In the past three decades many cities and regions around the world have applied a marketing
approach to place planning and to attracting development resources. Several scholars have
analysed this trend in order to define a new approach to the economic planning of places
based on the principles of marketing, now called ‘place marketing’. This thesis sets out to
clarify the key concepts and the implementation model of place marketing, and to examine
the effectiveness of place marketing activities in Vietnam to date and the relevance of
improved methods of place marketing to the country. To these ends it seeks to clarify the key
concepts involved, to build an implementation model of place marketing and to analyse
empirically, by statistical analysis and case studies, the practice and effectiveness of place
marketing in Vietnam.