HÀ NỘI — A new tourism brand and website for the combined destination provinces of Thừa Thiên-Huế, Đà Nẵng and Quảng Nam has been launched under the support of the EU-funded Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism (EU-ESRT) Programme. 

Speeking in the meeting on Friday, Tom Corrie, deputy head of Co-operation and Development, EU Delegation to Việt Nam, pointed out that Việt Nam competes with attractive tourism destinations in neighbouring countries.

“To survive in this competitive environment that is heavily influenced by globalisation trends, Việt Nam must present itself with innovative and diversified products, which are unique and lead to a quality-oriented positioning.”

“These products need intelligent marketing structures, both national and regional, to communicate the competitive advantages of the destination. Collectively your three provinces can offer a strong and very attractive tourism product,” he said.

Titled “The Essence of Vietnam”, the destination brand was developed as a result of a number of workshops attended by tourism sector stakeholders including the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), provincial tourism authorities and business leaders in tourism.  

The brand aims to position the destination as the quintessential Việt Nam where visitors can find the very best culture, nature coast and food experiences all in one concentrated place. It also aims to reflect and reinforce the strengths of a united three province region as the priceless centrepiece of the country, and a destination whose quality lives up to its ancient traditions and heritage.

The region’s welcoming people are represented with an “open heart”, with its orange, blue and green colours symbolising the region’s core tourism product lines of culture, coast and nature. These product line colours are consistent with the VNAT’s "Việt Nam Timeless Charm" brand. The fourth colour, red, is added to represent the region’s famous cuisine.

The open heart also depicts the number three, which both signifies the three core product lines as well as the three provinces. When placed on a map, the open heart encircles the region’s key cities of Huế, Đà Nẵng and Hội An, which are the Essence of Việt Nam.

Marketing: The view of Thanh Toàn tiled-roofed bridge in Huế City with the tourism brand for the combined destination provinces of Thừa Thiên-Huế, Đà Nẵng and Quảng Nam. - Photo theessenceofvietnam.com

The new brand has already been applied to joint marketing material including regional route planner maps and the new destination website. The event yesterday also saw the official launch of the new three province destination website, www.theessenceofvietnam.com in Vietnamese and English.

“The website cross-promotes the tourism products of the three province’s with the aim being to encourage visitors to go further and stay longer, with the ultimate goal being to increase the economic return of tourism to local businesses and the community,” said Don Taylor, expert from the EU-ESRT programme.

The stylish website provides visitors with information on “Places to see”, “Things to do”, “Food to eat”, and “Itineraries to inspire” across the three provinces.

A planning section includes essential travel information such as visa regulations for international visitors, climate, transport and ways to access the region’s visitor information centres.

The EU-ESRT programme handed over of other tools and resources to the three provinces of Thừa Thiên-Huế, Đà Nẵng and Quảng Nam including tourism product development, marketing, human resources development, responsible tourism and others.

With technical support from the EU-ESRT, in February 2014, three provinces signed a memorandum of understanding on co-operation for tourism development. Since then, the EU-ESRT programme implemented many activities to realise the initiative.

It is due to draw to a close after five years at the end of 2016. — VNS