Communicating tourism development policies in Ca Mau press Survey of Ca Mau newspapers, Ca Mau Radio and Television Station in 2019

INTRODUCTION

1. Reason for choosing the topic

Our Party and State have oriented tourism to become a spearhead economic sector and a highly competitive destination for world tourism.

The Prime Minister approved the Project "Strengthening tourism communication activities" (Decision 44/QD-TTg issued on January 9, 2019), thereby determining to promote communication to promote the image, culture, country and people of Vietnam, contributing to building and positioning the image of the Vietnamese tourism brand [53].

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The Ministry of Information and Communications has developed a Plan to promote tourism communication activities, thereby creating a breakthrough in raising social awareness of sustainable tourism development and the effectiveness of domestic and international tourism promotion and advertising activities.

The press is an important part of the media sector. At the International Conference "The role of the press in tourism development" held in Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province, on May 22, 2019, it was also affirmed that tourism cannot develop without press communications. At the same time, it emphasized the role and strengths of all types of press to have a long-term communication strategy, taking advantage of 4.0 technology; innovating communication methods, improving professionalism; having coordination between ministries, branches, localities, and unity in communication between state management agencies on tourism, press management agencies, localities with destinations and press agencies.

In Ca Mau - the southernmost land of the country, nature has endowed it with "golden forests, silver seas, and alluvial soil", with potential and strengths in developing marine economy, aquaculture, and ecotourism, with over 100,000 hectares of cajuput and mangrove forests recognized by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve.

Mui Ca Mau National Park (area of about 42,000 ha) and U Minh Ha National Park (area of over 8,200 ha) are being planned, calling for investment projects to develop tourism, especially developing worthy eco-tourism in the near future.

Ca Mau's tourism resources are also very unique and closely associated with its unique indigenous culture: folk festivals, architectural works, traditional crafts, culinary culture and the sweet melodies of the Southern amateur music art form along with the humorous and witty story of the famous artist Bac Ba Phi.

Tourism products here are increasingly diverse and rich. Many new tourist attractions put into operation such as Mui Ca Mau tourist area have been invested and upgraded, becoming attractive destinations for tourists; Hon Da Bac tourist area, Tram forest ecosystem animal collection garden, Song Trem fishing ground, Bird garden in the heart of Ca Mau city... are also equally important factors in the future development chain of Ca Mau tourism. If Ha Giang - the northernmost land with Lung Cu, with the legendary Mu - Cang - Chai terraced fields, then Mui Ca Mau National Park - the southernmost land of the sacred Fatherland has the Mui Ca Mau Cultural - Tourism Park tourist destination that any Vietnamese person wishes to visit once.

However, in 2019, the total number of tourists to Ca Mau only reached nearly 2 million (of which, international visitors were only over 28 thousand), compared to some provinces in the Mekong Delta region such as Kien Giang and An Giang, it is still very low. According to the tourism development plan until 2020 and orientation to 2030, Ca Mau aims to become a safe, friendly, reputable, attractive tourist destination with high competitiveness; bringing the Ca Mau tourism brand on the national and international map.

Contributing to the development of Ca Mau tourism, over the years, Ca Mau press has always accompanied and closely followed the local policy and has done a good job in promoting Ca Mau land and people. Specifically, Ca Mau newspaper and Ca Mau Radio and Television have dedicated pages, columns, and topics on tourism, with articles introducing tourist destinations, the life of Ca Mau people, customs and practices, traditional cultural values, historical research values, etc.

However, it must be recognized that every year, Ca Mau newspapers publish hundreds of news, articles, photo series, video clips, many special pages, columns, and long-term topics, but they mainly revolve around: orienting the direction of leadership and management; promoting

promote tourism; and regional connectivity. The issue of communicating tourism development policies is still not much, unable to help the tourism industry see clearly the tourism situation of the province in the current integration period.

From that reality, the author chose the thesis topic "Communication of tourism development policy in Ca Mau press" (Survey of Ca Mau newspaper, Ca Mau Radio and Television Station in 2019) to study the current situation, evaluate the successes and limitations of communication activities of tourism development policy in Ca Mau press, specifically the survey of Ca Mau newspaper, Ca Mau Radio and Television Station in 2019; thereby proposing some feasible solutions to contribute to improving the quality of tourism policy communication in Ca Mau press in the coming time.

2. Research status related to the topic

In Vietnam, research and study on tourism policy communication and tourism communication have attracted the attention of researchers, policy makers and economists. However, to date, there has been no master's thesis that comprehensively and deeply studies the role and impact of press communication on the development policy of this smokeless industry, as well as in-depth research on policy communication in each locality, including Ca Mau.

- Some research topics related to communication and policy communication, such as:

Nguyen Huong Thao (2014), Communication in Vietnamese tourism businesses today (Survey of two travel companies, Saigontourist Travel Service Company and Hanoitourist Travel Company from January 2013 to June 2014), Master's thesis in Journalism, supervised by Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen. The thesis analyzed communication activities in current travel businesses, thereby evaluating the effectiveness of the communication department at travel companies, the relationship between the press, media and travel businesses, thereby drawing experience from the practical activities of the communication department at travel businesses in our country today.

Nguyen Thi Nhu Quynh (2018), Communication of educational policies on the industry's press system in the period 2016 - 2017 , master's thesis in Journalism

Journalism, guided by Dang Thi Thu Huong. The author has systematized the theory of educational policy communication. Analyzed and evaluated the advantages, disadvantages and current status of educational press activities on the industry press system in the period of 2016 - 2017. On that basis, proposed solutions to promote communication activities of educational policies on the industry press system in the following years.

Dong Thi Thu, Population policy communication on radio in the Northern Delta provinces , master's thesis in Journalism, supervised by Nguyen Thi Thoa. The thesis studies the current situation, evaluates the successes and limitations of population policy communication activities on radio in the Northern Delta provinces at present (through research in 3 provinces: Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ha Nam), thereby proposing solutions to contribute to improving the quality of population policy communication on radio in the Northern Delta provinces in the coming time.

Nguyen Thi Thai Ha (2007), The press with the issue of promoting Vietnam's tourism development in the integration period, master's thesis in Journalism, supervised by Duong Xuan Son. The thesis has deeply analyzed the strengths of the press in the work of propaganda and promotion of tourism development. The research results of the thesis have also helped experts in the field of tourism to see the need to further promote interdisciplinary coordination between the press and tourism. Based on the analysis of the limitations in the work of press propaganda on tourism development.

It can be seen that communication activities have a very important position. From the above research works, the author can base on the theoretical foundation, conduct surveys, and specifically analyze the issues that need to be researched in the local press.

- Some topics related to tourism promotion and advertising, such as:

Ministry-level topic - General Department of Tourism (1997), Theoretical and practical basis of tourism advertising and propaganda activities and some experimental publications . This topic only focuses on researching tourism advertising on publications: leaflets, catalogs, travel guidebooks. This is a very small part of the promotion work.

Ministry-level topic - General Department of Tourism (2002), Research on scientific basis and solutions for applying information technology in the propaganda and promotion of Vietnam tourism in the face of current scientific and technological challenges . Based on the research on the current status of applying information technology in the propaganda and promotion of tourism, specifically in the construction of tourism websites, the group of authors proposed solutions to deploy the application of information technology in a synchronous and comprehensive manner in all activities of the industry.

Besides, there are also some scientific works researching on communication activities from the perspective of understanding the relationship between the communication agency/department and the press such as: Nguyen Thi Thuan (2008), The relationship between PR and the press (survey of some enterprises and press agencies in the period 2006 - 2008). Do Thi Hoa Quynh (2009), The role of the press in brand development . From specific analyses of public relations activities with specific enterprises, the authors have made assessments of the successes and limitations of these activities, proposing solutions for enterprises to operate more effectively.

These are meaningful reference research works for the topic. However, most of the articles and research works only aim to affirm the position and role of communication activities in tourism development in general, associated with the issue of promoting the tourism brand of the country or locality, but do not discuss the issue of how to communicate tourism policies in the press to get the expected results.

- Some topics related to tourism development policy such as:

Ngo Phu Muoi (2018), Implementing marine tourism development policy from the practice of Da Nang city , master's thesis in Public Policy, supervised by Bui Nhat Quang. The thesis clarifies the theories on implementing development policies, thereby analyzing and evaluating the current status of marine tourism development, on that basis proposing solutions to develop marine tourism in Da Nang city.

Hoang Van Thien (2013), Tourism development policy of Thai Nguyen province , Master's thesis in Economic Management. The thesis mentioned the concept of tourism, tourism industry; environmental factors affecting tourism development policy.

The thesis summarizes the current status of tourism development policy in Thai Nguyen province and proposes some solutions for improvement.

Vu Duc Minh (2009), Tourism Economics Textbook , Statistical Publishing House, Hanoi. This textbook has mentioned a number of issues on the development of the tourism industry - a service economy, the tourism market and policies on the balance of payments in tourism.

Inheriting the research of the above topics, the author summarizes the current status of tourism development policy in Ca Mau province, thereby expanding the research on tourism development policy communication in local press.

- In Ca Mau, there have been a number of other research projects on tourism. However, research related to tourism development policy communication still needs to be supplemented. Some programs and research projects related to tourism development in the province can be mentioned as follows:

Pham Viet Hung (2008), Research on ecotourism development in Ca Mau province , Master's thesis in Geography. The thesis focuses on the research on ecotourism development in Ca Mau province, especially on the research on the potential and current status of ecotourism development in the province. On that basis, some orientations for ecotourism development in the future have been established.

Nguyen Thi Khanh Linh (2013), Developing tourism in Ca Mau province towards sustainability , Master's thesis in Geography. The thesis has clarified theoretical and practical issues on the tourism development situation of the province, thereby orienting the tourism industry to have the most effective steps.

Duong Kim Chuyen (2014), Research on the development of marine tourism in Ca Mau province , Master's thesis in Tourism. The thesis emphasized the importance of developing marine tourism products for the Ca Mau tourism industry, because Ca Mau is a province with great potential for marine tourism that needs to focus on building and developing a marine strategy.

Tran Xuan Truong (2014), Solutions to improve the quality of ecotourism services in Ca Mau province , Master's thesis in Economics. The thesis analyzed the level of satisfaction of tourists with the quality of ecotourism services, thereby proposing solutions to improve the quality of ecotourism services in Ca Mau province in order to

Attracting and extending the length of stay of tourists contributes to the development of the tourism industry.

In particular, at the Scientific Workshop on Current Situation and Solutions for Tourism Development in Ca Mau Province in early October 2018, assessments and solutions for tourism development in Ca Mau were approached through the presentations of speakers, so that the leaders of Ca Mau province could issue appropriate and feasible policies to develop Ca Mau tourism into a spearhead economic sector.

In general, research topics are concerned with theoretical and practical issues about the current status of tourism development in Ca Mau.

That shows that the issue of tourism development in Ca Mau has only been concerned in one aspect, mainly focusing on finding solutions to effectively exploit the potentials and strengths to develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector of the province. Meanwhile, Ca Mau province has been increasing investment in tourism in many aspects; besides, the province's policies to attract investment in tourism development are constantly being implemented.

One of the important factors that help the tourism industry bring the highest profits is the diverse advertising and promotion campaigns with many forms and means, especially, if tourism wants to develop, it is indispensable to have press communication. Therefore, the thesis topic "Communication of tourism development policies in Ca Mau press" (Survey of Ca Mau newspapers, Ca Mau Radio - Television in 2019) is urgent and does not overlap with previously published works.

To create a solid theoretical foundation through referring to the above-mentioned research works, the author also studied related documents such as: documents on the Party's policies and guidelines, State policies and laws on tourism development and the role of the press in tourism development; policies and resolutions of Ca Mau on medium and long-term tourism.

3. Research purpose and tasks

3.1. Research purpose

The thesis studies the current situation, evaluates the successes and limitations of tourism development policy communication activities in Ca Mau press, specifically

Survey on Ca Mau Newspaper, Ca Mau Radio and Television Station in 2019; from there, propose some feasible solutions to contribute to improving the quality of tourism policy communication in Ca Mau press in the coming time.

3.2. Research tasks

To achieve the above purpose, the author of the thesis performs the following tasks:

- Systematize theoretical issues related to the topic.

- Clarifying the viewpoints, guidelines, policies and strategies of the Party and State on tourism development; strategies for developing information, press and media.

- Survey articles, columns, and topics related to tourism development policy communication; evaluate the successes and limitations of tourism development policy communication activities in Ca Mau press in 2019.

- Propose some feasible solutions to help press agencies play a better role in accompanying the tourism industry, contributing to improving the quality of tourism policy communication in Ca Mau press in the coming time.

4. Research object and scope

4.1. Research subjects

The research object of the thesis is communication of tourism development policy in the press.

4.2. Scope of research

Thesis on survey of tourism development policy communication in Ca Mau press.

- Survey content:

+ Documents on the Party and State's guidelines, policies and strategies on tourism development and the role of the media in tourism development.

+ Theories related to the organization and implementation of tourism development policy communication activities.

+ Survey and evaluate the current status of tourism development policy communication in Ca Mau press.

- Spatial scope: 2 press agencies: Ca Mau Newspaper, Ca Mau Radio and Television Station.

- Survey time: 2019.