Film tourism: An opportunity to promote Vietnam's beauty through international cinema

At the seminar “Vietnam - A New Destination for World Cinema” organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in coordination with Nhan Dan Newspaper on September 10, discussing the importance of tourism and film cooperation, Chairman of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism Nguyen Trung Khanh stated that innovating the methods and content of promoting Vietnam's tourism is a key task set out in the Government's Resolution 82 on major tasks and solutions to accelerate effective and sustainable tourism recovery and development, and the Prime Minister's Directive 08 on comprehensive, rapid, and sustainable tourism development in the coming time.

Cinema is a particularly important field in social life, and films are an indispensable source of spiritual nourishment for most people. Especially for countries with developed film industries such as the US, China, Japan, India, France, South Korea, the UK, and Italy, their cinematic works have a massive reach with large audiences domestically, regionally, and globally. Hollywood “blockbuster” films have the ability to reach global audiences and generate revenues of up to billions of USD.

Vietnam is rich in natural, ecological, and cultural resources. The success of the film “Kong: Skull Island” with its spectacular shots in Ha Long, Quang Binh, and Ninh Binh shows that Vietnam is fully capable of becoming a filming location for Hollywood “blockbuster” movies.

In fact, many locations in Vietnam have been chosen as settings for foreign films. Most notably, the Hollywood film “Kong: Skull Island” by director Jordan Vogt-Roberts featured filming locations in Vietnam. The majestic beauty of Trang An made Ninh Binh an attractive tourist destination, drawing many international visitors. Besides Trang An, the film also chose Ha Long (Quang Ninh) and Quang Binh as filming locations.

Additionally, the film “Pan” chose Ha Long Bay (Quang Ninh), En Cave (Quang Binh), and Van Long Lagoon (Ninh Binh) as settings for some beautiful scenes. In the film, the brilliant and mysterious landscapes of Ha Long, Ninh Binh, and Quang Binh provided an opportunity to promote Vietnamese tourism to international friends. The film “The Lover” chose the land of Sa Dec, Dong Thap, in the Southwest region as a filming location, with beautiful scenes of rice fields, traditional markets, and the ancient Huynh Thuy Le house creating a vivid and poetic picture…

Domestically, several Vietnamese films with poetic, lyrical, and rustic scenes such as “Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass” filmed in Phu Yen, “Pao’s Story” filmed in Sung La commune (Ha Giang), and “Tet in Hell Village” with its main filming location in Sao Ha village (Ha Giang) - a place that still preserves the rustic image of an ancient Hmong village almost intact - have helped these locations become highly popular destinations after their release… According to statistics from the Phu Yen Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, when the film “Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass” was released, the number of visitors to Phu Yen province increased 2.5 times, from 750,000 in 2014 to 1.8 million in 2019.

To promote tourist destinations, potential filming locations, and attract Hollywood studios—the world's film capital—to Vietnam for major film productions, thereby boosting international tourist arrivals, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will organize the Vietnam Tourism and Cinema Promotion Program in the United States from September 21-28 under the theme “Vietnam - A New Destination for World Cinema”. This is a highlight promotion and advertising activity for Vietnam's tourism in 2024.

The activities of this program are innovated and organized in a diverse series that integrates tourism promotion with cinema, culture, and cuisine, creating a high ripple effect. This is also an opportunity for localities, destinations, tourism businesses, airlines, film studios, and media from both sides to meet and seek trade cooperation opportunities.

In the coming time, to attract more international film crews to Vietnam for location scouting and filming, there needs to be close coordination between the tourism and film industries, along with the attention and support of all levels, sectors, localities, and businesses to introduce new policies that facilitate international filmmakers coming to Vietnam. Through this, the image and brand of Vietnam as a destination will be brought to global audiences through “blockbuster” films.