An application of AHP approach to investigate tourism promotional effectiveness

Purpose – The tourism industry service network (TISN) is considered to be one of the largest components of tourism in the modern Vietnamese economy. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is currently developing a long-term plan to diversify the country’s tourism industry and to improve the destination image of Vietnam. To successfully implement this plan, the Vietnamese tourism industry must employ effective promotional strategies. Design – This study designs to determine the necessity of measuring the effectiveness of the promotional activities of tourist destinations and to decide upon a promotional strategy that appropriately parallels the desired destination attributes and destination image. Methodology – This study proposes to address tourism promotional efficiency using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methodology, a decision-making method based on pairwise comparisons between criteria, and constructs an evaluation structure with criteria-associated weights for factor selection. Approach – In accordance with AHP design, this study selects participants who had been in charge of or served in the Vietnamese tourism industry for a number of years. Findings – This study finds that “government policy”, “service staff” and “tourist satisfaction” are the three most important factors impacting tourism promotional effectiveness. Surprisingly, “tourist loyalty” and “tourism infrastructure” are considered to be the least important factors affecting tourism promotional efficiency. Originality of the research – This study provides valuable information and knowledge of tourism promotional effectiveness to be fully shared and passed on in the tourism industry, resulting in a corporate cultural atmosphere that creates the innovative impetus of destination attributes and images.