Local Marketing Performance Testing and Evaluation

2.5.4. Organizing local marketing implementation

The local marketing budget is planned to ensure that there is enough funding allocated for activities, to ensure that the implementation results are achieved as set out in the plan; the funding source can be taken from the local budget or funded by government projects and foreign organizations. In addition, to ensure that local marketing activities are still carried out, while saving costs for the locality, it is required that localities flexibly use all available local resources.

Organize local marketing

A locality that has built a good marketing plan does not necessarily achieve effectiveness when implementing it, but the decisive role in bringing about effectiveness is the implementation stage. Some points to note when implementing local marketing:

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First: Local marketing activities involve many social components, from managers to local residents, so it is difficult to unite their behaviors in a unified manner. The government can only establish a group in the form of a "working group" to direct the implementation, but cannot directly implement it;

Second : Local products are abstract and difficult to visualize in practice.

Therefore, it is necessary to specifically classify products into product groups.

Third: The customer base is diverse and not concentrated, including both tourists and investors from many different fields and countries, so if the organization and implementation are not carefully calculated, it will cause waste and not achieve the desired results.

Therefore, to effectively organize local marketing activities, depending on the locality and specific circumstances, it can be organized in different ways.

2.5.5. Check and evaluate local marketing activities

This is the activity of reviewing, evaluating and measuring the results achieved in the plan in order to adjust to achieve the set goals. Control is the process by which the State management agency reviews the effectiveness of local marketing activities and programs to make necessary changes and adjustments.

To make accurate assessments, localities need to select a list of indicators or a set of criteria to evaluate the set goals to control local marketing strategies, plans, activities and tools.

In addition, local authorities also need to set out regulations on sanctions for implementation, with penalties for violations, and rewards for organizations and individuals who perform well in implementing local marketing. The evaluation results identify necessary adjustments and improvements in the way local marketing tools are used to better control the chosen marketing strategy and tools.

2.5.6. Implement local tourism marketing mix

Within the scope of the thesis, the 7Ps marketing model will be considered: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical evidence.

Tourism products

According to Kotler (2012) [19], a locality's tourism products include all services provided with all the locality's social culture, environmental resources and public goods.

Tourism products are the tourists' experiences of a tourist destination. Therefore, the more diverse and interesting the experience is for tourists, the more successful the locality will be in competing to attract tourists. Therefore, in addition to the differentiation strategy, the strategy of diversifying products and improving the quality of tourism products is essential so that tourists have more choices and more experiences in a locality (see the tourism product section 2.1.2.2).

Investment and development of new products/services: localities select unique attractive features from natural and human resources, build infrastructure to access tourist destinations, build tourism facilities and services, and management policies.

According to Stankovic & ctg (2007) [94], tourism products, linking neighboring localities to coordinate and create are also very important for tourist destinations. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on coordinating local tourism products.

Price

Price is an important marketing concern for all goods and services. But it is also a frequent obsession in many travel markets, especially those with close substitutes, targeting leisure and vacation segments. Price may be the dominant influence on market demand in the short term, but it is still only one of seven levers of strategic and tactical coordination.

Pricing decisions must be combined with product, service, and distribution decisions to form a consistent and effective marketing program. Prices of products are determined differently in the market, depending on its quality, reputation, uniqueness, seasonality, and space. Some basic pricing methods are based on the following principles:

- Cost-based pricing : the simplest method of determining price based on cost is the cost-based profit method.

- Market pricing : in this way, from the beginning, the price of the new product is relatively low to attract a large number of buyers and capture a large market share.

- Going-price pricing : pricing is based mainly on competitors' prices with little attention paid to one's own costs or demand.

- Seasonal pricing : each season has a different price corresponding to the demand at each time of the year.

Distribution activities

Distribution in tourism business is the process of activities, thanks to which customers reach the destination to meet their needs. The role of distribution in tourism is to establish a connection between supply and demand, between tourism organizations and tourists, bring products and services to customers and bring customers to the products.

The main distribution channels in tourism, as in other economic activities, have very long channels (production - wholesale - retail) and also shorter channels such as direct sales or via mail order. In addition, there are ways to coordinate according to the nature: selling a trip through the organization channel - travel agency, ... Depending on the target market and customer base, the destination can focus on the appropriate distribution channel.

- Booking a trip – is the simplest channel. This can be proposed directly to the guest by the hotel owner, or the person responsible for the accommodation, or means of transport: this is a common form in ticket offices for airlines, trains, ships, and hotels.

- The main distribution channel for tourism is still the channel undertaken by travel agents, specifically: Retail units and wholesalers. In addition, there are also information provision, online tour sales and other distribution channels such as mail order sales, phone sales.

Tourism promotion activities

Tran Ngoc Nam and Tran Huy Khang (2005): Promotion is one of the four elements of Marketing – Mix to support sales. Promotion is used for all means of communication between sellers and buyers (or those intending to buy) to persuade them to buy their products.

Some commonly applied forms of promotion are as follows:

- The first is direct information aimed at bringing tourism products to the public. Direct information is presented in the form of: Speaking, writing, seeing through tourism information centers or through document distribution.

- Second is public relations: In an organization there are two relationships: internal relations and external relations.

Internal relations : This is the relationship between employees of departments in an organization and the organization's customers. For customers, this relationship needs to be close and intimate with old customers and learn about new customers. For employees, it is necessary to have close relationships, learn about their wishes, train and coach them. Creating good internal relations will help the organization's business develop, thanks to them, sales will grow strongly.

External relations : This is the communication and contact with outside organizations such as local public customers, press, government and other organizations. In external relations, relations with the press, articles about your unit, photos posted in newspapers and on television are very good for advertising. In external relations, there is a very effective form of promotion which is promotion.

In marketing management, public relations plays an important role in tourists' perception of tourist destinations as activities to create good impressions and images in the public's mind.

- Third is advertising:

According to Philip Kotler (2009), “Advertising is a form of non-personal communication, carried out through paid media and with clearly defined funding sources.”

Advertising in tourism aims to expand the area of influence, attract tourists, attract new local customers, introduce new products, attract returning customers, etc. This is an extremely essential tool for promoting tourism that destinations must pay close attention to and invest in.

Human

In tourism activities as well as other economic sectors, the human factor is always decisive, so the human resources required for tourism are knowledge, expertise and culture. Thus, human resource development has strategic significance, placing it at the forefront of the tourism development process.

According to Hoffman & Bateson (2001) [63], employee interactions are the face of a travel company. Their appearance, behavior, knowledge and attitudes have a strong impact on customers' perceptions of the organization they represent.

Service delivery process

As a comprehensive process, tourism is an industry that provides tourists with both tangible and intangible products. Therefore, providing tourism products includes many activities from introducing, receiving, providing products, and returning tourists. In which, the interaction between tourism staff and tourists plays an important role in the quality of the entire tourism activity.

Physical evidence and design management

Physical evidence, which draws on the five senses: sight (especially colour and aesthetics), sound, smell, touch and taste. Physical evidence acts as an alternative to the use of “packaging” for products based on physical goods. It communicates messages about location, quality and differentiation, and it helps both design and meet visitor expectations. Physical evidence can be used to facilitate the service delivery process, for example, layout and signage influence customer response.

2.6. Factors affecting and local marketing models on tourism development

2.6.1. Factors affecting local tourism development

Consider the factors affecting local tourism development including: (1) The group of external factors are opportunities and challenges of the environment including: economy, politics, legal policies, socio-culture and cultural exchange and

(2) The group of internal factors is the resources and organizational capacity of the locality including: strategic orientation, resources, local identity and image, and coordination of participating parties.

2.6.1.1. External factors group

The group of external factors affecting the development of local tourism, these are factors that localities can hardly control but can only respond to minimize the impact on activities. Some key factors for

The factors affecting the development of tourism destinations are: National tourism strategy and policy, National tourism destination image, Political and social stability, Impact of environmental pollution at regional and national levels, and Development trends and tourism demand of the region and the world. Within the scope of the study, some key factors affecting the development of local tourism will be considered as follows:

Economic environment factors

Nowadays, globalization and deep economic integration, the instability of the world economy due to recession and economic crisis in some countries and regions also have certain impacts in each period on national and local tourism.

Political environment, legal policy factors

National political stability, international relations, and foreign policies create a stable environment that will promote the development of socio-economic and tourism sectors, attracting tourists and investors to the local tourism sector. Correct, timely, and synchronous policies will impact the development of economic components, such as monetary and financial policies, national tourism policies and programs, preferential investment policies for exploiting natural resources for tourism purposes, etc., which will create a legal foundation to ensure sustainable development of destinations.

Cultural factors and cultural exchange

Cultural factors determine the unique characteristics, creating the uniqueness of tourism products. Nowadays, tourists tend to go to destinations with unique traditional cultures that are different from their current living and working environment. Cultural interference from tourism activities can be positive or negative depending on people's awareness of cultural values. However, the diversification and interference of cultures without selection will lead to the risk of losing traditional cultural identity, affecting the decision to use and adjust appropriate marketing tools to reduce negative impacts in order to preserve local cultural traditions.

2.6.1.2. Internal factors

The group of internal factors are factors belonging to local resources. Within the scope of research on local tourism development, we will consider factors that have a major impact on tourism development such as: tourism resources, local socio-economic environment, local tourism strategy and management, coordination and linkage between local stakeholders.

Local strategic and management orientation factors

Strategic orientation includes vision, strategic analysis, showing the direction and way that the locality achieves the set goals, based on the previous research on opportunities, challenges and capacity of the locality. This factor depends on the viewpoint of local authorities, leaders, and the advice of state management agencies specializing in tourism. According to Baker & Cameron (2008) [53], Strategic orientation affects the planning and action programs of tourism. Directly affects the planning of marketing tool mixes suitable for each selected market segment, directly affects the inspection, evaluation and adjustment of marketing activities.

Economic and social environmental factors

Local socio-economic environment factors, this is a factor reflecting the general economic and social development of the locality. Tourism is a highly comprehensive and interdisciplinary industry, so the socio-economic development of the locality has a decisive influence on the development of local tourism. A highly developed local economy will have a strong impact on the development and quality of local tourism, such as: a highly developed local manufacturing industry will provide many products to the market, tourists have many choices of local products, ... The social environment develops, the people's knowledge improves, people's income increases, society is stable and secure, such as: the education sector develops, people's knowledge improves, leading to civilized and humane behavior, and will train many highly skilled workers, and when people's income increases, it will

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