“Cinema: A gateway to promote Vietnam's country, people, culture and tourism to the world”

Expedia's 2023 Travel Trends Report once provided remarkable information, 2/3 of global travelers considered traveling based on inspiration from cinema and 39% chose destinations based on stories from the screen. This shows that movies not only help promote natural landscapes, but also become a "bridge" to help audiences explore the country, people, culture, and tourism of a country quickly and effectively. Also since 2023, the Vietnam Association for Film Promotion and Development has deployed the PAI (Production Attraction Index) to assess the level of attractiveness and attraction to film crews, based on 5 main components: finance, information, field, legal and infrastructure.

Ha Long Bay - The final stop of the Kong: Skull Island film crew (Photo source: Department of Cinema)

In many countries around the world, filming locations and settings of film works have become attractive tourist attractions after they have ended. Some achievements that international cinema has contributed to promoting socio -economic, cultural and tourism development include: "Game of Thrones" filmed in Dubrovnik, Ireland, bringing nearly half a million tourists to the city; nearly one million entrance tickets were sold at the monuments/locations appearing in the film with the number of tourists increasing by 37.9%; overnight stays increased by 28.5% in 2015. The film "Girl with Dragon Tattoo", filmed in Stockholm, is estimated to bring in about 100 million Euros to the Swedish tourism industry. The film "Lord of the Rings" is estimated to have generated 42 million dollars for the New Zealand tourism industry...

In Vietnam, since the late 20th century, it has been proven that promoting a place through cinema brings unexpected results. Famous Hollywood blockbusters such as: The Lover (1991), Indochina (1992), The Quiet American (2002) ... are considered typical representatives contributing to bringing the national image to the world .

Not stopping there, some films with unique, mysterious and impressive settings achieved high revenue, attracting domestic and foreign tourists to experience and contributing to promoting tourism development and local economic growth such as: "Endless Fields Tourist Area" with a strong Southwest character in Binh Phong Thanh town, Moc Hoa district, Long An province after the film "Endless Fields" was released to the public (2010); "Pao's House" in Sung La commune, Dong Van district, Ha Giang province after the success of the film "Pao's Story" (2006); the film "I See Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass" (2015) achieved revenue of 80 billion VND, setting a record for box office revenue in Vietnam at the time of release, while increasing the number of tourists to Phu Yen (up 30% compared to previous years)...

The film Journey of a Love holds the 3rd position in the Top 10 global films (English), estimated 13.4 million hours of viewing from April 17 to 23.

Or Ninh Binh province is becoming one of the top tourist attractions in the Northern provinces and is also a province that "attracts" domestic and international filmmakers from films such as: "The Quiet American", "Kong: Skull Island", "Aspiration for Thang Long", "Tam Cam: The Untold Story", "Come Home, My Son", "Trang Ti", "The Taste of Love", "Cheer Up, Brothers" ... because of its majestic natural scenery with favorable incentive mechanisms. The results show that in 2024, Ninh Binh aims to welcome 7.5 million visitors, of which 6.6 million domestic visitors and 900,000 international visitors. By November, Ninh Binh's tourism industry had "reached the finish line early" with the number of international visitors reaching 1.08 million, the highest ever; accounting for nearly 7% of the total number of international visitors to Vietnam.

Poster of the movie Kong: Skull Island

At the end of September 2024, for the first time, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism organized the Vietnam Tourism - Cinema Promotion Program in California and Los Angeles, USA with the theme "Vietnam - New Destination of World Cinema" on a large scale. The event attracted more than 500 guests who are leading Hollywood producers and directors, marking a "breakthrough" and innovation in Vietnam's tourism promotion work to exploit tourism development through cinema, contributing to increasing opportunities to promote the image of the country, people and culture of Vietnam in the US market in particular and internationally in general. Introducing Vietnam not only as an ideal destination for tourists but also as a film studio, an attractive destination for the world's leading filmmakers, film directors and actors.

Vietnam Cinema Association and Asian, World Film Festival - AWFF at the Vietnam Cinema - Tourism Promotion Program in the United States, September 2024

Recently, within the framework of the Vietnam Tourism Promotion Program in France (May 2025), the Workshop "Vietnam - Dynamic Asian Market and New Destination for International Film Crews" was held, chaired by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism in coordination with the Cinema Department and the Vietnam Cinema Promotion Association. The workshop took place in the artistic atmosphere of the 78th Cannes Film Festival.

According to the Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Nguyen Trung Khanh, Vietnam offers an extremely diverse "background library", meeting all creative needs with the majestic, pristine nature for adventure, action, and fantasy films. Vietnam is not only beautiful in landscape but also rich in culture and people, a fertile land for unique stories with 54 ethnic groups living together, creating a diverse cultural picture of customs, festivals, cuisine, costumes, architecture... Vietnamese people, with their optimism, hospitality and rich souls, are always at the center of profound human stories...

The first discussion session with the theme of Vietnamese Cinema Pulse at the Workshop (Photo source: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism)

Aiming to reach the target of 250 million USD in the film industry by 2030, of which Vietnamese films will reach about 125 million USD, and to contribute to the realization of a "double-digit" economic growth rate in the new era of the nation, we need to promote the role of creative industries, develop accompanying services to make an important contribution to the development strategy of the film industry. Products promoted according to film works such as: settings, real estate, fashion; cosmetics, consumer goods, music products... need to have policies to support development. Continue to perfect legal documents to synchronize and appropriately adjust business activities in the film industry and other related activities; Cut down some administrative procedures in the temporary import and re-export of equipment, costumes, props... to serve film production; Strengthening the protection of copyright and ownership of cinematographic works to prevent and stop copyright infringement, and implementing international commitments on copyright.

Strengthening and expanding bilateral and multilateral cooperation with regional and international countries through signing memorandums of understanding and cooperation programs to encourage the export of film products, contributing to promoting the country, people, culture and tourism of Vietnam to the world. In particular, developing the film industry has a harmonious combination of national identity and international integration. Building a cooperation mechanism between film and tourism. Promoting digital transformation, building the application of film in tourism promotion becomes a trend to help exploit the cultural and historical potential of localities, and is also a trend for sustainable cultural and tourism development. At the same time, improving professionalism in organizing film events and strengthening the combination of promoting film activities in parallel with culture, sports and tourism.

With the current trend of multi-dimensional and multimedia development in the world, developing tourism combined with cinema is one of the long-term directions, not only taking advantage of the influence of cinema to effectively promote the image of the country, people, culture, and national tourism, but also supporting investment attraction and international cooperation in the fields of economics, politics, cultural diplomacy in general and cinema in particular. Vietnam - a peaceful country, rich in majestic and mysterious natural resources with rich and diverse cultural nuances, this is a very good resource for developing tourism combined with cinema. Strengthening innovation in methods and content of promoting and advertising Vietnamese tourism, attracting international cinema investors to Vietnam is very necessary./.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/dien-anh-canh-cua-quang-ba-dat-nuoc-con-nguoi-van-hoa-va-du-lich-viet-nam-ra-the-gioi-20250523101533075.htm