Some solutions to develop international travel business of Vietnam tourism industry - 11

- Increase price or set a high price: This measure, as mentioned above, is when the business has advantages in its products, the specialized products that the business creates can be almost exclusive. However, the business must be careful because if the price is too high, customers will reject the product and if the competitor's product can be replaced or the competitor can quickly create the same, customers will turn their backs and lean towards the competing company.

- Reasonable price or elastic price policy: Normally, customers buy products based on the balance between price and quality. Reasonable price policy is to set prices based on this balance. However, to have reasonable prices, businesses must have a price list for each type of service provided in a certain period. Prices should not be set for a long period, the price changes depending on:

. Period, season: Different periods can be created. The lowest selling price applies during the period with the fewest customers, the highest selling price applies during the period with the most customers. After creating such a price list, the Enterprise publishes that price list and it will apply during a certain period. The price does not change during this period.

Payment method: If you receive money in advance from customers who deposit or pay in advance, you can give them a discount. Because in this case, the tour sales of the business are firmly guaranteed.

. Change the cost of exploitation: In this case, there are some customers who require more special care or need to reduce the service, they just need the product is not as good as the business offers, then the product can be sold at a price that changes according to the demand.

Maybe you are interested!

. Minus commission: In terms of form, the product price is not reduced. But to attract customers through intermediaries, introducers... Businesses reduce prices to attract customers. This form is commonly applied in buying and selling.

. Special price: This price is applied to each group, large tourist group. For example, if the number is large, the price will be reduced significantly (20%). If there are more than 15 people, the 16th person will enjoy FOC (This has almost become a custom)

Some solutions to develop international travel business of Vietnam tourism industry - 11

. Price distribution strategy: There are different types of prices for the tourism products of the Enterprise.

Public price: is the price sold directly to tourists.

Price for agents (tour office) and hotel representatives: This price is lower than the public price with a commission rate of 10%

Wholesale price: Is the price sold to tourism operators, domestic and foreign partners (usually with regular customer contracts). It can be 10-20% lower than the public price. This is the lowest price of the 3 selling prices.

- Regarding the price distribution policy for intermediary organizations, Enterprises can


Free Charge : Free Standard


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apply according to the following methods:

Comment [CtT1]:

. Rebate or incentive discount: Means giving agents a percentage of cumulative discount over a certain period of time.

Seasonal commissions: Commission rates for intermediaries vary seasonally, with higher rates during off-season periods.

. Progressive discount at a certain rate for extended tour duration.

. Fixed price but also includes additional services provided to customers (For example, video recording, photography, gifts...) but without charging. Of course, businesses need to clearly state and advertise these types of services in detail.

C- DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

Distribution strategy contributes significantly to the process of providing products to customers. Distribution policy also plays a very important role in marketing. A reasonable policy will make the business process safe, enhance the ability to connect in business, reduce competition and make the process of circulating goods fast and effective. Distribution policy depends a lot on product policy and price policy.

The distribution system of a tourism business includes a combination of networks and product distribution stages. It is a synthesis process either directly implemented through consumers or through a chain of intermediaries. Usually this consumption is carried out by businesses, agents, and travel agencies through contracts. Along with the development and diversification of products, due to the increasingly deep division of labor, tourism distribution channels are becoming increasingly large and forming a tight chain.

Customers, after being attracted by promotional activities, will decide to reserve a seat for their trip on a vehicle, accommodation, ... and pay for the purchase of these products. These tasks can be performed by the Enterprise in different distribution channels.

Choosing a long or short distribution channel depends on the characteristics of each market, each type of product, the competition there... Normally we have the following distribution channels:


Suppliers

Transport enterprise

- Hotel

0


Agents or Referrals

1K Travel Company

Tour operator H


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2

Travel Company

Tour operator

Travel companies

Guest Partner

- Asia Guesthouse

- Entertainment place N

- Sightseeing cradle H

- Restaurant A

3

Operator Travel Company

- Bar N

G



In addition to the main distribution channels above, businesses can also apply distribution through the following forms:

- Sales by mail:

The success factors of this form are:

. Advertising brochures must be of high quality, specific and accurate content.

. Create a customer address book

. Has established a solid relationship.

- Selling by phone: Along with the reservation is the need for customer information, there is the free phone call...

- Selling via the internet: This is a new form that is starting to become popular in the international tourism market and is very effective. Although selling on the spot, it is distributed very far away. Because of the effectiveness and urgency of this form, we will study it further as a major solution in the following section.

- Sell on the spot by booking tables at hotels, banks, supermarkets, airports

fly...


- Sales through trade unions.

It is also necessary to change the concept of customer sources, not only focusing on the market.

Large markets, large companies that have brought results. Whether large or small, customer sources are market segments that need specific strategies to exploit effectively. Current market segmentation strategies show that many small companies have a fairly stable and regular source of customers from unfamiliar places with little potential such as some small countries in Northern Europe or South America.

C/ PROMOTION STRATEGY

“Promotion is one of the important and effective tools in marketing activities. The purpose of promotion is to bring supply and demand together, so that sellers can better satisfy the needs of buyers. Promotion makes sales easier. Promotion not only supports but also enhances product, price and distribution strategies. It not only makes goods sold more and faster, but also strengthens the prestige of the business.” In theory, the advertising and promotion strategy has 4 action contents:

1. Advertising

2. Sales Promotion

3. Publicity


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4. Direct promotion and personal selling (Personal)

Advertisement

The advertising work of enterprises has been carried out quite strongly, but still contains some shortcomings that need to be overcome. In order for advertising to be effective, enterprises need to set out the goals of their advertising program, how through advertising customers will know about their products and sell their products.

Advertising of goods and services is the introduction and propaganda to attract people's attention to the products, goods and services and ultimately make them become partners, customers, and actual customers of the Enterprise.

Depending on the specific characteristics of each program and each different market segment, choose the appropriate media and advertising methods to suit the cost, the least advertising, the most information received by customers, and the number of recipients of advertising information is exactly the target market that the business has chosen.

The main means of advertising include:

- Newspapers and magazines: This is a widely applied form. Through this form, it is possible to advertise frequently, widely and promptly the name of the Enterprise and existing products.

- Types of publications: These are introductions with pictures about tourism programs, these publications should be used to send to businesses, foreign customers, and fair attendees. Special programs must be printed in brochures and must ensure content and form.

- Information, pictures, programs. Currently, the internet is an important tool for advertising. According to statistics, 85% of tourists in the US market get travel information through the internet. Therefore, our businesses should promote the application of advertising on the internet.

- Using radio, television, and movies for advertising (low efficiency)

There are many advertising media, but when building advertising content, it is a difficult job, requiring businesses to invest a lot. The clearer and more accurate the advertising content is, the more it is absorbed and recognized, ensuring the AIDA principle:

. Get Attention

. Hold Interest (make interesting)

. Create D esire (create desire)

. Lead to Action (leads to product purchase action)

Businesses should overcome the current spontaneous and scattered advertising and should launch a specific program or campaign. An advertising campaign includes the following steps that businesses need to do:


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- Identify the target market, determine whether this market is new or old.

Corresponding to these types of customers we have different types of products.

-Set advertising goals: Inform old and new customers about the company's products. Inform potential markets about existing products.

- Choose the appropriate advertising method with many different advertising formats

: It is necessary to choose the option based on the viewpoint that the expenditure must be focused and at the right time, spending the least but having the most effect. For example, if we advertise all our products in newspapers in Vietnam, this is a waste of money. Because newspapers and radio stations in Vietnam are mainly read by Vietnamese people, they do not attract international tourists.

In Vietnam, businesses should only advertise their name and tours for Vietnamese people. As for products for foreign customers, especially American customers, we can advertise so that partner businesses and customers in the US know the name of the business and the products they need. We can advertise through airlines, commercial organizations, ticket agents, etc. using means such as the internet, brochures, videos, calendars, etc.

- Choose the right time to advertise:

. Select major events to open ad campaigns in advance.

. Choose the main tourist season, do not send all printed documents at once to the recipient.

The above work must be drafted on the basis of a strategy for using information media and must comply with the following general principles:

- Fits marketing plan

- Reasonable

- Be brief, thorough and clear to avoid misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

- In-depth, don't promise everything to the customer but only tell the most important thing. Direct the customer's actions according to your will.

- A promise must have meaning and support for its words.

- Highlight products by developing features.

In addition to the above tasks, the advertising of the Enterprise must also prepare the following two points:

1. Media plan: This plan outlines the most effective way to use media. It specifies the size, length, color, number of countries, cities or regions where advertising will take place, and the total cost of advertising.

2. Advertising budget: This budget includes costs for advertising agencies, costs for printing advertising materials and research costs for advertising.

Promotion work (also known as sales promotion)

In tourism activities, this activity needs special attention to participation.


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fair. Due to the specific nature of the product, displaying goods or changing designs... are not mentioned here. The distribution strategy of the Enterprise is through channels through intermediaries, through partners, so finding partners and creating customer sources is very important. It has high results and efficiency when the Enterprise participates in tourism fairs.

Direct promotion and personal selling

Due to the nature of the product, direct sales promotion is also different from the commercial industry. This work is not carried out as regularly as with regular goods. However, when participating in fairs to find customers and partners, direct sales work is extremely important for tourism marketing.

Propaganda

Propaganda or promotion means activities to let the public know about good things about the business. Promotional work is more macro-oriented about Vietnam tourism products, but each business also has an interest in this work. Because propaganda is also very effective in attracting customers. Currently, some businesses such as Ben Thanh Tourism, Saigon Tourist have made a self-introduction film on television.

In terms of the relationship between businesses and the mass media, there are still many limitations, there is no source of information for press agencies, including foreign press agencies. In the current conditions, attracting customers through propaganda, through the mass media network is a very important "channel", with a very high advertising significance.

Advertising and propaganda is not simply a matter of relations and implementation through mass media channels. It is also a matter of general relations of the Enterprise, including both internal and external relations:

- Internal relations: It is the way leaders treat employees, shown through recruitment, job arrangement, regulations or relationships between employees, employees and customers...

- External relations: Enterprises should have good relationships with press agencies, news agencies, diplomatic agencies. They can create self-introduction films, participate in sponsorship activities... These external relations activities include relationships with the customer community, relationships with service providers, local authorities, industry management levels, competitors, and participation in associations. All of these relationships will have a positive impact on the operations of the Enterprise.

Businesses can also create opportunities to build relationships with customers through forms such as organizing customer conferences, organizing seminars, and conducting customer opinion surveys to:

. Clients talk about the content and art of product advertising and what to do.


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. Customers will describe and talk about their needs and attitudes towards the Company's products. Through customers' attitudes, the Company will know the successes or remaining problems to be solved.

. Through the opinions of agents, partners, and customers, the Enterprise can continue to forecast demand, decide on prices, and review policies and measures to improve the safety of business activities, business plans, and improve its products...


Appendix 11


MARKET RESEARCH


A- Basis of market segmentation

What characteristics or bases should be used to divide the market into segments? This is one of the thorny issues that every tourism business has to face, and is also very important for the effectiveness of marketing. There are 7 criteria as follows:

1. Geographic segmentation. Is the basis for segmenting the market into groups of customers with the same geographical location. This is a widely used segmentation basis in the travel industry to research and define the consumer market because tour groups are often in the same group with the same geographical location.

2. Demographic segmentation. Based on statistics, drawn from census information, age, gender, family factors. This segmentation is essential to study the psychological factors of customers.

3. Segmentation by trip purpose. This segmentation helps prepare better customer service, it is especially important for hotels.

4. Psychographic segmentation. Psychographics are the development of psychological profiles of customers and psychologically based assessments of certain lifestyles. Some lifestyles are characterized by the way they spend their time.

5. Behavioral segmentation is dividing customers according to their usage opportunities, including: usage frequency, usage status and usage potential, loyalty to the business's brand, usage opportunities, and benefits.

6. Product segmentation. Product segmentation uses some aspect of the service to classify customers. This is a popular method in


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The travel industry to determine product strategy. There are cruise tourism markets, vacation markets, hunting markets and many other markets.

7. Segmentation by distribution channel. Is to divide the travel intermediaries or tourism businesses according to the functions and common characteristics that the functional groups have. Customer segmentation is done first, and then the segmentation for distribution channels. From there, travel businesses can choose between (1) direct marketing to customers, (2) marketing through intermediaries (agents, partner companies), (3) a mixture of both 1 and 2.


B- Trends and preferences of French tourists

+ Some features of the situation of French tourists coming to Vietnam and the basic advantages of exploiting the French market

Vietnam's tourism industry has also identified France as one of the main markets for Vietnam's inbound tourism. In fact, according to WTO statistics, France is one of the 10 major tourism markets in the world (major generating markets), in the group of 10 countries sending the most visitors to China, Thailand and Vietnam (countries in the Asia Pacific region). According to WTO, the Southeast Asia Pacific region has a large growth in the number of French tourists (lion's share). Tourists to Vietnam are therefore also likely to increase in the near future.

In recent times, the number of French tourists to Vietnam has tended to stagnate due to the weaknesses of the industry and competition from countries in the region. According to the General Department of Tourism, the number of French tourists (including overseas Vietnamese) to Vietnam in 1995 was 137,890 people, in 1996 it was 87,795 people, down 36.33% in 1997 to 81,513 people, in 1998 it was 83,371 people, up 2.28% compared to 1997. While the development of the French market is considered to have very favorable conditions and is one of the important and sustainable target markets of Vietnam.

The historical relationship between Vietnam and France over the past 100 years has facilitated the attraction of Vietnamese tourism products, in every French family there is usually a relative who has lived in Vietnam, this makes Vietnam a special stop for the French. Vietnam is also a member of the Francophone Council and successfully organized the 1997 Francophone Summit.

Why does Vietnam attract French tourists? It is the natural landscape and ecological environment (the proportion of French tourists traveling across Vietnam is quite high - 70%), the Vietnamese people (friendly, not yet much affected by the industrial lifestyle),


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