Faculty of Tourism

In recent decades LGBT tourism has become extremely popular and well-developed in many countries around the world. Many services companies in the field of tourism and hospitality have created specific services aimed towards this potential market. Scientific research was conducted for the purpose of learning more about the Vietnamese LGBT community's travel needs, consuming habits and hobbies in order to help contribute to the development of tourism products specially designed for this group. Our study was started in 2013 and seeks to answer the following questions:

Destination branding, is regarded as an important component with respect to tourism promotion, which is about identifying the destination’s strongest and most competitive attractiveness in the eyes of prospective tourists. Believing that, building a strong brand will make the destination stand out from its competitors.
The brand of destination is a distinctive image, which impact much on the customer’s behavior, including tourists, investors and media communicators. Destination branding is a very important to positioning country’s image in the public’s mind. According to Tourism annual Report 2016, Vietnam welcomed more than 10 million international tourists in 2016, rising by 26% compared to 2015. The total of domestic tourist in 2016 is 62 million people, increase 8.8%. However, Country Brand Index 2012-2013 demonstrated that Vietnam only stands on the 15th of Future Brand list. In fact that Vietnam isn’t recommended in any top 15 for criteria such as art and culture, authenticity, history, the value of money, attractions, food, shopping, and nightlife, etc. In Country Brand Index 2014-2015, Vietnam listed in number 64th over 75 destination brands, meanwhile Japan is in the 1st place, followed by Singapore in 14th, South Korea in the 20th, Thailand in the 38th and Malaysia in the 48th.
All the evidence above would make us consider on how to build a successful Vietnam's branding for sustainable development. First and foremost, we need a new campaign to attract more tourists, consisting the theme of an original and different, sustainable and believable brand. Moreover, Vietnam’s branding not only need to show the history, culture and beautiful scenery, but also connect tourist with the destination. Secondly, it is essential to start with a specific goal and a right target for long-term development. We must illustrate what is the unique selling point that represent national identity and easy to recognize. It depends on product types, travel regions and markets, including domestic and international market. Market analysis is necessary to understand the needs, wants and demands of tourists in order to illustrate the positioning of Vietnam branding within the competitive countries.
Key words: Vietnam, destination branding, brand management, tourism promotion.