When guests remember the destination but not where they stayed, the operator is letting the location do the work of the brand. Breaking free from this cycle requires building a distinct reason for guests to return, independent of whether Phú Quốc or Đà Lạt is trending.
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Ask someone who has just come back from Phú Quốc: “Where did you stay?” The answer often starts with “In Phú Quốc” before they remember the resort’s name. That is no small thing. It is a sign that the place name is doing the work that the operator’s brand should be doing.
The landmark is the stage, not the brand.
Phú Quốc, Đà Lạt and Hội An are names with built-in appeal. They draw guests in. But when a guest books because they “want to go to Phú Quốc”, the resort is just one option on a list, not the destination. This difference matters far more than it looks.
If a resort succeeds because it’s in the right location, it will fail as soon as another place is in a better, newer, cheaper location. Locations do not belong to anyone. They are not private property. All competitors in the area have the right to use that name in advertising.
A brand, as defined by Marty Neumeier in The Brand Gap, is the perception in the minds of others, not the name or logo. A resort has a true brand when guests remember it before they remember the destination.
A brand is not a logo. A brand is a person's natural perception of a product, service, or organization.
A brand is not a logo. A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.
Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap
The loop of the ride-sharing operator
This is a loop Sinh Vũ sees again and again in Vietnam's resort industry. A resort opens and attaches a place name to everything: “Phú Quốc beachfront”, “Đà Lạt hillside”. Early bookings are strong because the destination is on the rise. When the destination becomes saturated or an incident occurs, guest numbers decline steadily. The owner pours money into OTA (online travel agency) advertising, and commissions of 15 to 25% eat into profit. In the end, the only asset being built up belongs to the OTA, not to your own brand.
The issue is not a lack of marketing budget. The issue is that marketing money is reinforcing awareness of the destination, not the brand.
The real confusion lies in where
Many resort owners believe they are building a brand when they invest in beautiful photos, interiors designed in a local style, and “healing” captions on social media. Those things are good. But they are not a brand without a distinct core reason standing behind them.
Ask it plainly: if you remove the place name from everything, what is left for guests to remember about this resort? If the answer is “beautiful photos” or “reasonable prices”, that is not yet a brand. Competitors have beautiful photos too, and prices can be undercut at any time.
A real brand is what guests use to tell others about their stay. Not “I stayed in Phú Quốc”, but “I stayed at that place, and it was completely different because...”
Brand equity that accumulates
In How Brands Grow, Byron Sharp points out that a brand only builds up in memory when it repeats consistently and attaches to a distinct trait that it shares with no one else. In the resort industry, what does that mean?
It could be a service approach that no one else offers. It could be a rooted story about the creator of the place. It could be a specific experience that can only be found here, not just because it’s in Phú Quốc, but because of how this place operates. Resorts that achieve this do not need the destination as a crutch. They become the reason for guests to visit that destination.
Kantar BrandZ shows that brands guests see as “meaningful and different” can charge up to 38% more than competitors in the same segment. In the resort industry, that price gap is the difference between surviving and doing well without having to discount.
Breaking free from the shadow of the destination
There is no one-size-fits-all formula. But there is one question that should be asked before any brand decision: if this destination suddenly loses its appeal, does the resort still have a reason to exist?
If the answer is no, that is the clearest signal that the brand has not been built, only named.
Building your own brand does not mean separating from the destination. It means using the destination as a setting, not as the reason you exist. Six Senses is Six Senses wherever it is, before it is a “resort in Côn Đảo” or a “resort in Phú Quốc”. Guests search for Six Senses, not for “a luxury resort on some island”.
That is the gap between operators who are relying on others and those who are building real assets. That gap does not naturally close over time.
Three points to clarify first
- What is the unique reason for existence, aside from geographical location and beautiful photos?
- What are guests saying about this place to others, and what name do they use to describe it?
- What percentage of bookings come from people actively searching for the brand name, not through OTAs?
These three questions cannot be answered without brand consulting. But if the answers are difficult to articulate or unclear, that is the moment to pause and carefully reconsider before continuing to invest in destination advertising.
References
Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute). Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap. Kantar BrandZ 2020. Data on the VN tourism industry: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, 2025. OTA data: GoHost, HotelJob.vn.