Pulling the world to Vietnam with 'trend'

Want to "follow the trend"? Come to Vietnam!

In recent days, the trend of recording videos with vibrant, bustling music and the words "Vietnam is calling" with the Vietnamese national flag symbol has been "sweeping" the social network TikTok. Just type the hashtag #VietnamIsCalling, users will immediately see a series of videos recording the excited moments of international tourists preparing to fly to Vietnam or recording the moments of exploring famous tourist destinations in Vietnam. There are groups of friends dragging suitcases to the airport, some holding up their passports, people lining up to buy bread in Ho Chi Minh City, some are riding basket boats in Da Nang...

From Asia to Europe, from KOLs specializing in travel and cuisine to famous TikTokers with millions of followers...; each video has its own context, its own nuances, its own ideas, but all have a common message that is both simple and inspiring: "VN is calling and I am ready to answer". Of course, to "answer" this attractive invitation and "follow" this "trend", people around the world have no other choice but to... book a plane ticket and drag their suitcases to Vietnam for real.

Kéo thế giới đến Việt Nam bằng 'trend'- Ảnh 1. — The trend "Vietnam is calling" is taking TikTok by storm

This is not the first time Vietnam has become a "trend maker" on TikTok. Previously, with just a few lyrics, the music in the rap song "Nothing's wrong " by rapper 7dnight also became a "hot trend" on TikTok when recording more than 500,000 times attaching the music to the video. Many famous Korean artists have also joined the dance cover race, creating content from the music clip lasting about 30 seconds, including "Anh Long" G-Dragon. " Nothing's wrong" is the next viral song to reach the Vietnamese music market, after "See tinh" , "Nga tho" and "Hai phut hon" , helping Vietnamese artists in particular and Vietnam in general get closer to many international music lovers.

Not only limited to videos creating famous content on the TikTok platform, many Vietnamese music products have recently "stormed" the foreign market, making a strong impression on the international media. A typical example is the song Bac Bling by singer Hoa Minzy. Reaching 42 million views after 11 days of release, the MV Bac Bling rose to the top 1 in the world, commented by Nikkei Asian Review : "The song combines rap and quan ho folk songs, honoring traditional culture through images of dragon processions, four-body shirts, Lim festivals and spirit mediums... Bac Ninh participates in the production of phones (Samsung) that are present in the pockets of global consumers, this province of Vietnam is still a little-known place. However, with the song Bac Bling , artists born here have changed that...".

The resounding success of the MV Bac Bling has contributed to spreading the beauty of culture and people in Bac Ninh closer to the world. Korean YouTuber Jongrak, owner of the "Korean Boys" channels on Facebook and Instagram, has continuously praised the MV as "so good, so beautiful!" and admitted that after watching the MV, he really wanted to set foot in Bac Ninh once in his life. Many foreign YouTubers liken Bac Bling to a vivid Vietnamese fairy tale, filled with Northern cultural elements, from music, costumes to setting. Many people want to go to Bac Ninh and want to learn more about traditional Vietnamese festivals after watching the MV.

Bringing Vietnam around the world through the screen

Speaking to Thanh Nien reporters, the leader of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration said: The success of trending videos, although unexpected, is also part of the promotional strategy that the Vietnamese tourism industry is focusing on. The Vietnam National Tourism Administration clearly recognizes that there are still many bottlenecks in promoting and promoting tourism in our country, especially when the budget for this work is only about 2 million USD/year, much lower than the investment of more than 100 million USD/year of countries in the region such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.

Kéo thế giới đến Việt Nam bằng 'trend'- Ảnh 2. — Vietnam possesses many natural resources and unique tourism products, which are valuable data to create "trends".

Meanwhile, the mechanism for disbursing funds from the Tourism Development Support Fund has not been cleared; the tourism industry does not have an on-site promotion force through overseas promotion offices; the mechanism for exchange, sharing, and cooperation between the central and local governments, associations, and enterprises is also not effective. In the international competition, Vietnam is still at a disadvantage in that it does not have national promotion agencies abroad, while countries such as Malaysia and Thailand have up to 30 national tourism promotion offices abroad; Japan and South Korea are similar.

This situation requires Vietnam tourism to have new and creative methods and approaches in promotion and advertising to meet the requirements of competition and keep up with the rapid changes of the market and technology. Therefore, in recent times, the tourism industry has continuously built many campaigns to promote Vietnam tourism via the internet and achieved certain results.

For example, the tourism promotion communication program on the YouTube digital platform "Vietnam: Go to love!" deployed by the Tourism Information Center (Vietnam National Administration of Tourism) since the beginning of 2021 has received the attention and support of a large number of users, attracting millions of views on the YouTube channel. Video clips promoting Vietnamese tourism in "Vietnam: Go to love!" were produced by the Tourism Information Center in coordination with local tourism management agencies, corporations, tourism businesses, and content creators.

The video clips have promoted and strongly spread the image of Vietnam as an attractive destination with beautiful and majestic natural landscapes, unique traditional cultural identity, friendly and hospitable people, diverse and rich tourism products, high-class and quality services, always ready to welcome tourists from all over the world. The three video clips promoting the beauty of Vietnam tourism with 3 themes "Vietnam: Go to love! - The vast sea calls", "Vietnam: Go to love! - Cultural and culinary destination" and "Vietnam: Go to love! - Country, people" have quickly reached 1.4 - 1.6 million views on YouTube.

Responding, localities and many businesses have also taken turns creating attractive tourism promotion videos. In early 2024, the video clip "Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa: Touching your heart!" quickly reached 1 million views on the YouTube digital platform of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. The clip brings eye-catching images of Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa with beautiful nature, vibrant entertainment activities, modern and classy services intertwined with the sedimentation of traditional culture that touches the hearts of viewers, stimulating the passion for discovery of "travel enthusiasts" on an exciting travel journey.

Previously, Alan Walker's MV Alone Pt.II was filmed in Son Doong and the beautiful scenery of Quang Binh, also achieved the feat of reaching 300 million views worldwide after 3 years of release.

"With a new and effective approach, the video clips after being built and launched on the YouTube platform quickly received attention and were widely shared on social networking sites, reaching millions of views, bringing tourists new and attractive experiences. Most recently, the Department of International Cooperation (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) and the TikTok platform also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in communication and promotion of Vietnamese culture, sports and tourism on this platform. The tourism industry clearly understands the transformation of the market and determines to promote the application of technology and innovation to improve the effectiveness of communication and promotion of Vietnamese tourism, in line with modern trends and meeting the requirements of tourism development in the new period - bringing the image of Vietnam around the world through the screen", affirmed the leader of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Fast, economical, efficient

Proportional to the frequency of creating "trends", Vietnam is increasingly searched by international tourists. According to data compiled from the travel trend tracking tool Google Destination Insights, in the first 5 months of the year, the number of international searches for Vietnam tourism achieved a growth rate of about 10 - 25%, ranking 7th in the world. Vietnam is the only destination in Southeast Asia in the top 10, far surpassing other competitors in the region such as the Philippines (ranked 18th), Singapore (25th), Thailand (36th), Indonesia (37th), Malaysia (39th).

Kéo thế giới đến Việt Nam bằng 'trend'- Ảnh 3. — Singer Hoa Minzy's *Bac Bling* became the most impressive debut MV globally, bringing the name Bac Ninh to friends around the world.

In Agoda's "Summer Travel Trends from Europe to Asia" report, compiled based on accommodation search data in July and August 2025, Vietnam is also in the list of top 5 Asian destinations most searched by European tourists this summer.

Mr. Nguyen Chau A, General Director of Oxalis Adventure, analyzed: In the past, we were still used to promoting by participating in fairs and working with international partners to send customers. 80% of Vietnamese tourism businesses operate under the "B to B" model, which means selling tours only through foreign partners, so there is no need to invest in marketing costs. However, when the number of independent tourists increases, businesses are forced to pay attention to the "B to C" model, which means selling tours directly to customers, in which the prerequisite is brand promotion. Once the potential tourist market has good destination awareness, travel companies can implement marketing programs and sell products more effectively. Investing in destination promotion activities through movies and music videos is very popular and effective, applied by many countries.

"The story of promoting Son Doong Cave is a typical example of the spread of a destination thanks to the application of digital transformation in destination promotion. Son Doong was discovered in 2009 and then announced as the largest cave in the world. At that time, search engines about Son Doong were almost zero. Later, when it was announced as the largest cave in the world, the press wrote a lot, TV studios came to film, and later on, there were social networking tools and events, we published many articles to contribute to introducing Son Doong to the world. Only when they saw the images, did interested people around the world start searching. At present, we record about 90,000 searches about Son Doong every month. A 2-3 minute video, an MV or a scene in an international movie can also create as much attraction as attending 100 fairs, introducing 1,000 times how beautiful Vietnam is, and the How delicious the food is, how attractive the experience is...", Mr. Nguyen Chau A commented.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietravel Corporation Nguyen Quoc Ky also affirmed that online platforms are an effective way to spread tourism images to the world in the fastest, most effective and most economical way. While organizing a trip or a fair abroad costs a lot of money, and Vietnamese tourism promotion offices abroad do not know how long they have to wait, if they do well on digital platforms, they will save money and have much better effects. Not to mention well-invested MVs like Bac Bling or elaborately staged videos, just images and clips of the Vietnamese military parade in preparation for the 30.4 - 1.5 holiday, simply filmed by the people, can easily take the top position, creating a huge effect, causing a fever in both the ASEAN market and countries around the world. This shows that the tourism industry can take advantage of the strength of millions of Vietnamese people to spread the image of Vietnam, promote Vietnamese culture and tourism, instead of depending on a specialized department or unit. If done well according to each topic and theme, the keyword Vietnam will immediately emerge strongly.

Promoting tourism through internet and digital platforms is a trend that the Vietnamese tourism industry must focus on to transform its promotion and business model. Currently, a large number of international tourists come to Vietnam on their own, not through travel agencies, so to attract their attention, there must be new approaches and promotions, especially through digital media platforms.

Mr. Nguyen Chau A, General Director of Oxalis Adventure

The world is flat, requiring us to pay attention and invest heavily in online platforms. The MVs, videos, and clips that have created trends in recent times are mainly the initiatives of individuals, not the initiatives of the state, enterprises, or organizations. We must rely on that to build a national plan to promote Vietnam's destinations on multiple platforms; deploy widely across the country; connect more with people-to-people diplomacy. In particular, there is a policy to support young people - a very responsive group - to respond to the themes that the state directs so that the image of the destination spreads strongly.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietravel Corporation

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/keo-the-gioi-den-viet-nam-bang-trend-185250621235353679.htm