On September 23, the Forum on Brand Strategy and Competition took place in Hanoi, focusing on discussing issues of innovation, national brand strategy, local brand, businesses and competitiveness in the new context.
At the event, Dr. Vu Huong Giang - Head of Hotel and Tourism Management Department, Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi Open University presented a paper on how localities transform identity into experiences, brands and economic values.
Competitive destinations with experience
According to Dr. Vu Huong Giang, in the experience economy, the attractiveness of destinations no longer lies only in landscapes, heritage, culture, infrastructure or tourism products. Tourists are increasingly interested in the emotions and memories they have after the trip.
In the experience economy, resources only play the role of a starting point. The most important thing is the experiences that the destination can create for tourists. They care about the emotions they have, thereby creating memories of the trip and those memories later become stories to be told," said Dr. Vu Huong Giang.
According to her, experiences are formed throughout the tourist's journey, from setting foot at the destination, using services, participating in activities to leaving. Therefore, a negative experience can also affect the overall image of the destination.
Localities can spend trillions of VND on promotion, infrastructure construction or event organization to attract tourists. However, if tourists just set foot in the airport and encounter an unenthusiastic staff, encounter overcharging taxi drivers, or encounter harassment at tourist attractions, those negative experiences can ruin the overall tourist experience at the destination," she analyzed.
Therefore, according to Dr. Vu Huong Giang, the destination brand cannot only be created with logos, slogans or communication campaigns, but must be formed from the actual experiences of tourists. This is also the responsibility of all subjects participating in tourism activities.
Local identity creates a competitive advantage
In the context of many destinations providing similar products, Dr. Vu Huong Giang believes that local identity is the factor that creates difference. Identity is formed from culture, heritage, people, life, cuisine, space and the core values of the locality.
The origin of the difference in the tourist's experience at destinations stems from local identity. Local identity is culture, heritage, people and life, cuisine, space, core values and is expressed in the development activities of the destination. Therefore, to build a destination brand, we must originate from local identity," she said.
According to her, marketing and communication play a role in bringing the destination image to the market, but tourists are the ones who verify that message through real-life experiences. Identity only truly becomes a brand when it is consistently expressed in what tourists see, feel and remember.
Dr. Vu Huong Giang cited examples of Kyoto, Paris and Sydney, saying that images of traditional culture, romance or dynamism, closeness to nature need to be expressed in the activities that tourists experience at the destination.
From identity, destinations create experiences; experiences create emotions and memories; those memories continue to be shared by tourists through word of mouth, social networks and content created by themselves. Through this, the image and reputation of the destination are gradually formed.
However, according to Dr. Vu Huong Giang, brands should not only be seen as a tool to attract more tourists.
The important thing is not only to turn local identity into a brand to create competition from the brand, but most importantly to create value for the locality.
We need to ask whether the local community has additional income, whether local goods are consumed locally and whether the values are reinvested in local development activities," she raised the issue.
Accordingly, the value created from the brand needs to be reinvested in local identity, thereby improving management capacity and continuing to improve the tourist experience.
For this chain of transformation to operate sustainably, local values after being created will be reinvested in local identity to improve destination management capacity as well as create quality experiences for tourists," said Dr. Vu Huong Giang.
From the story of building a destination brand, opinions at the forum also raised the issue of how to improve competitiveness in the new context. Besides local brands, the forum focused on exchanging ideas on innovation, national brand strategies, business brands and competitiveness building solutions suitable to current development requirements.
