Vietnam’s international success may prop up local tourism

Image of the Vietnamese national football team on Fox Sport Asia

According to The Forbes magazine, Vietnam spends about $2 million per annum to promote tourism around the globe, which is only 2.9 per cent of Thailand's spending, and 1.9 per cent of Singapore. From the number, it is clear that Vietnam still finds it difficult to compete with other countries in tourism.

However, after this year’s international successes, such as winning the AFF football league as well as taking fifth place at the Miss Universe 2018 beauty pageant has taken the images of local footballers and Miss H’Hen Nie all across the globe for free.

After besting the Iraqi football team at the quarterfinals and surprising the international football community by breaking into the semi-finals, most global press agencies like Fox Sports Asia, The Strait Times, ESPN, Goal, Xinhua, and Nikkei, have reported on the Vietnamese golden boys with the most beautiful words.

After taking the trophy home, in Korea, the homeland of Park Hang Seo, the coach of the Vietnamese national football team, interest in Vietnam has also increased abruptly. In addition, Park was also awarded the prize of 2018’s most influential person in television in South Korea.

Korean television SBS also recorded an average rating of 18 per cent and the peak rating of 25.3 per cent during the live broadcasting of the AFF finals. Previously, the television also appointed its personnel in Vietnam to produce coverage due to the Korean people’s avid interest in the football championship.

H'Hen Nie ’s spectacular performance at Miss Universe 2018 (Source: news.abs-cbn.com)

Not long after, Miss H’Hen Nie made it into the top five of Miss Universe 2018, which is the highest a Vietnamese contestant ever made it in the glamorous beauty pageant, and also brought images of Vietnam across the world.

Seeing the golden opportunity to develop local tourism, zing.vn cited brand expert Pham Vu Tung as saying that local success in football and the Miss Universe pageant makes a lot more foreign people interested in Vietnam. However, the effects of these events can only be felt for several short months, so it is a must to seize the advantage as swiftly as possible.

“The local success in football is an effective channel to promote Vietnam to the world. However, it only brings recognition and a lot needs to be done to transform recognition into travel demand,” Tung added.

Currently, local tourism infrastructure and products remain limited and there have been reports of visa difficulties among Korean visitors.