When cinema attracts tourists

Tourism benefits from movies

During the "Vietnamese Cinema Night", a number of new films of Vietnamese cinema were introduced. Along with that were the potential filming locations and attractive tourist destinations... with the main message sent to directors, producers and representatives of the tourism industry being "Vietnam welcomes and is ready to cooperate with international filmmakers". This can be said to be another very open opportunity in promoting tourism, promoting destinations and scenic spots of Vietnam.

Director Bui Thac Chuyen, actress Ho Thu Anh, Kaity Nguyen promote Vietnamese cinema at Cannes.

Vietnam tourism has seen a significant upturn in the first four months of 2025. The number of international visitors to Vietnam in the first quarter reached a record high, with more than 6 million arrivals. One of the important factors contributing to this trend is cinema. Films shot at famous tourist destinations have aroused curiosity, inspired and stimulated the need to explore of many tourists.

A typical example is Ninh Binh . Thanks to its innovative and creative ways of promoting tourism through cinema, Ninh Binh has been chosen by many domestic and international filmmakers as the setting for blockbuster films. Such as “Kong: Skull Island”, “Aspiration of Thang Long”, “Tam Cam: The Untold Story”, “Come Home, My Child”, “Trang Ti”, “The Taste of Love”, “Cheer Up, Brothers”… It can be said that Ninh Binh is becoming a bright spot on the international tourism map.

According to information from the Hue City Department of Tourism, after each famous film, such as “Mat Biec”, “Em va Trinh”, “Linh Mieu - Quy nhap trang”… the number of visitors to the locations appearing in the film often increases significantly, contributing to introducing and promoting the unique cultural beauty of the ancient capital, bringing the image of Hue closer to everyone, especially young people and international tourists.

One of the movies that caused a fever at the box office in 2024 was Tran Thanh's "Bo Gia". However, another positive effect from this movie is that it revived the atmosphere of old Saigon with romantic images, full of nostalgia and made people want to pack their backpacks to take pictures and experience the atmosphere like in the movie scene.

At the event “Vietnam Cinema Night”, Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh - Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism affirmed that Vietnam is a country rich in cultural traditions, possessing majestic natural landscapes, diverse ecosystems and especially kind and open-minded people. These values ​​are precious materials for cinema - an art form with special power to spread and connect.

Tourism and culture create synergy

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong - Director of the Institute of Culture, Arts, Sports and Tourism said that world experience shows that places that develop interdisciplinary culture will create an irresistible attraction for tourism development.

“Tourism and culture create a synergistic power. Tourism benefits from the value created by the cultural industry such as cuisine, cinema, design, music, etc. In the context of digital technology and multimedia explosion, activating consumer demand in cultural industry centers, it has raised the issue of greater competition between tourist destinations and requires localities that want to develop tourism to be able to tell cultural stories through tourism products,” Ms. Phuong emphasized.

Telling the story of Ninh Binh's success, Ms. Phuong said that this is a locality with rich potential and advantages for developing cultural industry and tourism based on cultural advantages. For tourism to develop strongly, there must be attractive cultural products. Conversely, for cultural industry to develop, it must be associated with tourist destinations.

According to the World Economic Forum, Vietnam's natural resources are ranked 26th and cultural resources are ranked 28th in the world. This is a very good resource for developing tourism combined with cinema. The success of films such as "Kong: Skull Island" shows that Vietnam is fully capable of becoming a filming location for Hollywood blockbusters.

Ms. Park Eun Jung - Chief Representative of the Korea Tourism Organization in Vietnam said that according to the survey results, when choosing Korea as a tourist destination, 8.7% of foreign tourists said they considered places related to the Korean Cultural Wave, including K-pop, performances by artists or filming locations of Korean movies and TV shows.

Ms. Park Eun Jung cited Suwon city associated with the movie Lovely Runner, Jumunjin beach in the movie “Goblin”, and the filming locations of “Mr. Sunshine” which have attracted many tourists to take photos and check-in.

In addition, Korea also carries out cooperation activities with other countries, inviting foreign film crews to Korea to film and then show them in those countries. These methods bring extremely impressive results.

According to Dr. Ngo Phuong Lan - President of the Vietnam Film Promotion and Development Association (VFDA), Vietnam is entering a period of great potential for the film industry when it becomes an attractive and competitive destination in Asia in the field of filmmaking. And Cannes is not only an opportunity to introduce the capacity of Vietnamese cinema, but also opens a new direction in exploiting the great potential of tourism through cinema.

However, according to some experts, we should not touristize cinema, but find every way to put tourism messages into the work, because a film must first have value to have the power to spread and from there promote the locality and destination.

Mr. Nguyen Chau A - General Director of Oxalis Adventure Company said that tourism trends are changing when 70% of tourists travel by themselves, not through travel agencies. This shows the importance of promoting the destination brand to each tourist. Many studies confirm that culture, music, movies, etc. play a big part in promoting destinations to international tourists.

According to daidoanket.vn

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/khi-dien-anh-hut-khach-du-lich-post402197.html