After nearly two months of launching and organizing the evaluation and scoring process, the Son La Tourism Gift Contest 2026 officially concluded on July 8th. The organizing committee held a summary and awards ceremony. Attending the ceremony were leaders from various departments and agencies of the province, as well as the authors and groups of authors whose entries won prizes.
Awarding prizes for the Son La Tourism Gift Contest 2026.
The Son La Tourism Gift Contest 2026 was launched in May 2026 with the goal of finding and selecting distinctive gift products that reflect the cultural identity of Son La's ethnic groups, contributing to the development of a tourism gift system with Son La's unique character, and creating a highlight to introduce and promote the image of local culture, people, and tourism to domestic and international tourists.
Delegates attending the awards ceremony.
This is the first time a tourism gift design competition has been held, and it has received significant interest and participation from organizations, individuals, artisans, businesses, and cooperatives. The organizing committee received 72 entries, with 151 product samples in various fields such as handicrafts, souvenirs, creative products, and product groups serving tourism.
Leaders of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism presented the first prize to author Dieu Thi Nhat.
The organizing committee awarded second prize to the cooperatives.
The products were evaluated as having significant investment in ideas, designs, and the use of local materials, especially brocade, local culture, and agricultural products; many products featured beautiful designs, high applicability, meaningfulness, and commercial value, reflecting the identity and characteristics of Son La's culture and agricultural products.
The authors/groups of authors who won third prize in the competition.
The organizing committee awarded encouragement prizes to individual authors and groups of authors.
The entries were judged and awarded prizes based on criteria such as cultural value, creativity, aesthetics, applicability, and commercialization potential. As a result, the organizing committee selected and awarded 1 first prize to the hand-painted beeswax scarf by Dieu Thi Nhat, sub-district 2, Quynh Nhai commune; 2 second prizes to the natural coffee product of Ara Tay Coffee Cooperative and the Hoa Van Moc gift set of Gia Dinh On Woodworking Cooperative; 3 third prizes and 10 consolation prizes.
Delegates viewed the souvenir products for tourists.
Souvenirs made from local agricultural products.
Gift products made from wood and beeswax.
A cultural performance to welcome the closing ceremony and award presentation of the competition.
Immediately after the awards ceremony, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism organized a program to launch the emulation movement "Innovation and creativity for sustainable tourism development in Son La" for the period 2026-2030, towards the 66th anniversary of Vietnam Tourism Day (July 9, 1961 – July 9, 2026).
The program launches the emulation movement "Innovation and creativity for sustainable tourism development in Son La" for the period 2026-2030.
Over the years, Son La's tourism sector has seen positive development, with gradual investment in tourism infrastructure and services; the creation of many distinctive tourism products; and innovative promotional activities. Son La aims to achieve tourism revenue exceeding 12,000 billion VND by 2030; create jobs for approximately 25,000-27,000 workers; and develop tourism into a key economic sector of the province, progressing towards professionalism, modernity, greenness, and sustainability.
Leaders of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched the program.
To encourage tourism development in the coming period, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is launching the emulation movement "Innovation and Creativity for Sustainable Tourism Development in Son La" for the period 2026-2030. The campaign focuses on calling on departments, agencies, communes, wards, businesses, cooperatives, tourism associations, tourist areas and attractions, accommodation establishments, and travel agencies to actively participate in the emulation movement with practical and specific actions. This includes focusing on key tasks such as: strengthening state management, developing tourism products, promoting digital transformation, and advertising; proactively integrating tourism development goals into the local socio-economic development program; paying attention to infrastructure investment, improving the investment environment, preserving the landscape, ensuring security and safety for tourists, and creating favorable conditions for businesses to develop. Innovating management thinking, improving product and service quality, building brands, and strengthening linkages are key to enhancing the competitiveness of Son La tourism.
Delegates attending the launch event.
The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism calls on each agency to come up with a new solution; each locality to have a distinctive product; each enterprise to have an innovative initiative; each official to have a specific task; and each citizen to become an ambassador promoting the image of Son La, in order to make the emulation movement more substantive, contributing to building Son La into a "Safe - Friendly - Distinctive - Attractive" destination, and making increasingly significant contributions to the socio-economic development of the province.
Thanh Dao