LookAtVietnam – Experts in the hospitality industry have called for the national tourism authority to shift its intensive tourism promotion to regional markets and those where many people still remain keen to travel overseas despite the global economic downturn.

Tho called for Vietnam’s tourism promotion and marketing to target the country’s neighbor China, Russia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand in addition to the ASEAN region.

Tho was talking to the Daily before joining a group of representatives from the local Departments of Culture, Sport and Tourism and travel agencies heading to Australia’s Melbourne to organize a Vietnam Roadshow on February 16, or one day before the opening of the Asia Pacific Incentive & Meetings Expo (AIME 2009).

There in Melbourne, HCMC and other localities including Hanoi, Can Tho, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Binh Thuan would together promote the national large-scale tourism promotion campaign entitled “Impressive Vietnam” as well as their own products and services.

Tho said the latest date of AIME 2009 showed nearly 2,000 buyers from Australia and elsewhere in the world had already put their names down for the international tourism event. So, this was a good chance for Vietnam to introduce its tourism and Palm Garden Resort to sell its products and the attractions in central Vietnam where the resort is based.

Last year saw the number of Australian visitors to Vietnam surge more than over 104% on the year before to 234,000, according to the General Statistics Office.

In the same side, the chairman of the Tourism Working Group under Vietnam Business Forum recommended that Vietnam focus its branding and promotional strategies on Japan, Korea and Taiwan in addition to the other regional destinations ASEAN and China.

“I would recommend direct sales and marketing campaigns including travel and exhibition shows, familiarization tours, and regional campaigns focusing on their targeted market segments,” said Baron R. Ah Moo, who is also CEO of Indochina Hotels and Resorts.

Although there are now worries over the efficiency of tourism promotion in Japan because of its economic woes, experts stressed that Japan remained a major market for Vietnam though the number of visitors from that market showed signs of decline.

Though Germany has been hit hard by the global economic downturn, Tho said many people in that European country were still willing to holiday overseas, and that the white and yellow-sand beaches in central Vietnam remained attractive to them.

Vietnam Airlines is working with its travel partners including in France over promoting Vietnam’s attractions in that European country this year, especially in the valid period of the “Impressive Vietnam” campaign, which is scheduled to wrap up by the end of September.

The airline plans to offer fare discounts of 20-25% for large travel agents when they arrange tours to Vietnam in certain periods from April to October this year.

Vietnam Airlines will advertise the promotion program on its website in France as well as on popular websites in that country, according to VOVNews.

The national flag air carrier’s aim is to support the “Impressive Vietnam” campaign initiated by the Vietnam National Administration of Vietnam (VNAT) last month in the hope that the country would be able to attract more international tourists this year.

Vietnam is looking to welcome 4.5 million international travelers this year, or 300,000 higher than last year. But, Tho and other experts said this target was a hard nut to crack if the country’s tourism authority did not work aggressively and professionally over tourism marketing in a time of decline in the world’s travel demand.

VietNamNet/SGT