New campaign to promote Hue’s destination appeal to be launched in early 2010

Vietnam’s former imperial capital of Hue will be promoted in a new tourism campaign “Heart of Vietnam”. This coordinated and integrated marketing campaign launched by La Residence Hotel & Spa to more than 2,000 targeted media outlets worldwide is two-fold: promote Hue as a travel destination and build support for a documentary on it.
Moreover, La Residence schedules to work up a host of story ideas focusing on Hue as a must-see destination, commission and distribute copyright-protected images of the city’s most appealing attractions, and extend accommodations to visiting travel media.
“Hue, by all accounts, is one of Indochina’s most profound destinations,” said Eric Merlin, CEO of the Ho Chi Minh City-based Apple Tree Group, the hotel’s principal owner.
“You have an inimitable royal legacy in the Imperial City and the tombs of the Nguyen Emperors. A marvelous collection of pagodas. Inspiring landscapes. A vibrant culinary tradition. After Hanoi, it’s the most culturally important destination in Vietnam,” Merlin said.
The preliminary campaign to promote Hue’s destination appeal scored its first piece of major exposure in late September when Hue was featured on the cover of the New York Times T magazine, a quarterly fashion and travel supplement. In its six-page take on Hue, the Times wrote: “Hue still embodies a kind of heaven-on-earth quality, a place that makes the here and now seem enough”.
The ‘Heart of Vietnam’ campaign, launching January 1, deploys a suite of publicity strategies to enhance worldwide appeal for Hue, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. The campaign will also include a host of media events designed to optimize the appeal of Hue.