【soi kèo indo】Promoting Hue Tourism via Contests

Visitors at the Provincial Museum of History

Better know about Hue

Nearly one year after his soi kèo indotrip to Hue to produce a film to join the contest of making advertising films for Thua Thien Hue tourism in 2017, Mr. Khuat Duy Long (from Hanoi), whose "Hue's Hidden Charm" won the first prize of the contest, decided to come back to Hue for the second time to create art photos, and participate in the contest “Beautiful photos for Thua Thien Hue tourism 2018”, organized by the Provincial Department of Tourism.

Recalling the previous contest, Mr. Khuat Duy Long said that he had known about the contest via media, and decided to go to Hue to participate, with enough equipment to film the most beautiful scenes of Hue.

At first, he thought that Hue had only heritages, pagodas, and mausoleums, so he expected his trip to be about two to three days long, and he could finish his work for the contest. However, when he arrived in Hue, he was so surprised that there were too many beautiful scenes to put into the film. Therefore, he spent more than half a month being in Hue to complete it. "What impressed me most is the shoot on Tam Giang Lagoon by the sunset, which is dyed by a deep crimson. Being looked from above, Tam Giang Lagoon looks like an extremely beautiful painting,” Mr. Long said.

According to Mr. Truong Thanh Minh, Director of the Tourism Promotion Center, by organizing the contests, the province’s tourism sector expects that when the authors participate in the contests, they will better study and know about Hue, then they could love Hue more. One more thing which the tourism sector further desire is that the participants can introduce and promote Hue to their relatives and friends, who will feel the attraction, interest, and travel to Hue in the future.

The contest of making advertising films and creating logos and slogans for Thua Thien Hue tourism in 2017 attracted a total of nearly 200 works, creating many positive effects, and increasing the ability to identify the brand of Thua Thien Hue tourism sector. That is the reason why in 2018, the tourism sector continues to organize a photography contest, with the desire to urge fine art photography enthusiasts to go to Hue, experience the ancient capital and create art.

Mr. Le Huu Minh, Acting Director of the Provincial Department of Tourism, emphasized that the contest also aimed to introduce, propagate and promote the typical culture, people, landscapes and tourism of Hue to domestic and international visitors.

Mr. Khuat Duy Long added that after the previous film-making contest, though he further knew and was impressed by the beauty and people of Hue, he had not yet discovered them all. The man from Hanoi sets his own goal to go to Hue to continue going and experiencing it. He also said that when he shared the photos and award of the film-making contest to his relatives, they decided to spend their summer trip in 2018 to Hue.

Visitors to Hue keep their memories and share them with other people, is an efficient form of word-of-mouth advertising

Coordinating to promote

Mr. Truong Thanh Minh said that the tourism sector would organize more contests, and make sure to annually hold at least one in all fields of tourism sector. With the aim of increasing the ability of tourism advertisement and via these contests, it is also possible to build the professionalism in Hue tourism sector.

Promoting tourism via contests is one of the new trends, contributing to the efficient propaganda so that each citizen will better know about the beauty of Hue tourism, aiming to make each of them and every contestant become a tour guide for Hue.

Among the forms of tourism promotion, the National Administration of Tourism and many provinces are carrying out that of organizing contests, which aims to attract a large number of locals and enthusiasts in the country and all over the world. Hue is not an exception. In order to attract the participation of the people from other provinces, thereby enhancing the ability to promote tourism, Hue tourism sector has sent documents to the tourism sectors of other provinces, with the desire to get their support in the introduction of information to the locals. Hue may be not the first choice, but many visitors will travel only because of their passion in art, they will come to Hue to create their own works when they get information about the contests.

Mr. Truong Thanh Minh said that Hue tourism sector, on the contrary, had recently supported information about the contests of making photos, logos and slogans of Da Nang, Tra Vinh, Lao Cai, etc. The support of cross-promotion among provinces had high efficiency; this would certainly be further enhanced in the future.

In the report on summary of work in 2017, and the orientations and missions in 2018, the tourism sector determines that promotion is one of the most important solutions to the development of Hue tourism. Diversification of promotion forms and innovation of methods should continue to be researched and implemented to create innovative and effective promotion activities.

Story and photos: Duc Quang