On September 3, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST) and the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province organized the Workshop "Tourism, Cinema and Sports: Creating the future - long-term journey together".
The promoting role of cinema and sports
In his opening speech, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ta Quang Dong acknowledged: “Cinema and sports have a strong impact on the process of promoting and advertising tourism. Effectively developing the interaction between cinema, sports and tourism is an important task that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism pays special attention to in its efforts to build Vietnam’s tourism ecosystem into a globally attractive destination.”
Representative of the host, Vice Chairman of Binh Dinh Provincial People's Committee Lam Hai Giang announced: "In the first 8 months of 2024, the number of visitors to Binh Dinh is estimated to reach nearly 7.6 million, an increase of 94.4% over the same period in 2023. Quy Nhon - Binh Dinh tourism has gradually affirmed its position, as one of three tourist cities in Vietnam to receive the "ASEAN Clean Tourist City 2024" award for the second time".
Assessing the workshop as “a great opportunity for Binh Dinh to form development cooperation programs”, Mr. Lam Hai Giang invited: “Many contexts are waiting for producers, directors, and screenwriters to explore and create attractive cinematic works about the land rich in cultural and historical traditions with beautiful natural landscapes, martial, friendly, and hospitable people”.
Citing Hudson and Ritchie (2006a), the National Tourism Administration's report pointed out: The movie "Braveheart" (1995), after 1 year of release, caused the number of tourists to Wallace Monument (Scotland) to increase by 300%. The same goes for Harry Potter, Mission Impossible 2, Pride and Prejudice...
2/3 of international tourists to Vietnam are inspired by cinema. A tour booking app provides a figure of 39% of customers deciding to “pack up and go” due to the urge to continue exploring the story on film.
“Pao’s Story”, “Indochina”, “I See Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass”, “Kong – Skull Island” have created long-lasting fevers. In Phu Yen, the number of tourists increased by 113% from 750,000 in 2014 to 1.6 million in 2018, thanks in large part to Victor Vu’s work. The film “Kong – Skull Island” helped Ninh Binh produce film set tourism products, boosting tourist growth by 141% and helping to increase the number of visitors to Quang Binh from 1.9 million in 2016 to 4.8 million in 2019!
Need attraction policy and risk sharing mechanism
Deputy Director of the Cinema Department Ly Phuong Dung said: Realizing the importance of cinema, in recent years, in addition to the national strategy, many localities have had open policies towards promoting linkages. Phu Yen province has built an index to attract film crews. Binh Dinh, Tuyen Quang, Nam Dinh, Bac Kan... have also made great efforts.
Deputy Director of the National Tourism Administration Ha Van Sieu affirmed: Vietnam's tourism develops on the basis of cultural values. Tourism activities, in turn, provide ideas, contexts, and creative energy for spiritual products, including cinema and sports. The manager's job, according to Mr. Sieu, is to form a connection mechanism, exploit "endless resources", create comprehensive values, including the contribution of cinema and sports to making tourism a key economic sector.
Chairman of the Vietnam Cinema Association Do Lenh Hung Tu expressed his concern: “There needs to be close coordination between the state, businesses - producers and artists. There must be a mechanism to support filmmakers and film crews in localities. The Cinema Law, which will take effect from 2023, allows socialization. It is necessary to develop and promulgate specific policies and mechanisms to realize this policy, so that investors are guaranteed to share risks and harmonize benefits.”
The workshop heard experiences shared by Deputy Secretary of State of the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts Ek Buntha and French film expert Franck Priot on policies to attract and organize filming for foreign film crews.
At the discussion session on “practical cooperation in tourism, cinema and sports”, directors Charlie Nguyen and Phan Gia Nhat Linh recalled their experiences and cooperation with localities in making promotional films. Distributor and businessman Bui Quang Minh shared his aspirations and orientations for connecting and building a cinema - tourism - sports ecosystem. Director Aaron Toronto mentioned the experiences of foreign directors in Vietnam when choosing locations, Vice President of the Vietnam Vovinam Federation Bach Ngoc Chien talked about the need for policies to support cooperation in the context of developing Vietnam's cultural industry...
