign and Vietnamese
writers whose books and online articles are great reference resources for my
thesis.
Last but not least, I am so grateful to all foreign tourists who joined in my
questionnaire survey. My research would not be completed without their
cooperation.
Once again, many thanks indeed to you all for your kind help!

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ABSTRACT
Destination branding is one of powerful marketing tools of destination marketing
organizations (DMOs). It brings many benefits to the destination. For instance, it
helps to differentiate one destination from others. In the case of Vietnam tourism,
branding is rather a new term as the industry has just mentioned about it over the
past ten years.
This research aims to present basic concepts of destination branding and related
issues such as brand building process and its challenges in the literature review.
The importance of branding is also mentioned. More importantly, the research
provides its readers with an insight into the case of Vietnam tourism brand from
its start until now plus challenges of destination branding in the case of Vietnam
tourism. Besides, it explores foreign tourists’ perceptions about “Vietnam – the
hidden charm”, the current slogan of the tourism industry. Then, several
implications of findings for policy makers and tourism enterprises are presented.
Although every effort has been made to depict a complete picture of branding
issues in Vietnam tourism, limitations are still unavoidable. Besides, because this
is the very first research on Vietnam tourism brand, many opportunities are open
for future studies under the same theme.

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I. INTRODUCTION
I. 1. Background
Tourism is now considered one of the most important sectors in the Vietnamese
economy and an efficient tool for employment generation, foreign exchange,
cultural link between Vietnam and other nations, etc. In general, the expansion of
tourism is beneficial to the country in many aspects. Understanding the critical
role of tourism, the Government has created a favorable environment for the
development of the tourism industry.
According to the Government web portal, Vietnamese became a member of the
World Tourism Organization (WTO) in 1981 and the Pacific Asia Tourism
Association (PATA) in 1989. Furthermore, many policies have been implemented
with the aim to make tourism become a key economic sector. Quantity and
quality of tourism products in recent years have been considerably improved to
meet the ever-increasing demand of both domestic and international visitors.
Vietnam is more well-known in the world as a very safe and secure country with
beautiful mountains, a long sea coast, a multi-ethnic culture and hospitable
people. On 6th
December 2007, the country was very pleased to welcome the 4th
million tourist (Linh, 2009).
So far tourism marketing campaigns have been carried out with the aim to
enhance the country’s image and position in the eyes of international friends,
including branding activities for the tourism industry. In 1999, the industry created
a slogan named “Vietnam – the destination for a new millennium” accompanied
by the picture of a smiling girl to welcome the world to Vietnam as the new
millennium approached. Four years later in 2004, the above slogan was replaced
by “Welcome to Vietnam”. These two slogans somehow promoted the image of
the whole industry and Vietnam to the world. Recently, the National Action Plan
on Tourism for the period of 2006 – 2010 has been implemented by Vietnam

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National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) to enhance the competitiveness of
Vietnam tourism industry with a new positioning slogan and logo. Eventually,
“Vietnam – The hidden charm” which is the work created by Dat Viet advertising
company was selected as the new official logo and slogan for the 2006-2010
period.
I. 2. Overview of the research problem
In recent years, Vietnam tourism has made substantial efforts in promoting its
image in the global marketplace like becoming an official member of international
tourism organizations (UNWTO and PATA), advertising the country on world
famous channels and so forth. However, the tourism industry of Vietnam still lags
behind its neighboring countries. The image of Vietnam is not strong enough to
draw attention of international tourists.
There are many reasons for this issue such as poor infrastructure, lack of
qualified human resources, limited budget, inflexible mechanism, etc. Besides,
the tourism industry lacks professional marketing plans. When it comes to
marketing Vietnam as a tourist destination, branding the whole industry plays a
key role. The core elements of a tourism branding campaign are a positioning
slogan and a accompanying logo (Tuan, 2009).
Over the past ten years, the tourism industry has launched several positioning
slogans and logos (as mentioned in the introduction section). In fact, there have
been many comments on them as well as related promotion activities. However,
the comments are not the results of a particular research. Until now, there has
not been an official report on Vietnam tourism brand. Therefore, this research,
which is a very first academic study on this issue, aims to present an insight into
the topic of destination branding in Vietnam.

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I. 3. Attempts to solve the research problem
This research is based on an objective view and aims at finding answers to the
above research problem. A number of questions are raised as below:
1. Why does the Vietnam tourism industry need to be branded?
2. How has the industry been branded?
3. How do foreign tourists perceive about the logo - slogan “Vietnam – The
hidden charm”?
I. 4. Overview of the thesis
The contents of the thesis are presented as follows:
1. Introduction
The beginning part of the thesis provides background and overview of
research problems. Research questions to the problems are also mentioned
in this part.
2. Research significance
Firstly rationale for topic selection is stated. Then the research’s contributions
to the country, industry and academic studies will be explained.
3. Literature review
An overview of existing literature on the research topic is explained in this
section. This section is considered the theoretical background for the whole
thesis.
4. Research method
This section begins with research objectives and research questions. It is
then followed by research design, data collection method and data analysis.
5. Research findings
This is the most important section in the thesis where findings of the research
are presented. The findings come from either primary data (interview and
questionnaire analysis) or secondary data. Each finding can also be
compared with other researches and existing literature.

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6. Implications of findings
In this section, implications of findings for relevant stakeholders are discussed.
The stakeholders can be tourism makers or tourism researchers.
7. Future research opportunities
This section explains why this thesis can lay a foundation for future research
with more in-depth analysis.
8. Conclusion
This section summarizes main points of the thesis.

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II. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
II. 1. Rationale
Branding is a critical issue in the context of severe competition among tourist
destinations. In fact, many success stories of tourism products on the global
market have been attributed to a successful branding plan. Thanks to branding, a
destination can become more attractive to its potential customers.
But the concept of branding is often confused with advertising, marketing or
promotion in the eyes of many Vietnamese people. Moreover, branding is not
often comprehensively understood as it is frequently interpreted as the visual and
verbal element used in a logo and slogan. Its importance in the tourism industry
is, therefore, underestimated.
Besides, destination branding is not a new topic in the world, but it is still in its
early stage of development in Vietnam. Vietnamese tourism authorities have just
begun thinking about branding the non-smoke industry for a decade, dating from
the year 1999 as the new millennium approached.
Moreover, the importance of branding in tourism has not been fully recognized as
it deserves. It is a fallacy to say that if a destination is beautiful, it will surely
attract a large number of tourists.
For all of these above reasons, this research was conducted with the hope of
making a little contribution to the industry and academic studies.
II. 2. Contributions of the research
This is the very first research on Vietnam tourism brand. After reading this
research, tourism practitioners can see how the tourism industry has been
branded. Besides, they may know about foreign tourists’ perceptions about the

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slogan “Vietnam- the hidden charm” and somehow see the effectiveness of
brand building process from 2006 up to now.
Tourism teachers and students can view this research as a reference material for
their work. Theories and findings presented in this research are very useful for
those interested in the topic of destination branding. Their knowledge about
branding and its related issues will be widened. In addition, they may use the
given information as a base for future research on Vietnam tourism branding
campaign.
It is said that building and promoting a national tourism brand is the responsibility
of the tourism authorities. However, in the current context, this belief is not
completely correct any longer. Every individual and organization must be
responsible for establishing a positive image of Vietnam. Therefore, this research
also helps its readers who are both tourism practitioners and non-tourism
practitioners have a deeper understanding about the topic of branding in Vietnam
tourism and their responsibility.

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III. LITERATURE REVIEW
III. 1. The concept of branding
According to Rossides (n.d.) and Howie (2003), the concept of branding
originated from Medieval England where it referred to the practice of using a hot
iron as a method of claiming ownership over goods, livestock and other products.
Branding has been widely used since the 19th
century when manufacturing fully
developed. Rossides (n.d.) added that on one hand, branding is not a new
concept with regard to products and services with more than one century of
evolvement behind it; on the other hand, it has not been a familiar concept yet
when being applied to destinations or places (i.e. countries, regions, cities etc.).
According to Kotler et al. (2006), a brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design
or a combination of these, intended to identify goods or services of the sellers
and to set them apart from others. Brand is viewed as an integral part of a
product, and branding can add value to the product. Whereas, Travis (2000, in
Kaplanidou and Vogt (p.2, 2003)) mentioned that branding is “a promise to the
consumer, an expectation of performance, and a mark of integrity and reputation”.
Moore (p. 114, 2003) added that “an effective brand is a synthesis of many things
that build clearly in a customer’s mind”. A brand is an abstract concept, but it has
identity, characteristics, a personality like a human. Accordingly, he defined
branding as the deliberate strategy and actions that turn a product or service into
a brand.
Regarding destination branding, Sahrawat (2008) simply viewed it as a
presentation of the combination of what creates a destination including the
destination’s products and services like agriculture, tourist spots, sports, arts,
investment, technology, education, etc. Kaplanidou and Vogt (2003) had a more
detailed definition about it by stating that destination branding is about combining
all the attributes connected with the destination (i.e. its products and services

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from different industries) under one concept which conveys its “unique identity
and personality” and distinguishes it from competitors. They also indicated that
destination branding is about “how consumers perceived the destination in their
minds”. Rossides (n.d.) also stated that destination branding plays a key role in
defining a place and creating a unique identity with clear and strong values,
attracting rational as well as emotional motivations.
Meanwhile, Hudson (2005) viewed branding as creating a superior proposition
which differentiates a destination from competitors and conveys meaning going
beyond the physical aspects of the destination. Similarly, Marzano (n.d.)
considered destination branding as “a process used to develop a unique identity
and personality that is different from all competitive destinations”.
Whitfield (2005) showed a statement claimed by some brand authorities that
destination branding is completely different from branding consumer goods or
services. Instead, he mentioned branding is “a business discipline” starting from
a very simple core matter. But he disagreed with this statement. He said it might
be true to say that there are differences between enterprises in the way they
implement their brand strategy, but the basic disciplines what are required to
define the brand, the tangible benefits of competitive differentiation and profitable
growth that result from effective branding are unchanged. In a nut shell, branding
is all about making the customer’s experience as positive, memorable, different
and exceptional as it can possibly be.
All of these above authors somehow gave a correct but not complete definition
about destination branding. According to Saraniemi & Ahonen (p.3, 2008),
Ritchie and Ritchie (1998) introduced one of the most frequently used definitions
for destination brand: “A name, symbol, logo, word mark or other graphic that
both identifies and differentiates the place; furthermore, it conveys the promise of
a memorable travel experience that is uniquely associated with the place; it also

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serves to consolidate and reinforce of pleasurable memories of the place
experience”.
An indispensable part of destination branding is brand positioning. According to
Sahrawat (2008), destinations are positioned as products which have brand
values. Kaplanidou and Vogt (2003) stated that brand positioning is all about
managing the brand and its components to create a unique position of the
destination brand in the consumer’s mind.
Pike (2004) indicated the importance of slogan in brand positioning by stating
that DMOS (destination marketing organizations) must somehow capture the all
attributes of the destination in a distinctive and focused positioning slogan, in a
manner that is both meaningful to the target customers and effectively set the
destination apart from its competitors having the same features”. Semone (2009)
also admitted the importance of slogan in destination branding. Moreover, he
highlighted the necessary of using logos because of its visual strength in creating
a lasting impression on consumers. Logos are much more able to convey image
of a destination, and in the globally competitive and multi-cultural context where
tourist destinations are operating, visual message is probably far more
universally understood. On the other hand, slogans tend to be a play on words,
the meaning of which usually doesn’t translate well into different languages in
multiple markets. Currently DMOs tend to use both logos and slogans in their
branding process.
III. 2. Importance of destination branding
In the business world, there is a lot of evidence to prove the importance of
branding. Customers are more willing to pay a higher price for a good brand and
remain loyal to it (tutor2u.net)

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Figure 1. The meaning of brands (source: tutor2u.net)
Kotler et al. (2006) indicated that power and value of brands are different in the
market place. Some brands have consumer brand awareness meanwhile others
gain buyer preference, or even brand loyalty. A successful brand achieves high
brand equity – the value that a brand has, based on the extent to which it has
high brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, strong brand
associations and other assets such as patents, trademarks and channel
relationships
Howie (2003) stated that from consumers’ point of view, branding brings many
benefits such as identifying a product, guarantee a particular level of quality,
present a psychological reward for buyers, etc. From the perspective of sellers,
branding creates a value-added product, somehow develops customer loyalty
and plays a key role in positioning the product in the market.
According to Vicente (2004), branding for tourism is not a new trend, but it has
become increasingly important as tourism has become one of the largest
industries in the world. With most destinations promoting their luxurious hotels,
services and facilities, claiming a unique culture and heritage and the most

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hospitable people, and also offering competitive price, the need to create a
unique identity—to find a niche and differentiate a destination from its
competitors—is more critical than ever.” He also added that because 15
countries are accounting for almost 70% of international tourist arrivals, branding
becomes very critical for the other countries.
Morgan and Pritchard (2001) confirmed the importance of destination branding
by stating that branding is maybe the most powerful marketing tool available to
contemporary destination marketers who cope with increasing product parity,
substitutability and competition.
It takes considerable time and effort to develop a successful brand, however,
investment in branding is of value for money as successful brands last for a long
time. Typical example can be seen such as “I love New York” and “Super Natural
British Columbia” campaign (Howie, 2003).
What if a destination lacks a brand name? According to Kaplanidou and Vogt
(2003), when branding is absent, consumers may not know a destination and its
identity. More specifically, the consumers will choose a place having a distinct
position in their minds during their decision making process. Lack of branding
also means that visual, emotional, rational and cultural images of the destination
do not exist in customers’ mind. In short, lack of destination branding may cause
loss of promising visitors.
III. 3. Brand building process
According to Morgan and Pritchard (in Hudson, 2005), there are five stages in
the brand building process for a destination. Establishing the destination’s core
values and brand is the first stage. At this stage, the brand’s relevance to current
tourism consumers as well as its comparison with key competitors should be
considered. The second stage is brand identity development. It is critical to see
to what extent brand personality of the brand match its target market. After

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answering questions given in figure 2 (Destination brand benefit pyramid), a
destination’s brand identity elements can be disclosed. The brand benefit
pyramid indicates relationship between a brand and its consumer, and is
establish during the process of consumer research on a regular basis.
Figure 2. Destination Brand Benefit Pyramid
Source: Hudson (p. 410, 2005)
The third stage is brand launch and introduction. This stage is all about
communicating the vision and launching the brand, and may be implemented via
an announcement only or being a part of an advertising campaign at international
scale. The next stage is brand implementation, which involves interpreting the
brand identity and its meaning through deliverable massages. A logo type, a
design style guide, or the like make the message and approach consistent and
reinforce values of the brand. The performance of the brand in the marketplace is
evaluated at the final stage (Hudson, 2005).

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In order to promote a destination brand, there are three campaigns that
destination marketing organizations often get involved in: strategic campaign
which aims at attracting visitors in the shoulder season, traditional image building
campaign that is simply used to build and maintain awareness of the destination
and “damage control” campaign to follow a crisis for recovery (Hudson, 2005).
Talking about promotional efforts of marketers in developing a brand, Kotler et al.
(2006) mentioned Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) as a concept
coordinating communication channels to convey a clear, consistent and strong
message to customers. Objectives should be met are to inform, persuade,
remind the customers and reinforce their attitudes and perceptions. The IMC mix
includes five tools – advertising, public relations, direct and online marketing,
sales promotion and personal selling of which characteristics and costs are
different from each other. Meanwhile Hudson (2005) argued that promotional
activities of destination marketers fall into six main types, excluding direct and
online marketing. In fact, the increasing use of Internet users in daily life can
make Internet a powerful promotional tool. First of all, a single brochure can be
used for double purposes: informational and promotional. The strength of
brochures is to target specific markets. Secondly, advertisements can be either
placed on print media or television. Although print media is more popularly used
as its cost is lower than television, the latter is more effective. Thirdly, the press
and public relations including some forms like familiarization trips, celebrity visits,
press releases, television broadcasts are proved very attractive but have
reasonable cost. Next, even though personal selling is hardly carried out but
effective in relationship development with loyal clients like tourism makers,
convention and meeting planners, tour operators and retail travel agents and
persuading them to buy tourism products. Sales promotion is also seldom used
because of little control over destination products and price. Finally, trade fairs
and exhibitions are occasions when all parts of the tourism industry gather in one
place. Furthermore, Kaplanidou and Vogt (2003) indicated two strategies of
leveraging the destination brand. The first strategy is line extension which

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extends the brand name of the destination. More specifically, the original
destination name can act as an umbrella for the creation of new service or
experience. Co-branding is the next strategy, in which a destination brand can
be combined with another one to receive more exposure and brand awareness.
When it comes to measuring how successful a brand name is, it is important to
see what marketing organizations want to achieve and what factors can be
measured and can be indicators of a successful brand. Such factors are brand
name awareness, brand loyalty, visitors’ opinions and attitudes, etc. (Kaplanidou
and Vogt, 2003).
According to Okoroafo (2002), the first stage of brand name assessment is
testing the level of recognition or awareness. The degree of brand recognition or
awareness can be measured by aided recall (multiple choice questions are used)
or unaided recall (open-ended questions are used). Unaided recall is stronger
than aided one because the respondent is not given clues when being asked for
brand recognition. The following stage of measuring the effectiveness of a brand
is the “degree of preference”. A good brand name should help to increase the
number of customers. Another way to evaluate the branding effectiveness is
measuring repeat purchase or brand loyalty.
III. 4. Challenges of destination branding
Rossides (n.d.) indicated that destinations are increasingly at risk as they have to
cope with challenges posed by economic, global, political, social and
technological changes. For instance, pricing competition between markets, global
restructuring, scarcity of natural resources, etc. can lead to a decline in the
number of tourists in destinations. Therefore, no destinations are free from
pressures.

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Hudson (2005) suggested five challenges of destination branding. First of all,
budgets for branding a destination are much lower than those for many kinds of
consumer goods and services. For instance, Sony, a corporate giant, would pay
more than US$300 million for advertising per year, meanwhile the World Tourism
Organization (WTO) states that the world’s governments are spending about
US$350 annually on destination advertising. Therefore, organizations in charge
of destination branding should be smart in budget spending to create high-quality
promotion plans at a reasonable price. The second challenge is political
problems. Brand building for a destination is often affected by “the short-term
mindset” of tourism organization’s political leaders. External environment is also
a challenge as it has negatively influenced destinations since the start of the 21st
century. Destinations are very vulnerable to international economics, terrorism,
environmental disasters, etc. Some typical external forces are September 11,
2001, the war in Iraq, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The next
challenge is destination product. A destination consists of a variety of elements
like accommodation, tourist attractions, arts, entertainments, culture, etc.
However, destination marketers have rather little control of these elements, and
many agencies and companies also play a key role in creating brand identities.
Creating differentiation is another challenge. Most destinations have similar
attributes to promote such as history, culture and beautiful scenery, so building a
brand on a unique attribute that can link a destination to its consumer now and in
the future is very critical.
With regard to budget for promoting a destination brand, Morgan et al. (2001)
added that NTOs (national tourism organizations) are facing limited budgets and
increasing costs of means of communication. As a result, the competition in
brand building between countries is becoming more fierce, especially countries
which are small, moderately funded. Consequently, destination managers must
be smart to avoid overspending, i.e. they have to produce creative
communication plans at a reasonable expense.

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IV. RESEARCH METHOD
IV. 1. Research objectives
The main objective of this research is to provide readers with an insight into
Vietnam tourism brand over the past years. More specifically, this research aims
to:
 Broaden the understanding of the importance of destination branding in
Vietnam tourism.
 Discover what Vietnamese tourism authorities have done in terms of
branding Vietnam as a destination and promoting the whole industry &
challenges of destination branding in Vietnam
 See the perceptions of foreign tourists about the current logo and slogan
of the tourism industry “Vietnam – the hidden charm”
IV. 2. Research questions
In order to achieve the above objectives, a number of questions were made:
1. Why does the Vietnam tourism industry need to be branded?
2. How has the industry been branded?
3. How do foreign tourists perceive about the logo-slogan “Vietnam – the
hidden charm”?
IV. 3. Research design
This research uses both qualitative and quantitative data to find answers to the
above research questions.
1) Qualitative research
Qualitative research is used to find answers to question 1 and 2 because it can
provide a complete and detailed result. More specifically, question 1 requires an
in-depth analysis about reasons why the industry should be branded. Answers
can come from tourism experts’ ideas. Question 2 needs detailed description and

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analysis about history and current situation of Vietnam tourism brand. Besides, it
does not depend on sample sizes but still generates meaningful answers with a
small sample group.
However, it requires a lot of careful thought and planning, to ensure that the
obtained results are accurate and reliable.
2) Quantitative research
To find the most satisfactory answer to question 3, quantitative research is
applied as it gives statistical results. In this question, numerical results about
brand awareness, tourists’ perceptions about the slogan, etc. are needed. It is an
excellent way of finalizing results and proving or disproving the hypothesis.
After statistical analysis of the results, a comprehensive answer is reached, and
the results can be further discussed in following parts.
IV. 4. Data collection method
IV. 4. 1. Secondary data
The research was carried out with the support of many secondary sources, which
are mainly from the Internet and tourism books. Selected websites which are
considered accurate and reliable sources have two main advantages:
- Ease of access: online information can be accessed anytime and
anywhere with the support of powerful search engines like Google and
Yahoo.
- Low cost: many websites are open to public on the condition that the
sources must be quoted.
However, some useful information is not available for all users. This often occurs
when only a small portion of a study is disclosed for free.

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The secondary data are an excellent source for discovering the research problem
at the beginning of research process. Answers to some issues like the
importance of branding to the tourism industry, history and current context of
branding, etc. can be found in the secondary data. Nevertheless, the answers
mainly come from personal views of the reporters/ writers/press interviewees
rather than the result of a scientific research. Therefore the results may be
subjective.
IV. 4. 2. Primary data
a) Interview:
The interview generates qualitative data which are of great source for research
answers related to the importance of tourism branding and its history and current
situation. Selected interviewees are Vietnam tourism experts who have more
than 10-year experience working in the field of tourism. They can provide an
insider’s view of issues regarding tourism branding in Vietnam. Moreover, thanks
to their in-depth knowledge, the research orientation can be better and research
problems were deeply analyzed.
There were two tourism experts who were invited to join in the interview of this
research. The first person is Ms. Pham Le Thao, an official of Travel department,
Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). She has a professional
knowledge about destination marketing and practical experience in Vietnam
tourism brand. The second person is Mr. Le Tuan Anh, a training expert of
Vietnam human resources development in Tourism project, Vietnam National
Administration of Tourism (VNAT). He has worked in the tourism industry for than
ten years. The topic of destination branding is one of his professional interests.
The interviews were carried out in late October 2009. There were two interviews
in total that were successfully conducted, each of which lasted about one and a
half hours.

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Based on the available time budget of each interviewee and convenience of
transport, the interview method was determined. Ms. Thao was willing to accept
a face-to-face interview while it was more convenient for Mr. Tuan Anh to
conduct the interview via telephone interview. Each interview was very effective
in terms of time allocation and maintaining two-way conversations.
In order to record answers of interviewees, the interviewer used note-taking
method. In case answers of the interviewees were not clear, they can be asked
again immediately or in the next interview.
Open-ended questions were used in the unstructured interview process. This
method is ideal for an exploratory research. A major advantage of this type of
interview is adaptability. Depending on the emotional response (facial
expressions, tone of voice, etc.) and willingness of the interviewees, the
interviewer can ask appropriate questions, follow up ideas and listen attentively.
Both interviewer and interviewee have the freedom of expression, share control
of the conversation, and listen to each other. Therefore, more information was
collected.
However, there is one problem with this method. It takes time to conduct an
interview effectively. Each interview often lasts from one to two hours, and
therefore, only a relatively small numbers of interviewees were willing to join in
the research.
b) Questionnaires:
So far many Vietnamese reporters have complained about the current logo –
slogan “Vietnam – the hidden charm”. In their opinion, that work is unattractive to
foreign tourists. But until now there has not been an official statistical result about
foreign tourists’ perceptions about the logo – slogan “Vietnam – the hidden
charm”. Therefore, a questionnaire is designed to generate quantitative data
which are very useful for the above problem. Results from the questionnaire can

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be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the logo – slogan “Vietnam – The hidden
charm” in terms of brand awareness, its influence on foreign tourists’ decision to
travel to Vietnam and so on.
There were 250 questionnaires randomly delivered to 250 tourists in two weeks
(from 24th
October to 7th
November, 2009). As a result, 234 copies were collected
back for data analysis.
Type of respondents:
- Backpackers
- Package tourists
- Others (expatriates, 2009 Asian Indoor Games athletes and their families,
supporters, etc.)
Places for delivering questionnaires:
- Hoan Kiem (Restored Sword) Lake
- Hanoi Old Quarter
- Thang Long water puppetry
- Temple of Literature
- Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
- My Dinh national stadium
Questionnaire design:
Question Content Type of
question
Purpose Note
1 Where are you
from?
close-
ended
(5 choices)
To know the origin
of tourists and see
what continent has
the largest
percentage of

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knowing the slogan
of the tourism
industry.
2 Do you know the
current slogan of
Vietnam’s tourism
industry?
close-
ended
(3 choices)
(Using the
unaided
recall
method).
To measure brand
awareness
Respondents
who choose
the last
choice (No)
go to
question 7
3 How did you know
about it?
close-
ended
(7 choices)
To evaluate
overseas promotion
4 When do you
know about it?
close-
ended
(3 choices)
To evaluate
overseas promotion
Respondents
who choose
the last
choice (No)
go to
question 6
5 How does it
influence your
decision to travel
to Vietnam?
close-
ended
(3 choices)
To measure how
strong the slogan is
6 Where do you see
it during your stay
in Vietnam?
close-
ended
(6 choices)
To evaluate
domestic promotion
7 What do you think
about the slogan
“Vietnam – the
Hidden Charm”?
close-
ended
(4 choices)
To know what
foreign tourists think
about the slogan
8 Could you please open- To find the most

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write 03
adjectives/ 03
words to describe
Vietnam?
ended suitable words for
naming a new
slogan in the future
(if applicable)
In case the respondents refused to answer the questionnaire as they were busy,
they were helped to note down their answers. This method was very useful to
reduce the non-responding rate to the lowest level.
IV. 5. Data analysis
1) Secondary data analysis
All secondary data were filtered to write the findings. In the course of writing, the
data were compared with each other and with the literature review to draw
conclusions.
2) Primary data analysis
Answers from interviewees were selected and analyzed to be supporting ideas
for the thesis.
In addition, questionnaire results were calculated by hand, and then they were
put into Excel to draw figures. After that, the figures were analyzed and
compared with available secondary data for discussion. Some conclusions would
accordingly be drawn.
IV. 6. Ethical issues
All of the following information was informed to most research respondents:
- Respondents were voluntary to join in this research.
- Before answering research questions, they were informed about the research
purpose and the amount of time to complete their answers.
- They did not have to give their name, contact number, or any personal
information. What they needed to do was just to answer questions honestly.

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- Their answers were kept confidential and used within the scope of this study
only.
Secondary data were taken from both Vietnamese and international sources
which are valid and reliable for analysis.
V. RESEARCH FINDINGS

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V.1. Importance of destination branding to Vietnam tourism
All most all countries whose tourism is regarded as a key economic sector
consider destination branding one of key success factors in this industry.
A typical success story about a tourism slogan that helps to position an Asian
country in the regional and global marketplace is Malaysia (Son, 2004). The
slogan “Malaysia: Truly Asia” may not impress Asian people but it is so
impressive to tourists coming from North America, Europe, Australia and the
Middle East that makes this country become a tourism power in Asia. The
meaning of Malaysia’s slogan is: When people visit Malaysia, they can see many
things from the whole Asia there as Malaysia is Asia’s melting pot with Chinese,
Indian and Malay culture and food.
Besides Malaysia, other ASEAN countries which are already developed in terms
of tourism like Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia all created strong positioning
slogans like Uniquely Singapore, Amazing Thailand, and Indonesia – Ultimate in
diversity to promote their tourism industry. They nurture their brands through
consistent theme, huge budget, multi-year destination promotion campaigns that
effectively balance all of the key elements of tourism integrated marketing
communications, including overseas promotions and international shows,
advertising, online marketing, public relations and themed events (Semone,
2008). Success of those tourism campaigns were attributed to the combination of
memorable slogans with consistent messages and inviting images. Therefore,
those countries’ brands have been firmly established in the mind of travelers
(Russell, 2009).
It can be seen that Vietnam’s neighboring countries have been successful in
branding their tourism industry. As a consequence, these branding campaigns
make a great contribution to the success of the whole industry and help to
enhance their nation’s position. In fact, such tourism powers are strong
competitors of Vietnam as ASEAN countries are entering Vietnam’s market to

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advertise their tourism products with the aim to attract Vietnamese tourists to visit
their countries. It would be a threat to the domestic market (Mr. Vo Anh Tai –
General Director of Saigontourist in an interview with Anh, 2009).
Meanwhile, Vietnam is rich in tourism resources but its image remains distant to
international visitors due to the lack of a professional branding campaign.
Therefore, the competitiveness of Vietnam tourism industry is low. In order to
promote the Vietnam tourism brand, there is an urgent need for a branding
campaign with a distinctive logo and positioning slogan (Tuan, 2009).
Besides, the image of Vietnam is still unfamiliar to the world. Something should
be done to change the perceptions of the world about Vietnam. For many people,
Vietnam is still a war rather than a country, and foreign veterans and overseas
Vietnamese accounts for large numbers of visitors to the country. For others,
Vietnam is all about beaches and scenic landscapes, while for some it’s all about
an exotic culture. Therefore, Vietnam needs to establish a consistent brand
message which combines all Vietnamese attributes such as a diverse country,
hospitable people, natural resources, beaches, bustling cities, history, shopping
items, culture, cuisine and so forth to let the world have an insight into the
country (Ms. Thao, interview).
In the current context, the number of tourist arrivals is decreasing. The year 2008
saw a decline in the numbers of international visitor to Vietnam. On one hand,
this can be due to the global economic downturn. On the other hand, the
vagueness of Vietnam’s brand image and the lack of destination marketing also
affect the tourism industry. Besides, few visitors come back for their second visit,
clearly Vietnam should be more active to compete with its glamorous
neighbors. If the industry does not want to lag behind its neighbors, it needs to
define its identity and do it as soon as it possibly can (Russell, 2009).

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Moreover, branding the tourism industry also means making contributions to the
course of branding the whole nation. There were always two parallel objectives of
the tourism industry. The first objective is building a national tourism brand. The
second objective is a bit more important: the tourism brand contributes to the
process of establishing a national brand for the country as a whole (Tuan, 2009).
According to Marketing Vietnam magazine (2008), there are six indicators for
Anholt Nation Brands Index (NBI): tourism, export, government, people, culture,
heritage, investment and immigration.
Anholt Nation Brands Index (NBI)
(Source: vnbrand.net)
A national image created by tourism products is like the face of human-being,
which draw attention from tourists at first sight. Despite being not profound
enough, the impression made by tourism on tourists will provoke them to
continue their discovery about the country (Huy, 2008),
Building a nation brand would bring the country image to every people in the
world, namely investors, tourists and consumers. In a conference on press and
promoting national brands held by Unilever and The Guide Magazine, many
attendants said it would be hard for Vietnam to build a strong image in terms of
economy. Although Vietnam is regarded as an emerging economy, numerous
countries are rapidly developed and have their distinctive competencies. For

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example, Japan is world famous for electronics; Belgium is well-known for beer
and chocolate, etc. Meanwhile, according to cultural scholar Tring Quang Dung,
Vietnam can build a national image basing on tourism. Vietnam’s tourism
products which are diverse but distinctive can be a bridge between Vietnam and
the world. Ms. Nicole Vooijs – General Director of MindShare advertising
company also agreed with the idea of using tourism as a main method to
advertise Vietnam (May, 2008).
In conclusion, there are some main reasons why the Vietnam tourism industry
should be branded, namely enhance the image, position and competitiveness of
the tourism industry in the global market and contribute to the process of nation
branding. Therefore, it is totally important to create and develop a brand for
Vietnam tourism. It is an urgent task of the industry. If Vietnam is successful in
branding its tourism industry, the entire country will enjoy good reputation as well.
Like other industries, tourism is making a substantial contribution to enhance the
national image to the world.

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V. 2. History of Vietnam tourism branding
V. 2. 1. Before 2000
In the 1990s, only state-owned companies having international licenses were
allowed to advertise and market the image of Vietnam. Consequently, foreign
tour operators played an important role in promoting Vietnam as a destination.
They mainly focused on cultural heritage of Vietnam and ancient images under
feudalism and colonialism. Meanwhile, VNAT and state-owned tour operators
chose an image of progress and modernization to promote the tourism industry in
Vietnam. Vietnam was introduced as a unique and vibrant culture, and rich
resources for investment. At the same time, Vietnam Airlines advertised Vietnam
as a “Rising tiger of Asia” (Cochrane, 2008).
To conclude, the image of Vietnam in this period was inconsistent because each
side had its own view about Vietnam, which did not result in a common image of
the country as a whole. There was little effort of Vietnamese side in branding its
tourism products. It might be because the country was still in the process of
modernization and priority should be given to key industries rather than tourism.
It was the time for the tourism industry to take back the responsibility of
promoting the country from the hand of foreign tourism makers and develop a
central brand for the entire industry so that all stakeholders involved in marketing
Vietnam as a destination could promote it in a unified and consistent manner.
V. 2. 2. From 2000 to 2005
Understanding the importance of brand building for Vietnam tourism industry, the
Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) began seeking a logo and
slogan to symbolize the theme of National Action Plan on Tourism from 1999.

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Vietnam – A destination for the new millennium
(Source: vnexpress.net)
Then ”Vietnam – A destination for the new millennium”, a slogan together with
the picture of a smiling girl bringing a conical hat was used when Vietnam
embarked on a worldwide campaign on the threshold of a new millennium (Chi,
2005). The image of Vietnam was projected as a high-quality destination for
tourists (Cochrane, 2008). Consequently, this slogan somehow contributed to the
success of the whole industry. Right after this slogan was launched, the number
of international tourists to Vietnam increased by 20% in 2000 in comparison with
the previous year, reached at the figure of 2.1 million arrivals, and 2.3 million and
2.6 million in 2001 and 2002 respectively (Anh, 2004).
However, the picture of the smiling girl and the slogan were not the result of a
scientific research, instead they were combined from two different ideas (Tuan,
2009). Ms. Thao (interview) revealed that a foreign expert created the slogan
when he first came to Vietnam in late 20th
century. His idea about the slogan
instantly convinced VNAT officials. After that they found a picture to be combined
with it.
Photographer Vu Quoc Khanh‘s picture of a smiling girl with a conical hat was
then selected by VNAT to be the symbol of the tourism industry. Unfortunately,
there was one problem with the picture’s copyright. The model whose name is
Phan Thi Nhu Quynh from Quang Binh province sued the photographer for using

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her photo for commercial purpose without her consent (vnexpress, 2002). In
addition, some years later this slogan became less attractive and outdated as the
new millennium had already passed (Son, 2004).
In general, although there were some troubles with the slogan like the
accompanying picture’s copyright or being outdated, the launch of “Vietnam – A
destination for the new millennium” marked the recognition of tourism brand
building. It was an encouraging sign for the industry as well as the country
because from that time on, Vietnamese tourism bodies and tourism makers
understood the importance of building a positioning slogan for their tourism
products. As a result, the industry had a unified image to market itself to the
world. This was an advance in comparison with the previous period when
Vietnam was advertised in many different images. It can be said that Vietnamese
personnel in the tourism industry became more professional in destination
branding.
In 2004, the slogan was changed into "Welcome to Vietnam", accompanied by a
logo of a woman wearing ao dai (traditional Vietnamese dress). Many tour
operators and hoteliers criticized the VNAT for not adapting to the new
development period (Son, 2004).
(Source: vnexpress.net)
In fact, VNAT in partnership with the Association of Fine Arts organized one logo
design contest but they limited the topic to designing a stylized girl ( not a real

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one) wearing ao dai. The winning logo belonged to painter Nguyen Thuy Lien.
However, his original work was modified. Besides, he chose the slogan “Diệu kỳ
Việt Nam” (literally translated as Fantastic Vietnam) to accompany his logo. But
VNAT changed it into “Welcome to Vietnam”. He strongly disagreed with the
choice of VNAT as the selected slogan was too general and plain (Anh, 2004).
The slogan “Welcome to Vietnam” was too simple and lacked creativity, therefore,
failed to draw attention from international visitors. In addition, the picture of a
woman wearing ao dai was old, not eye-catching enough. This image was used
in the previous slogan. Besides ao dai, Vietnam had many attractive images that
remained new to tourists. Because Vietnam tourism industry had not identified its
target market yet, the slogan failed to present a clear image of Vietnam (Anh,
2004).
Quang (2004) also complained about the logo and slogan because they sound
inferior to the work of other countries. Neither the logo nor the slogan met the
expectations of the public and tourism practitioners. Similarly, Chi (2005)
severely criticized the slogan was for being too plain and unprofessional in
comparison with tourism slogans of neighboring countries such as “Uniquely
Singapore”, “Malaysia, Truly Asia”, etc.
With the aim to introduce the Vietnamese cuisine to the world, in 2004, a world
famous American chef – Martin Yan was invited to Vietnam to be the host of a
cooking program named “Yan Can Cook”. This was an initiative of Vietnam
Airlines, VNAT and Saigontourist holding company with their contribution of over
$92,500. Via this program, the American cook would popularize the image of
Vietnam to its target customers (Quang, 2004). However, at that time, the
Vietnamese government did not have any mechanism to hire foreign
professionals to consult investment and promotion plans. Therefore, the program
had to be cancelled (Tien Phong newspaper, 2005).

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In conclusion, the slogan “Vietnam – A destination for the new millennium”
became out of date as the new millennium passed. It was necessary for
Vietnamese tourism leaders to find a new work and replace it as soon as
possible. Although they recognized the need for change but were slow to take
actions. Two logos and slogans for the industry were developed in this period but
considered not very successful. The main reason was Vietnamese tourism
bodies were not really serious about branding the industry. More specifically, the
logo and slogan came from different sources. They were just combined with each
other to be a couple. In fact, they should be the work of a scientific research or
one single creative design group.
Moreover, tourism slogan and logo are like an advertising product and always
accompany a new period of development. So, when they became less eye-
catching, it should be changed. There was a big mistake when limiting the topic
to the image of ao dai. To some extent, the topic discouraged the creativity of
logo designers. They might have created another image reflecting the image of
Vietnam. In fact, the outdated slogan would negatively affect the tourism industry.
Tourists would not pay attention to Vietnam’s tourism products any longer, and
there would be less business opportunities for Vietnamese tourism enterprises.
One more thing should be noted was that promotion activities were hindered by
the mechanism. As a result, the industry suffered. Everything was ready for the
launch of the promotion plan from budget allocation to personnel, but the plan
was cancelled at the last minute just because of the lack of mechanism.

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V. 3. Current situation of Vietnam tourism brand
This section will present a panorama of brand building process dating from 2006
until now. There are different ways to create a positioning logo and slogan. In the
case of Vietnam, a logo and slogan design contest was held to find the best work
for the tourism industry. It seemed that the Vietnam National Administration of
Tourism wanted to take advantage of outside sources to help them produce a
good work.
The aim of this contest is to find a new slogan and logo in accordance with a new
and more comprehensive tourism promotion plan for the “National Action
Program on Tourism for 2006 – 2010” on 16th May, 2005 in Hanoi. (VNAT)
considered the 2006-2010 period a decisive phase for Vietnam in achieving its
target in making tourism a spearhead economy and becoming a developed
tourist destination (Huong, 2005). The slogan must imply the distinctive, unique
and impressive image of Vietnam as a destination, thereby attracting more
tourists from target markets (Chi, 2005).
In fact, many people expressed their concerns about the effectiveness of the
contest as well as its results.
Tam (2005) mentioned the case of Malaysia when this country created their
tourism logo and slogan. Unlike Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore have a
separate tourism promotion authority in charge of brand building.
Richard Moore expressed his concerns about the effectiveness of finding the
tourism slogan via one contest (Trung, 2009). In order to find an effective
positioning slogan for the tourism industry, it takes a plenty of time and effort to
conduct a market research and have a deep understanding about the market.
This process should not be completed by holding a contest because contestants
often compete with each other to be the winner rather than produce a good result.
It is like building a sand castle.

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Besides, the contest was open to both Vietnamese people and foreigners, but
satisfactory results were expected to mainly come from professional tourism
promoters. However, the top prize was only VND 20 million and a trans-Vietnam
tour for two guests, many people doubted whether professionals would
participate in the contest and how much time and effort they could spend, said
Dung (2005).
Moreover, Tien Phong newspaper (2005) complained that the contest had a big
problem as it did not mention anything about market orientation for the next five
years (2006 – 2010), which is an important element to find a successful symbol
and slogan. Dung (2005) said VNAT released such a vague topic for the contest
just because it was still trying to come up with proper market strategies for the
next five years.
After more than four months, nearly 1,194 entries were received, 814 for the
slogan and 380 for the logo. The first prize went to the logo and slogan “Vietnam
– The hidden charm”, both created by Dat Viet advertising company (Dang,
2005)
(Source: vietnamtourism.com)
In order to reach the final result, Dat Viet advertising company followed a brand
building process as follows:
V. 3. 1. Market research & brand identity development
Dat Viet advertising company conducted an actual market research to discover
strengths, weaknesses as well as potential of Vietnam tourism. At the same time,

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a demographic survey was also carried out to identify target customers and their
needs. The survey participants were tourists from East Asia (Korea, Japan and
Taiwan), ASEAN, Europe and North America and those who have not visited
Vietnam yet. Afterwards they discovered that Vietnam tourism was full of
potential but not effectively exploited yet. Tourists coming to Vietnam were not
those who intended to enjoy leisure or go shopping, instead they tended to
discovered history, culture and unspoiled natural beauty of Vietnam (Phong,
2005). Besides, it was discovered that Vietnam had a great potential for tourism
development: the central region projected to become a ‘Bali’ in the near future,
resorts along Vietnam’s 3,000km coast can compete with any resorts in the
region, Nha Trang worthy of the title ‘best bay in Southeast Asia’, Sapa and Da
Lat were highlighted as attractive temperate regions, and many world heritage
sites in the central region. Indeed, Vietnam is an attractive and charming
destination which is still unknown to many people and remains a secret in Asia.
That was probably Vietnam’s biggest difference in comparison to other regional
countries. But, while it may be “hidden”, it is not inferior in its attractiveness to
tourists. That was how the slogan “Vietnam – The hidden charm” was conceived.
Accordingly, the logo was created, basing on the image of a rising lotus
(Vietnamnet, 2005).
In order to produce a good result, the company staff members who got involved
in the creativity process are all highly qualified and have seven to 15 year
experiences. They are professionals in the field of branding, marketing, mass
media, idea generation, fine arts, language, graphic design and movie. In
addition to Vietnamese employees, international advertising experts from
Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia and the US were also invited
(Vietnamnet, 2005).
Right after the decision of the judge panel was announced, there have been
opposite ideas about the winning work.

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Many writers like Yen (2005), Chi (2005), Tam (2005) and Kien (2005) supported
the winning logo and slogan due to the following reasons:
 The slogan fulfilled the requirement of the judge panel which was to
express the meaning: Vietnam is an attractive destination with the
diversity of culture, nature and ethnics, confirming Vietnam as an ideal
destination, but remains little known to many people.
 It accurately reflected the characteristic of Vietnam which is hidden but
attractive. Vietnam was like a pearl hidden inside a stone and remained a
question mark with the world. Vietnam, therefore, provoked endless
curiosity of international friends. Tourists coming to Vietnam might not see
a metropolitan scene yet, but they would discover many hidden things,
such as friendliness of hospitality of Vietnamese people, stunning scenery
and delicious cuisine.
 The logo truly matched with the slogan. The lotus bud was calligraphically
designed, representing the country’s image: Vietnam was like a flower
that blossomed soon.
 It met the urgent need of the tourism industry: to have a common logo
and slogan for the industry in the new development phase
On the contrary, others like Nam (2007), Hanh (2007), Tuan (2009), Mr. Tuan
Anh (interview), shared the same idea that the slogan “Vietnam – The hidden
charm” did not meet their expectations because of the below reasons:
 Vietnam has many charms (not only one) to attract international visitors,
so the letter “s” should be added to the word “charm”.
 It did not convey a clear and strong message for the tourism industry.
Therefore, it is hard for international visitors to understand the identity of
Vietnam.
 It would be outdated in the coming years because after tourists discovered
the hidden charm of Vietnam, they would not consider it hidden and
attractive any more.

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In conclusion, compliments and criticisms are common, but the thing is their
comments are mainly based on personal views rather than a particular research.
Besides, the logo and slogan are mainly used for overseas promotion, and
foreigners may have different views from Vietnamese people about it. It is also
impossible to deny efforts of Dat Viet advertising company in making a new
positioning slogan and logo for Vietnam tourism. Although the prize for them was
not much, they were very serious about their work. Their ideas stemmed from the
actual customer survey and the final work was the result of both domestic and
international experts. It can be seen that compared with the two previous slogans
(“Vietnam – a destination for the new millennium” and “Welcome to Vietnam”),
“Vietnam – The hidden charm” is a “more invested” product.
V. 3. 2. Brand launch and introduction
VNAT held a press conference to reward excellent entries of the logo-slogan
contest and publicize the winning work “Vietnam – The hidden charm” at Hanoi
Opera House in 14th
October 2005. At the press conference, Chairwoman of
VNAT announced the campaign for tourism promotion which was set to kick off in
late 2005 in Vietnam, in 2006 in ASEAN, in March 2006 in the Philippines and
worldwide. It was hoped that with the new logo and slogan, the number of
international and domestic tourists would increase annually to 5.5 – 6 million and
25 million respectively (Yen, 2005).
VNAT invited tourism bodies, enterprises, representatives from local and
international newspapers and magazines and contest entrants to the press
conference with a view to raise awareness of Vietnamese people from all walks
of life about the significance of branding the tourism industry (Ms. Thao,
interview).
In fact, VNAT’s strategy for the period of 2006-2010 did not give any specific
priority for market orientation, image promotion and type of tourism products.

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Instead, VNAT only generally mentioned that the tourism sector would market a
hospitable country having many distinctive products, e.g. ecotourism, culture and
history, etc. (Loan, 2008).
Vision plays a very important role in the third stage of brand building process. At
this stage, vision should be communicated to the public (Hudson, 2005). It can
be seen that VNAT merely announced its objective of the increase in the number
of tourists. The vision of the tourism industry was not clearly communicated.
V. 3. 3. Brand implementation
After Dat Viet company had been awarded the first prize for the winning work,
they were invited to cooperate with VNAT in implementing the promotion strategy
for Vietnam tourism in the new period. The contest winner would gain the right to
draw a supporting plan for promoting their work. Unfortunately, the two sides
could not reach an agreement about their rights and responsibilities (Ms. Thao,
interview).
It can be seen that there was a pity as the author of “Vietnam – The hidden
charm” did not participate in the course of brand implementation. As mentioned
in the previous section, the staff members of Dat Viet advertising company have
different backgrounds like marketing, language, mass media, branding, etc. If the
agreement between Dat Viet advertising company and VNAT had been reached,
the company would have created a comprehensive strategy to promote the
tourism industry. Actually, in order to generate the idea of the positioning logo
and slogan for Vietnam tourism, they must have had specific plans to reflect the
true spirit of “the hidden charm”.
With regard to the case of Malaysia, for example, this country has an office
specializing in national tourism brand. The office is in charge of the whole
process, from idea generation, idea implementation (with consistent media
messages) to evaluation so that every tourist visiting Malaysia can experience

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“truly Asia” (Ms. Bui Thi Thanh Huyen, Chief representative of Malaysia tourism
promotion authority in Ho Chi Minh city in the report of Tam (2005)).
Vietnamese tourism bodies have so far done a large number of activities in brand
implementation process.
First of all, to ensure the consistent usage of the logo – slogan “Vietnam – The
hidden charm”, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) sent a
book on "Norms and Instructions on using the logo - slogan of the National Action
Plan on Tourism during the period of 2006-2010" to all local tourism departments,
individuals and institutions working in the field of tourism and non-tourism. Every
individual and organization are allowed to use the tourism logo – slogan “Vietnam
– The hidden charm” on the condition that they comply with VNAT ’s regulations
on all tourism publications and promotion items. The online version of this book
can be found at the website of VNAT (vietnamtourism.gov.vn or
vietnamtourism.com). Furthermore, a large number of billboards, panels, signs,
etc. that have been erected in public areas where foreign tourists often visit.
There are also big outdoor panels among borders of provinces. These actions
aim to raise awareness of tourists when they move from one province to another
(Ms. Thao, interview).
Secondly, VNAT took advantage of international events held in Vietnam to
welcome a large number of participants, delegates and international tourists.
During APEC 2006 (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), a large number of
tourism publications (English-language newspapers, magazines, CD-ROM, etc.)
were published and presented to the delegates. In addition, banners and posters
were hung in public area of big cities in Vietnam like Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi
Minh City. The logo and slogan "Vietnam - The hidden charm" were printed in all
of these promotion channels (Yen, 2006). Besides, ATF 2009 (ASEAN Tourism
Forum), was the first time Vietnam has organised such a big regional tourism
event, and was a good opportunity for the country to promote its tourism sector

Graduation thesis
and expand cooperation with foreign countries in the field of tourism (Phuong,
2008). Furthermore, a series of cultural events organized in many cities
nationwide. Typical examples of such events were Da Lat flower festival 2007,
Thai Nguyen’s year of tourism 2007, Hue festival in June 2008, Da Nang
international firework competition 2008, Mekong delta fruit festival 2008, and so
on (Linh, 2008)
Thirdly, regarding media, in early October 2007 VNAT hired a leading
international channel, CNN Asia Pacific to broadcast a 30-second video clip of
Vietnam tourism in three consecutive months. The clip, which cost nearly
$275,000 was taped entirely by CNN with the aim to mainly promote Ha Long
Bay and Hoi An ancient town (the two World Heritage Sites listed by UNESCO),
the former imperial city of Hue and other major attractions of the country (Loan,
2007).
In April 2009, the Department of International Co-operation (the Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism) cooperated with BBC to broadcast a 30-second clip
promoting Ha Long and other tourist attractions twice a day on BBC World News
channel at the cost of around $204,000. The broadcast schedule kicked off on 11
June, 2009 and lasted for eight weeks in the Asia-Pacific region, six weeks in
Europe and six weeks in North America. In addition, in September 2009 the
Department also launched a 7000-pound program advertising Vietnam’s image in
10 taxis in London in three months (Yen, 2009).
Also in 2009, Vietnam again signed a deal with CNN (Cable News Network) – an
international television channel to televise an advertisement promoting sea
tourism, Central Highlands and Phu Quoc Island in mid-September. The
$250,000 agreement was the second campaign to run on CNN’s Asia Channel
(Nguyen, 2009).
With regard to reasons why BBC and CNN were chosen as a channel to promote
Vietnam tourism to the world, Mr. Nguyen Van Tinh – Head of International

Graduation thesis
Cooperation Department told Yen (2009) that BBC and CNN are aired to all
countries in the world and have the most number of viewers.
An anonymous official of Culture & Tourism promotion center (Ministry of Culture,
Sports and Tourism) also spoke to Yen (2009) about the three main reasons why
the International Cooperation Department decided to choose BBC:
 BBC has global coverage in 200 countries and territories, including Asia-
Pacific, Europe and North America. According to statistics, this channel
has its presence in 276 million families and 1.5 million hotel rooms. For
instance, many Japan-based hotels only offer BBC channel to its guests
instead of CNN.
 BBC has an excellent reputation for national marketing campaigns and
gained proven track records in over 40 countries including but not limited
to tourism-developed countries like Australia, Thailand, Singapore,
Malaysia and so forth.
 Most importantly, while BBC crew produced the video clip on their own,
Vietnam only had to pay BBC for its services at a very reasonable price
($204,600).
The Department of International Co-operation also negotiated with international
channels (Star Sports, Star World and ESPN), famous newspapers/ magazines
(Jetstar airlines magazine and UNESCO World Heritage) and Association of
British Travel Agents (ABTA) to launch advertising programs for 2010 (Van,
2009).
In addition to the above activities, the tourism bodies and local enterprises
attended tourism fairs at international scale to promote the industry. For example,
from 5-9th
March 2008, more than 30 Vietnamese tourism enterprises including
travel agencies and hotels took part in Berlin International Fair Center (Germany),
the most famous world tourism fair, with 11,147 companies from 186 countries
and territories around the world under the direction of the Vietnam National
Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA). at

Graduation thesis
this fair, Vietnam advertised its gastronomy culture and famous attractions like
Ha Long Bay (being voted as one of the world’s seven new wonders), Khue Van
Cac (in the Temple of Literature) together with hundreds of promotion
publications (Chi, 2008)
Besides, a large number of FAM trips, roadshows and cultural events have been
organized overseas such as the United Kingdom, Russia, Korea, etc. For
instance, from 12-15th
November 2007, a Vietnam’s cultural day in Korea entitled
“Vietnam – The hidden charm in Seoul”. This event aimed to introduce
Vietnamese quintessence like tasty food, beautiful landscape, costumes, etc
(Trang, 2007).
Last but not least, a sales promotion campaign named “Impressive Vietnam” was
launched nationwide by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism at the
beginning of 2009 with a view to increase the demand of tourists and help local
tourism enterprises recover from the global economic crisis. Tourists received
from 30-50% discount on a lot of tours (Minh, 2009).
Although the tourism industry has made great efforts in popularizing the country
image and achieved encouraging results like Vietnam received four million
visitors on 6th
December 2007 (Linh, 2008), many people expressed their
concerns about those promotional activities and indicated numerous problems in:
- Outdoor advertisements:
 The promotion program for APEC was criticized for being late. Until
September 2006 (two months before APEC), there were no banners or
posters hung on main streets. Consequently, the effectiveness of
promoting the new slogan of Vietnam tourism was reduced (Yen, 2006).
 At Moc Bai international border gate (Tay Ninh province), the old slogan
“Welcome to Vietnam” still existed as of January 2009 (Vuong, 2009).
 The billboard erected on the Noi Bai highway from Noi Bai international
airport to Hanoi city center was poorly designed as it only featured tho

Graduation thesis
logo and slogan “Vietnam – the hidden charm” and a white background
with no illustrated information on Vietnam’s landscape. Many tourists even
did not realize it was the tourism symbol of Vietnam (Phuong, 2007)
- Media:
 Vietnam just built a slogan for the industry and did little thing to promote it.
So, when tourists want to discover what the hidden charm of Vietnam is,
they can not find a satisfactory answer. It is an evidence for the lack of
professionalism in promoting Vietnam’s tourism products (Mr. Vo Anh Tai
– General Director of Saigontourist holding company in an interview with
Anh, 2009)).
 BBC and CNN are two leading international channels, and their audiences
are mainly interested in breaking economic and political news. Therefore,
it would not be effective if tourism products are advertised on such
channels (Hung & Ngoc, 2009).
 Many domestic tourism experts told Hung (2009) about their disagreement
over advertisements on CNN. In their opinion, the Ministry of Culture,
Sports and Tourism made a big mistake when it chose CNN as a channel
to advertise Vietnam tourism because there is a decline in the number of
tourists to the Central region, Tay Nguyen (the Central Highland) and Phu
Quoc Island. Mr. Nguyen Van Tran- General Director of Apex joint-stock
tourism company said few Japanese tourists want to go to the Central
Highland or Phu Quoc Island because of inconvenient transportation,
many tourists taking a tour from Ho Chi Minh city to Hoi An are only
interested in sightseeing, shopping and beauty care. In addition, there are
just a few international flights to the Central Region, which is a big
obstacle. The main reason is insufficient passenger. Mr. Hoang Nhan
Chinh – Hanoi branch director of JBT-TNT also expressed his concerns
about tourist arrivals to the Central region: in fact, Asian tourists mainly
visit Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city (two biggest cities of Vietnam) and their
nearby areas.

Graduation thesis
 The content of the TV commercials on international channels was poor,
unattractive and unfocused. The background music lacked creativity as
two tracks were regularly repeated in Vietnam tourism’s video clips: “Earth
and Heaven” by Kitaro and “Đào Liễu” (Peach and Willow) by musician
Quoc Trung in the movie “Đường xa vạn dặm” (ten-thousand mile) (Dung,
2009).
- Market research has not been seriously conducted. Tourism products and
consumers must be a match; otherwise, promotion can have a counter effect.
Additionally, means of communication seems to be the same in every market. In
fact, different markets require different approaches; some may like brochures
while others prefer Internet (Mr. Pham Trung Luong – Deputy Director of Institute
of Tourism research indicated two weaknesses of tourism promotion (Yen,
2009)).
- At overseas tourism fairs, Vietnam tourism’s display space was often
unprofessionally designed and unattractive (Yen, 2009).
- Inconsistent message: “Charming Vietnam” was selected as the slogan in the
marketing campaign in the UK. This slogan together with the website address of
VNAT (vietnamtourism.com) was printed on 27 taxis in London. However, there
was only the logo and slogan “Vietnam – the hidden charm” on this website (Mr.
Phung Van Khai – Director of Hapro joint-stock tourism company, quoted by
Hung & Ngoc, 2009).
- Online advertising: Almost all tourism websites about Vietnam were displayed in
popular languages, but there is a shortage of websites for key markets like Korea.
Meanwhile most of Korean tourists search for travel information on the Internet
(Hanh, 2007).

Graduation thesis
In conclusion, Vietnamese tourism bodies tended to focus on traditional image
building, namely mass media rather than focused customer group. They simply
built and maintained awareness of tourists about Vietnam as a favourite
destination. There was a lack of online marketing, personal selling, line extension
and co-branding. The absence of personally selling is understandable because
this tool is only effective when Vietnam tourism has loyal customers like foreign
tour operators, travel agencies, hotels, etc. Meanwhile, Internet is increasingly
popular in the world and many Westerners and people from developed countries
regard it as a useful search tool in their trip planning. In fact, besides traditional
marketing channels like TV commercials, fairs, etc., there are online promotion
tools like websites, travel blogs, forums, etc. that should be utilized. Line
extension and co-branding were not yet applied in Vietnam tourism either.
Moreover, promotional tools of Vietnam tourism were quite fragmentary. It means
they were not the outcome of integrated marketing communication. Each tool
needed to be connected with others to increase the effect of each marketing
campaign.
However, credits should be given to the larger number of overseas promotional
activities than in the past phase. One significant thing should be noted is Vietnam
tourism industry made more investment in employing foreign media experts to
advertise its image and participating in international tourism fairs. Those actions
were persuasive evidence to show that the tourism industry had more
professional strategies than previous periods.
Regarding comments, they were very persuasive and should be seriously taken
into consideration. Even though VNAT informed all provinces about the norms on
using the new logo and slogan of the industry, some mistakes still occurred.
Additionally, the selection of promotion tools was still a controversial topic. It is
hard to deny the power of international channels like BBC or CNN as they have
global coverage and use English, the most popular language in the world.

Graduation thesis
However, when the tourism industry wants to attract tourists from Asia Pacific
region, perhaps national channels of these countries are more effective because
they are many non-English speaking people there. In fact, the amount of money
spent on international advertising was a really big investment. With regard to the
remaining problems, it is hard to correct them all immediately because it would
take a considerable amount of time and effort.
V. 3. 4. Challenges of destination branding in Vietnam
1. Limited budget
In the period of 2006-2010, the tourism sector spent VND1,250/ tourist in Hanoi
and VND2,000/ tourist in Ho Chi Minh city in terms of promotion. Besides, every
state spending for tourism must be clearly listed when making plans, if there are
any changes, applications have to be submitted to a higher level of management.
Therefore, the tourism sector can not be financially independent (Hung, 2006).
Mr. Nguyen Van Tinh, Director of International Cooperation Department (Ministry
of Culture, Sports and Tourism) said Vietnam now only spent $1.5 million for
tourism promotion each year while the budget of Thailand, Malaysia and
Singapore was from $70 to $120 million (Viet Nam News, 2009). Speaking about
the modest financial resources for tourism promotion, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan - the
new Chairman of VNAT admitted that because of limited budget, Vietnam must
tighten the belt when doing marketing campaigns and therefore had not achieved
large and effective marketing programs. In addition, the mechanism for tourism
promotion has not been completed yet (Yen, 2009).
Minh (2007), the annual state budget for tourism is over $1 million but covers
every promotion activities ranging from issuing publications, public campaign to
organizing domestic and overseas events. If Vietnam wants to increase tourism
revenue to $4-5 billion in 2010, more money should be invested in promotion
campaigns. For example, one event held by VCCI (Vietnam Chamber of
Commerce and Industry) in the UK cost $2.4.

Graduation thesis
In addition, Minh (2007) indicated problems in state spending for tourism. The
state is paying all expenses for national and provincial tourism activities on an
annual basis via the Budget Law, which results in a lot of paperwork. In the
current context, administrative procedures are proved inappropriate with the
development of market mechanism which requires high flexibility. As a result,
tourism authorities often have difficulties in making long-term strategy.
2. External forces
In 2009 the number of international arrivals to Vietnam declined dramatically. It
was partly due to the negative influence of the global economic downturn. To
react to the unfavorable condition, a sales promotion campaign named
“Impressive Vietnam” was launched from January to September 2009. Foreign
tourists may confuse this name with the current slogan of the industry. Therefore,
the effect of “Vietnam – the hidden charm” was partly reduced and not as strong
as the time it was first publicized (Ms. Thao, interview).
3. Coordination between local tourism bodies
The coordination with VNAT and local departments as well as enterprises has a
lot of problems. VNAT does not fulfill its leading role in steering tourism
promotion programs. For instance, in August 2008, Hanoi organized “Hanoi day
in Moscow” while one month later, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
held “Vietnam day in Russia”. The two events should be combined to one to save
money and increase the effectiveness of one big event. In addition, the state
management of tourism is inappropriate. There is not a clear assignment of
duties between VNAT and the Department International Cooperation (Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism) when it comes to national promotions for tourism
(Ms. Nguyen Thanh Huong – Deputy Head of Marketing department in the report
of Yen, 2009).
Bad coordination was a perennial problem of the tourism industry with relevant
agencies and enterprises, Ms. Vo Thi Thang - former chairwoman of VNAT

Graduation thesis
admitted (vietbao, 2007). Vietnam currently has 63 provinces, each of which has
either a Department of Trade and Tourism or a Department of Tourism and
Trade. The coordination between the state level and provincial level is not always
smooth (Mr. Tuan Anh, interview). In fact, provincial governments are carrying
out tourism marketing plans in their own way which lead to a fragmentary picture
of the industry (Linh, 2007). Besides, there is a lack of cooperation between
tourism makers, namely travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, restaurants,
souvenirs, transportation firms, tourist spots in attracting tourists. Although some
of them spend 1 to 1.5% of revenue for branding, many are not well aware of the
role of brand in the field of tourism (Tuan, 2009).
4. Creating differentiation
Vietnam and other Asian nations, especially China and ASEAN countries have
many similarities about culture, history, landscape, etc. At the moment, most of
them claim that they have five-star accommodation, unique heritages, hospitable
locals, high-quality venues for entertainment, etc. Many Western tourists may
see Vietnam as part of Asia with common features (Ms. Tuan Anh, interview).
According to Mr. Hermawan Katajaya – President of World Marketing Association,
ASEAN countries have quite similar tourism products, and international tourists
are attracted to these countries because of their natural landscape and historical
values. So, they are competing fiercely with each other. Therefore, Vietnam
needs to have a brand for its tourism products (quoted by lantabrand, 2008).
5. Lack of human resources
The tourism sector in Vietnam is facing a severe shortage of experienced and
qualified human resources, especially in the field of destination branding. There
is not a separate office in charge of market research and establish a brand
building campaign for the whole industry. One more point should be noted is until
now the Vietnam tourism industry has not had any overseas representative office
(Ms. Thao, interview).

Graduation thesis
Besides, VNAT merged into the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2007.
Then the Tourism Promotion Department under the control of VNAT was
dissolved. From that time on, promotion activities for the tourism industry were
implemented by both the Marketing Department and the Department of
International Cooperation (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism).
Subsequently, many tourism experts left their office. This was a big loss of the
industry (Van, 2009). So far the tourism industry had been merged and
separated for many times. The unstable management level was proved incorrect
and hindered the development of the tourism industry (Mr. Pham Trung Luong –
Deputy Director of Institute of Tourism research, Yen (2009)).
In conclusion, Vietnam tourism industry is facing a plenty of challenges in the
process of brand building. Among five challenges in destination branding that
Hudson (2005) listed, Vietnam is coping with four big challenges and one more
obstacle, namely a severe shortage of budget, modest financial resources,
vulnerability to external forces, lack of coordination between local bodies and
similarities with close neighbouring countries. Moreover, there is a lack of
qualified personnel in the field of destination branding.
These challenges may hinder the development of the whole industry in general
and destination branding in particular. Among them, the lack of qualified
personnel seems to be the biggest obstacle as competent human resources are
the most valuable asset of the industry. Money is not the most important thing
because creative marketing campaigns can be developed by tourism experts at a
reasonable cost.
Vietnam also has a valuable competitive advantage. It is stable political
environment that makes the country widely known as a safe and secure
destination.

Graduation thesis
V. 4. Foreign tourists’ perceptions about “Vietnam- the hidden charm”
Up to now, there has not been an official report on how foreign visitors perceive
about the logo – slogan “Vietnam – the hidden charm”. In order to find an
answer to this issue, a questionnaire survey was carried out. After processing
data from the questionnaires, the results are now presented as below.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Asia-Pacific
Middle East
Europe
Americas
Africa
Figure 1. Origin of tourists
Participants were tourists coming to Vietnam from all over the world. Among 234
participants, Europeans outnumbered all other continents with the figure of 136,
followed by tourists from Asia Pacific (71) and Americas (18). There were only a
small number of tourists coming from Middle East and Africa.
5%
10%
85%
Yes
I heard about it
No
Figure 2. Brand awareness

Graduation thesis
By using the method of unaided recall to test the awareness of foreign tourists
about the slogan “Vietnam – the hidden charm”, a disappointing result was
revealed. The majority of foreign tourists joining in the questionnaire survey (85%
which equals to 136 respondents) did not know about the current slogan of
Vietnam tourism industry. The percentage of tourists who know about the slogan
or heard about it but could not write it down exactly only accounted 15%, in which
most of them come from Asia Pacific (17 tourists) and Europe (16 tourists), and
the rest are Americans (3 tourists). So, 24 % of Asian tourists, 12% of European
tourists and 16.7% of American tourists visiting Vietnam have an idea about the
country’s tourism slogan.
This is a quite surprising result because over the past years Vietnam tourism
bodies, namely the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and the
Department of International Cooperation (under the Ministry of Culture, Sports
and Tourism) have implemented a wide range of promotional activities for the
new logo and slogan “Vietnam – the hidden charm” outside the border of
Vietnam.
However, this result may be partly because of short-term marketing campaign of
the tourism industry. Actually, each advertisement plan only lasted for a short
period of time (three months on CNN Asia Pacific, for example). Therefore, the
effects of Vietnam tourism image could not be long lasting enough and tourists
had little attention to the slogan.
Besides, the percentage of Asian tourists knows or heard about the slogan
outnumbered the other continents might be because the information about
Vietnam tourism is more available in these countries. There have been a number
of promotional activities like advertisements that were televised on CNN Asia
Pacific, cultural events organized in East Asian countries (e.g. Korea), etc.

Graduation thesis
12%
68%
15%
5% Very impressive
Impressive
Not impressive
Not very
impressive
Figure 3. The opinions of foreign tourists about the slogan
After testing the awareness of tourists about the slogan, all of them were asked
the same question “What do you think about the slogan “Vietnam – the Hidden
Charm”?”. As a result, from the above graph, it can be seen that the slogan
“Vietnam – the hidden charm” makes a good impression on the majority of
foreign tourists. 12% and 68% of respondents viewed it as a “very impressive”
and “impressive” slogan respectively. Meanwhile, 15 of them said it was not
impressive and only 5% considered it not very impressive.
It is a good signal for the industry because the slogan “Vietnam – the hidden
charm” at least made a positive impression on the mind of international visitors.
In fact, many Vietnamese reporters and tourism practitioners complained about
the slogan and stated that it could not capture the attention of foreign tourists. It
might be because the work by Dat Viet advertising company failed to provoke
any curiosity in the mind of Vietnamese people. However, foreigners may have a
different view, and Vietnam is still a “hidden” land that they want to discover. One
important thing that should be mentioned here is the birth “Vietnam – the hidden
charm” is not only the work of Vietnamese people but also foreign experts. The
cooperation between locals and foreigners made an impressive invitation of
Vietnam to the world.

Graduation thesis
In order to see what role the logo-slogan “Vietnam – the hidden charm” is playing
in attracting visitors to Vietnam, a small sample size of 36 tourists (the number of
those who know or heard about it) was used for further analysis.
First of all, let’s have a look at the time when those tourists were aware about it.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Before trip
planning
During trip
planning
When travelling to
Vietnam
Figure 4. Time of brand awareness
Nearly a half of them only knew about the slogan when they came to Vietnam. It
can be seen that overseas promotion campaigns were not strong enough to
advertise the slogan to its target customers. Moreover, the slogan seems not to
be one of key factors that affect the trip planning process of tourists. They may
visit Vietnam due to other factors rather than the slogan.
Figure 5. The influence of the slogan on tourists’ decision to Vietnam
Then the number of tourists who chose two options: “before trip planning” and
“during trip planning” were selected to answer one question about the influence
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
So attracted Having a good
impression
Not influenced

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