Innovating methods and content to promote and advertise Vietnamese tourism to the international market through the film industry will contribute to spreading the Vietnamese destination brand to the world.

Developing tourism combined with cinema is a new direction to take advantage of the influence of cinema to promote the image of national tourism.

Many countries have become the focus of attracting tourists all over the world thanks to movies. Vietnam is rich in natural, ecological and cultural resources, which are very good resources to develop tourism combined with cinema.

According to experts, innovation in methods and content of promoting and advertising Vietnamese tourism to the international market through the film industry is very necessary.

Potential for blockbuster movies

Vietnam is rich in natural, ecological and cultural resources. The success of the film “Kong: Skull Island” With spectacular scenes filmed in Ha Long, Quang Binh, Ninh Binh, it shows that Vietnam is fully capable of becoming a filming location for Hollywood blockbusters.

In fact, many locations in Vietnam have been chosen as the setting for foreign films. Among them, the most prominent is the Hollywood film “Kong: Skull Island” directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts with filming locations in Vietnam. The majestic beauty of Trang An has made Ninh Binh an attractive tourist destination, attracting many international visitors. In addition to Trang An, the film also chose Ha Long (Quang Ninh), Quang Binh as filming locations.

Besides, the movie “Pan and the Neverland” chose Ha Long Bay (Quang Ninh), En Cave (Quang Binh), Van Long Lagoon (Ninh Binh) as the setting to film some beautiful scenes. In the film, the brilliant and mysterious mountains and rivers of Ha Long, Ninh Binh and Quang Binh are an opportunity to promote Vietnamese tourism to international friends.

Movie "Lover" chose Sa Dec, Dong Thap, the Southwest region as the filming location, with beautiful rice fields, traditional markets and the ancient house of Huynh Thuy Le creating a vivid and poetic picture.

In the country, some Vietnamese films with poetic, lyrical, and rustic scenes such as “I see yellow flowers on green grass” with filming location in Phu Yen, “Pao's Story” filmed in Sung La commune (Ha Giang), “Tet in Hell Village” With the main filming location in Sao Ha village (Ha Giang) - a place that still preserves almost intact the rustic image of an ancient village of the Mong people, after its release, it helped this place become a very popular destination.

According to statistics from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Phu Yen province, when the film “I see yellow flowers on green grass”, The number of tourists to Phu Yen province increased 2.5 times, from 750,000 in 2014 to 1.8 million in 2019.

Promoting tourism associated with cinema

According to Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung, Vietnam's tourism has received attention from the Party and State of Vietnam, institutional issues have been established, including Resolution 08-NQ/TW of the Politburo on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector and the Government's programs and action plans on promoting tourism development.

Vietnam tourism is a comprehensive economic sector, closely linked with other economic sectors. Among the 12 fields of the cultural industry, cinema and tourism are the two key sectors. Therefore, the connection between these two sectors will create an important driving force to promote socio-economic development.

In order to promote tourist destinations, potential filming locations, attract Hollywood studios, the world's cinema capital, to Vietnam to film highly attractive films, and promote international tourists to Vietnam, from September 21-28, 2024, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will organize the Vietnam Tourism-Cinema Promotion Program in the United States with the theme "Vietnam - New Destination of World Cinema."

This is an activity to promote and advertise the highlights of Vietnamese tourism in 2024. The activities of this program are innovated and organized in a diverse chain that links tourism promotion with cinema, culture, and cuisine, creating a high spillover effect.

This is also an opportunity for localities, destinations, tourism businesses, air transport, cinema, and media from both sides to meet and seek opportunities for trade cooperation.

In the coming time, to attract many international film crews to Vietnam to survey and choose as filming locations, there needs to be close coordination between the tourism and film industries and the attention and support of all levels, sectors, localities, and businesses, and to introduce new policies to facilitate international film producers to come to Vietnam to make films. Thereby, bringing the image and brand of Vietnam as a destination to global audiences through "blockbuster" films.

Create mechanisms and policies for film crews

With the efforts of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as well as many localities, promoting tourism through cinema has had a strong change, but still needs a long-term and sustainable strategy.

At the seminar "Vietnam - a new destination for world cinema" held on September 10, 2024, organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in coordination with Nhan Dan Newspaper, experts said that there needs to be coordination between management agencies, local departments and branches, the dynamism of businesses, the film industry and the Vietnamese people to create attraction for filmmakers around the world.

According to Ms. Ngo Phuong Lan - President of the Vietnam Film Promotion and Development Association (VFDA), first of all, to promote tourism through cinema, it is necessary to create quality films with good content, thereby creating a spreading effect and from there promoting the locality and destination.

The 2022 Cinema Law is very new, with many premises and legal frameworks to create mechanisms, but mechanisms and sub-law documents seem to be lacking. When put into practice, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as well as the tax authority need to have sub-law documents to provide incentives for filmmakers. This is a major factor in attracting film crews to Vietnam.

Deputy Director of the Department of Cinema Do Quoc Viet said that in terms of institutions and resource mobilization, in the field of cinema, the Department of Cinema has proactively provided support for tourism development, created a mechanism for tourism development through the field of cinema by reforming administrative procedures, and at the same time carried out digital transformation in administrative work.

When developing the Cinema Law, the Cinema Department always assesses the impact and consults the experiences of developed countries in the region and the world such as France, Singapore, etc. On that basis, it synthesizes and proposes legal frameworks to create the most favorable legal corridor, and develops a number of options to advise and propose when developing related policies on tourism development.

From a local perspective, with the success of Ninh Binh being chosen as a setting by many international film crews, Director of Ninh Binh Department of Tourism Bui Van Manh said that in recent times, Ninh Binh has strengthened synchronous and effective coordination, planned stronger promotion strategies for film crews, gradually simplified administrative procedures, and supported tax and financial policies for film crews.

In the coming time, to promote tourism through cinema more effectively, Mr. Manh proposed that there should be a comprehensive solution for development, maximum support for film crews, and at the same time, there should be policies to introduce and attract film crews in a systematic manner.

Agreeing with the opinion of the leaders of Ninh Binh tourism industry, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Quy - Director of Quang Binh Tourism Department emphasized that for film crews coming to Quang Binh, the province has directed relevant levels and units to closely coordinate with connecting businesses, businesses responsible for logistics for film studios to create the best conditions for film crews.

Supporting film crews is very important, including creating favorable conditions for set directors, survey crews of film projects and preparing materials introducing film studio locations, support policies, and accompanying film crews./.