Forecasting Internet Marketing Application Trends in Tourism Businesses and Development Directions of Internet Marketing in Vietnamese Tourism Businesses

In this chapter, the researcher achieved the following results:

Firstly , a general overview of the tourism situation in Vietnam and analysis of the impact of groups of macro-environmental factors, business environment and internal environment of the enterprise.

Second , collect, survey, analyze and evaluate the current status of the online marketing-mix process and tools of Vietnamese enterprises. Basically, Vietnamese enterprises still carry out some steps in the internet marketing process based on the traditional marketing process. However, not all enterprises complete all the steps. Some enterprises skip one or more steps in the IM process. This leads to the implementation of IM applications still being confusing and having certain shortcomings. The implementation of online marketing-mix tools has also been carried out, but the values that IM brings to the business activities of enterprises have not been fully exploited.

Third , a general assessment of the advantages, disadvantages and causes of IM application in Vietnamese enterprises. From these assessments, specific solutions and recommendations will be developed for IM application in Vietnamese enterprises.

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It can be seen that Internet marketing is a broad category that does not stop at Facebook advertising or Google advertising. Technology changes constantly, allowing businesses to easily obtain information and reach customers. Although there are many benefits like that, in reality, the application of IM in the business activities of Vietnamese enterprises is still limited, requiring leaders to learn and perceive correctly, apply it to marketing activities to be able to take full advantage of the benefits that the Internet brings.

Chapter 4

SOME SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS TO ENHANCE INTERNET MARKETING APPLICATION IN VIETNAMESE TOURISM BUSINESSES

4.1. Forecasting the trend of applying internet marketing in tourism businesses and the direction of developing internet marketing in Vietnamese tourism businesses

4.1.1. Forecasting trends in internet marketing application in tourism businesses

Internet Marketing is becoming a global trend, contributing to business development, especially for the tourism industry. Internet marketing is the best way to reach customers quickly thanks to the development of factors such as connection technology, search engines and social networks. The application of the Internet in tourism enterprises is considered an inevitable trend and is becoming more and more developed.

Nowadays, tourists have entered a new phase called connected tourism, their behavior has changed in the digital age. In particular, tourists proactively search for destinations, find tours, hotels, book air tickets and related services. According to many tourism experts, up to 70% of tourists travel independently (book rooms, pay for transportation, book tickets to entertainment areas, etc.). Currently, only about 30% of customers choose traditional tours and this trend will change even more in the coming years. Customers also proactively post comments and reviews about hotels, tours, and service quality during their journey on tourism forums. These reviews are more trusted by later travelers than information from professional travel survey, ranking, and evaluation agencies.

Vietnam's tourism is developing in the context of the 4th industrial revolution with profound impacts on all aspects of economic and social life. Along with the development of technology and social networks, the strong increase in the number of customers using online tourism services has significantly impacted the tourism market. According to the Vietnam E-commerce Index Report, Vietnam's e-commerce growth rate in 2017 reached more than 25% and was maintained in the period 2018 - 2020. In 2020, this rate was 18%. Notably, the growth rate of online tourism reached 50%, twice the general growth rate of e-commerce. Vietnam E-commerce Association cited a report by Google and Temasek, stating: The scale of Vietnam's online tourism in 2018 reached 3.5 billion USD (15% growth), and is expected to reach 9 billion USD by 2025. Book air tickets, hotel rooms, tours and services

Other tourism support in the online environment is growing rapidly and is convenient for consumers. The retail customer class is increasing strongly both inbound (welcoming foreign guests) and outbound (bringing guests abroad) creating many potential opportunities for tourism. Advanced business models and technologies are strongly applied in online tourism. However, the scale of Vietnam's tourism market is only ranked 5th out of 6 countries ranked in Southeast Asia, ranked 4th in growth rate after Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and there is still a lot of untapped potential. In the future, along with the development of information technology, it will create the premise for internet marketing activities to exploit these potentials.

In addition to the growth rate of e-commerce, it is expected to remain stable in the coming years. The scale of e-commerce transactions reached about 8 billion USD. Of which, online retail and online travel account for the highest proportion in the entire e-commerce market in Vietnam. For Vietnamese consumers, according to research by Nielsen Vietnam, consumer finances are also increasingly optimistic and it is predicted that by 2020, about 55% of the Vietnamese population will use the internet. Statistics from the Vietnam Tourism Association also show that in the past 5 years, the demand for searching for information about tourism online in Vietnam has increased more than 32 times. Of which, each month there are more than 5 million searches in Vietnamese about tourism products such as domestic tours, foreign tours, hotel reservations, types of tourism, etc. During the peak summer tourism months, the number of searches can reach 8 million. Customers can now plan their tour itinerary and pay by card via the internet with just one click...

This shows that the application of internet marketing in tourism enterprises to develop tourism based on online technology platforms is a trend that the Vietnamese tourism industry cannot stay out of, especially when tourism is determined to become a key economic sector of the country. Promoting the application of internet marketing not only helps to improve the competitiveness of Vietnamese tourism, but also helps tourism enterprises to access large markets, beyond the national scope for development. Vietnamese tourism enterprises need to boldly invest and fully exploit the application of the internet in marketing activities in developing online tourism. Applying technology in online tourism activities will bring great benefits in the stages of promotion, service provision, etc., creating the most favorable conditions for tourists, connecting directly between enterprises and enterprises, between enterprises and tourists.

4.1.2. Directions for developing internet marketing in Vietnamese tourism businesses

In recent years, the Party and Government of Vietnam have issued many documents guiding the application of science and technology to socio-economic development in general and tourism development in particular. Pre-emptive policies and institutions are very important to clear the way and create the foundation and legal corridor for smart tourism development.

On January 16, 2017, the Politburo issued Resolution 08-NQ/TW, affirming the view: “Developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector is an important strategic orientation for national development”. To develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector, it is necessary to synchronously implement many solutions, in which, it is inevitable to promote the application of modern science and technology. Resolution 08-NQ/TW stated three aspects of applying science and technology to tourism activities, including: promoting tourism, training tourism human resources and state management of tourism. The 2017 Tourism Law also affirmed that “the State has policies to encourage and support activities applying modern science and technology to serve tourism management and development” (Clause 4, Article 5).

In order to create a breakthrough in attracting international visitors to Vietnam, in 2017, the Government issued Decree No. 07/2017/ND-CP and Resolution No. 124/2017/NQ-CP stipulating the procedures for piloting the issuance of electronic visas (e-visas) for foreigners entering Vietnam. Notably, in Directive No. 16/2017/CT-TTg, for the first time the term "smart tourism" was mentioned in a legal document of Vietnam: "...prioritizing the development of digital technology industry, smart agriculture, smart tourism, smart cities". The Directive also emphasized the need to enhance the capacity to access the 4th Industrial Revolution, which requires prioritizing the development of smart tourism.

In addition, it is understood that the application of information technology plays an important role in all political, economic and social fields of a country, especially in the development of the tourism industry. In Vietnam, this role has been demonstrated through Decision 1671/QD-TTg 2018 approving the " Overall project on the application of information technology in the tourism sector for the period 2018 - 2020, with a vision to 2025" of the Prime Minister. The project clearly states that "Application of information technology aims to develop a smart tourism ecosystem, proactively meeting specific needs,

specialized in the tourist market, supporting tourism enterprises to effectively connect with related entities, creating an environment for the community and creative start-up businesses in line with the trend of the fourth industrial revolution, meeting the requirements of innovation, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of state management, contributing to promoting growth and enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnam's tourism . "The Decision also identifies the viewpoint of applying information technology as a requirement and breakthrough solution to facilitate and attract tourists, improve competitiveness and international integration, contributing to realizing the goal of developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector.

In addition, Decision 1783/QD-BVHTTDL dated May 17, 2019 of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism promulgating the Plan to implement the Master Plan "Application of information technology in the tourism sector" sets out specific tasks and solutions to implement the Prime Minister's Project; emphasizing coordination, connection and data exchange between units under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and with ministries, branches, localities, organizations and enterprises.

The General Department of Tourism and the entire industry have made efforts to deploy many activities to implement the overall project of applying information technology in the tourism sector, developing smart tourism. The construction industry has built a tourism database system and developed applications to support management work. Building a digital database system platform for the tourism industry, including data on tour guides, travel agencies, accommodation establishments, tourist areas/destinations. This is an interconnected system connecting data from enterprises, localities with central management agencies to form a unified database of the tourism industry, effectively serving the management, promotion and tourism business activities. Along with that, the tourism industry has also built and launched the application "Vietnam Tour Guiding" to support the operation, management and operation of tour guides, businesses and tourism management agencies, allowing connection and interaction between tour guides, tourists, and tourism businesses throughout the journey before, during and after the trip. The application also allows for the evaluation and ranking of tour guides and tourism businesses, supporting information on products, services and electronic payments; Building online tourism statistics software, applying BI management software (Tourism industry data analysis system) and Dashboard application (Management information display interface system) to serve tourism management and e-commerce.

The tourism industry has also applied digital technology to support tourists and promote smart tourism such as: Upgrading and developing the Vietnam tourism promotion website www.vietnam.travel. Promoting tourism promotion campaigns through the promotion channels of the General Department of Tourism on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and connecting and sharing synchronous data between database systems of the tourism, industry and trade, health, education, and commercial banking sectors. Building and launching the "Vietnam Tourism" application to support tourists. Organizing a survey program for delegations of reporters, journalists, Vietnamese and international tourism enterprises to survey destinations to develop digital content to promote Vietnam tourism.

4.2. Proposing some solutions to enhance the application of internet marketing in Vietnamese tourism businesses

4.2.1. Raising awareness of leaders and employees about applying internet marketing in businesses

This awareness, in addition to marketing awareness, also includes awareness of IT and the internet.

To develop tourism as an economic sector, tourism marketing activities play a particularly important role. However, the perception of society, especially of managers, still has many shortcomings. Therefore, investment in tourism marketing in general and internet marketing in particular is still very limited in terms of human resources, total investment capital and conditions for development.

A large number of managers of Vietnamese tourism enterprises are misunderstanding or not fully understanding IM in their business activities. This incomplete understanding leads to confusion in not knowing whether to invest in IM activities or not, where to start and how to do it, what the process is, what tools need to be implemented? To overcome this situation, raising social awareness of online marketing in tourism enterprises, especially at the management level, is very important. At the same time, it is necessary to demonstrate the effectiveness of online marketing in tourism business activities through seminars and dialogues between managers and tourism enterprises; through field surveys in localities and destinations in the region where online marketing is widely applied in tourism business activities.

From there, to develop IM, the leadership team needs to learn and grasp the development trends and the role of IM in the 4.0 era. When the management team grasps the trend,

Therefore, understanding the importance of applying science and technology in business development, IM development will be more favorable, and more attention will be paid to investing human resources and finance in IM activities.

4.2.2. Increase investment in information technology infrastructure

IT improves service quality and contributes to enhancing tourist satisfaction. Customer satisfaction depends largely on the accuracy and comprehensiveness of specific information about destination accessibility, facilities, tourist attractions and other activities. Therefore, IT facilitates factors that promote consumer satisfaction. Recognizing the importance of IT in business development strategies, many Vietnamese tourism enterprises have boldly and proactively invested in and applied IT achievements to their business operations and have achieved certain successes. However, the majority of Vietnamese tourism enterprises are still struggling to choose an IT model that is suitable for their financial capacity and business goals. Most Vietnamese tourism enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises. One of the biggest difficulties for small and medium-sized enterprises is limited resources, so investing in a specialized and competent IT staff is a difficult problem for many enterprises to solve. However, business leaders need to be clearly aware that if they want to improve their competitiveness, Vietnamese tourism enterprises must innovate themselves according to new trends and social developments, thereby making worthy investments in IT to serve their business operations.

4.2.3. Building an internet marketing model at Vietnamese tourism businesses

From the theoretical framework used to study the IM application process at tourism enterprises and analyze the current status of the internet marketing application process of Vietnamese tourism enterprises, it is found that Vietnamese tourism enterprises have not implemented IM application according to a specific application process, which causes difficulties for enterprises in the process of implementing IM application in business activities at the enterprise. The researcher proposes a process model of steps and content related to the IM application process for Vietnamese tourism enterprises as follows (see diagram 4.1)

Internet marketing environment analysis

Targeted Online Marketing

Market segmentation

Select target market

Market positioning

Define Internet marketing strategy goals

Brand communication strategy goals

Sales communication strategy objectives

Online marketing-mix planning

Product

Price

Distribution