Recent reports have described multiple Hua Hin branding slogans; each trying to promote a positive vision for future development, but uncoordinated and inconsistent in their messages.
Most recently the Mayor of Hua Hin met with the President of Silpakorn University to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a project describing Hua Hin as ‘’The City of Relaxation’’, a vision for a world class health tourism city with an aim to build Hua Hin to be a health and leisure tourism city.
The same report also described Hua Hin, as ‘’The City of Happiness’’; a complimentary, but somewhat different sentiment. In fairness translation issues may explain this disparity, with the initial ‘relaxation’ mantra clearly shown in English as a backdrop to the MOU signing ceremony.
However the municipality also released a report on the same day (21st February) of a ceremony to launch a project labelled ‘’Hua Hin Learning City’’, again with this slogan displayed on a backdrop in English.
It wasn’t very long ago that the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Prachuap Khiri Khan Office launched “Hua Hin: Thai Authentic Beach” as a marketing brand. The then local TAT Director said, “The launch of the new brand provides Hua Hin’s tourism operators with an authentic new marketing tool to promote the destination to both Thai and international tourists.”
We’ve also seen a notion of using the label ‘’Sexy Hua Hin’’, a short-lived bad idea. The ‘SEXY’ tourism concept was explained by the TAT as an anagram: S – Safety & Hygiene, E – Environmental Sustainability, X – Extra Experiences, and Y – Yield. A simple Google search for Sexy Hua Hin shows images very different from that explanation!
Meanwhile the local Banyan group launched a private sector slogan salvo declaring both ‘We Love Hua Hin’ and ‘I Love Hua Hin’. Logos showed an uncanny resemblance to the long-standing US ‘I Love New York’. This project was apparently endorsed with the attendance of the Prachuap Khiri Khan Governor and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Director at the official launch.
To continue the New York theme, the notion of Hua Hin being the ‘Hamptons of Bangkok’, compares the attraction of Hua Hin to Bangkokians with the appeal to the top shelf of New York society of the nearby five-star Hamptons vacation destination.
The U.S. news site Bloomberg report; “Where to Go in 2022”, rated Hua Hin to be amongst “the most compelling places to visit in the year ahead”. Unfortunately that welcome promotion to a worldwide audience included the tagline ‘’Play Drinking Games in Hua Hin’’ and failed to describe anything but a few high end resorts.
Consistency is a key point to destination marketing, but there’s been a plethora of short-lived slogans in recent times without such consistency, authenticity or originality.
Consistency has never been a strength in developing an internationally known image for the region and that’s Brand Marketing 101!
The regional brand issues have been compounded by the notion of the Thai Riviera and the confusion of labelling many Cha-Am attractions as Hua Hin, but that’s another story.
Perhaps it’s time for the strategists in the regional tourism scene to take a coordinated approach that overcomes this identity confusion. Establishing a consistent brand image just may allow tourists to better understand what the region has to offer and what Hua Hin is really all about.
