Expedia's "Travel Trends 2023" report shows that two-thirds of global travelers have considered traveling based on inspiration from movies, and 39% have booked trips based on stories from the screen. This shows that movies not only help promote natural landscapes, but also act as a bridge to help audiences understand the culture, traditions and lifestyle of a country quickly and effectively.
Some achievements that cinema has contributed to promoting economic, social, cultural and tourism development in the world and Vietnam include: "Game of Thrones" filmed in Du-brov-nik, Ireland, brought nearly half a million tourists to visit 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 guests increased by 28.5% in 2015. The film "Girl with Dragon Tattoo", filmed in Stockholm, is estimated to bring 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, we can mention the massive number of visitors flocking to “Pao’s House” in Sung La commune, Dong Van district, Ha Giang province after the success of the movie “Pao’s Story”; or the sudden increase in the number of tourists coming to the Trang An World Heritage Complex (Ninh Binh) right after the movie “Kong Skull Island” was released. Most recently, two Vietnamese movies: “Tet in Hell Village” and “The Soul Eater” with the scenes in Sao Ha village, Van Chai commune, Dong Van district, Ha Giang province have become destinations attracting a large number of tourists.
According to Director Dao Thanh Hung - Director of Mien Dat Dien Phim Company, using cinema to promote and develop tourism has been applied for a long time in the world, and has been especially valued in Vietnam in recent years. Reality has proven that promoting a place through cinema brings unexpected results. Famous works such as: The Lover (1991), Indochina (1992), The Quiet American (2002) ... are considered typical representatives contributing to bringing the image of Vietnam to the world in the previous period. The positive effect from the Hollywood blockbuster "Kong: Skull Island" chose mostly the wild and majestic mountain and forest scenes in the provinces of Ninh Binh, Quang Binh, Quang Ninh of Vietnam. International audiences were surprised and learned about Vietnam.
Most recently, the film "A Tourist's Guide to Love", a Netflix film shot mostly in Vietnam (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hoi An, My Son and Ha Giang), has also contributed to promoting the image of Vietnam to the wider world. After its release (April 2023), the film has continuously ranked in the top of the most viewed film charts in many countries around the world. These are positive signs, opening up a new direction for the tourism industry to develop more strongly through the cinema channel by bringing the image of the country, people and culture of Vietnam to domestic and international audiences.
However, as a country with diverse natural and cultural heritage resources, we have not yet effectively utilized and exploited this strength of cinema to contribute to preserving and promoting Vietnamese cultural heritage to the world. Up to now, the number of Vietnamese films that convey the country's culture is still modest due to some problems in motivating filmmakers.
"An open mechanism for cinema is one of the very important things, lawmakers and mechanisms must attract many Hollywood filmmakers to Vietnam. Second is to avoid the monopoly factor in theatrical distribution. We have films that promote culture and tourism very well, but when released in theaters, distributors prioritize high-grossing films, placing those films in time slots with few viewers, so they cannot compete. Besides, administrative procedures are cumbersome, take too much time... while the film has been licensed for production, the types of licenses should be reduced to create conditions for the film crew, do not let the film crew be labeled as "troublesome crew" - Director Dao Thanh Hung stated the reality.
It can be seen that cultural heritage is a fertile land that if filmmakers exploit effectively, they will create successful products not only in terms of cinematic art but also contribute to preserving and promoting heritage in a sustainable way. However, to do this well, it is necessary to identify and remove obstacles as well as have mechanisms to encourage and motivate domestic and foreign filmmakers to promote creativity in this field.
Researcher Hoang Thi Thu Thuy - Center for Development of Contemporary Cultural and Artistic Industries: "To attract investment from international filmmakers, we need to promote the image of Vietnam in many forms, including making short commercials, promoting the image to attract them to Vietnam to make films, at the same time reducing the financial burden for foreign film projects, reducing taxes on imported equipment, reducing taxes for foreign investors in Vietnam; supporting processes and licenses, simplifying administrative procedures to reduce risks for filmmakers, for example supporting visas and filming permits".
Dr. Ngo Phuong Lan - President of the Vietnam Association for the Promotion of Cinema Development: "From the government and local authorities, it seems that the meeting between filmmakers is not enough to create a breakthrough. If we calculate the problem of localities supporting film crews during the filming process of no more than 80 days, the success of the film in terms of tourism development, investment attraction, development of related service industries... will take up to decades. Filmmakers also really want incentives from localities but they are very confused. International filmmakers are worried when coming to Vietnam because they think the procedures are not transparent even though the Cinema Law has been in place since 2006, and the new law from 2022".
As an insider, director Dao Thanh Hung believes that the need to affirm identity, the encouragement of management agencies, viewers, especially large investors, is a solid "support" for the current creative trend of focusing on exploiting Vietnamese landscapes to the fullest on the big screen. However, the demolition of the "Kong: Skull Island" film set at the Trang An tourist and scenic complex, Ninh Binh (once a favorite check-in spot for young people) due to its incompatibility with the common value of the heritage, or the scene of the film "Dao, Pho and Piano" was also demolished after filming to return the site... is extremely wasteful and also a memorable lesson on how to create art in relation to promoting heritage, serving tourism development.
It can be seen that Cinema plays an important role in promoting the national image and traditional culture of the nation. From there, it encourages domestic and international tourists to come and experience and explore the country and people of Vietnam. Therefore, if there is a close and effective cooperation between Cinema and culture, we will not only have more outstanding cinematographic works but also promote tourism and promote the image of the country to international friends.
Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/dien-anh-chia-khoa-quang-ba-van-hoa-du-lich-viet-nam.html
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