Pa Uon Bridge, Quynh Nhai District.

 

Build a database of beautiful photos and quality videos

In recent years, beautiful tourism photo contests have been regularly organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (VHTTDL) and localities, attracting the attention and participation of photographers and photography enthusiasts inside and outside the province. From the contests, a system of beautiful tourism photo documents has been built at destinations and scenic spots, capturing beautiful moments of life, cultural beauty and people of Son La. Many award-winning photos are assessed to have high artistic quality, depth, reflecting the representative, characteristic and typical beauty of each land, conveying meaningful messages and having strong influence.

 

Exhibition of high quality photos of the Quynh Nhai District Tourism Photo Contest.

Ms. Dieu Thi Nhat, Head of the Department of Culture and Information, Quynh Nhai district, said: In the past 2 years, Quynh Nhai district has maintained a beautiful tourism photo contest, attracting a large number of photographers to participate. Through each organization, we have more sources of beautiful photos recording moments, natural landscapes of the charming river region, red cotton flower seasons by the river, unique festivals, friendly people, innovative homeland... In 2024, the district continues to organize an Artistic Photo Contest with the theme "Quynh Nhai - Son La affirms its potential, develops tourism", expected to be announced and awarded at the Culture, Sports and Tourism Week of Quynh Nhai district held in early 2025.

In 2024, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched the Son La Tourism Competition 2024, including: Award for voting to recognize tourism brands; Competition for creating tourism video clips; Competition for "Beautiful photos of Son La tourism". After nearly 2 months of launching, the Organizing Committee of the competition received 659 works from 73 authors nationwide participating in the "Beautiful photos of Son La tourism" Competition; 39 video clips participating in the Competition for creating tourism video clips; 28 units and establishments participating in registering for the Son La tourism brand voting award.

According to the Organizing Committee's assessment, the photos and clips submitted for the contest are highly creative, capturing images of many famous landscapes, potentials, tourism strengths, life, and cultural activities of ethnic minorities; unique tourist destinations in Son La province, such as Moc Chau, Van Ho, Bac Yen, Muong La, Phu Yen...; typical beautiful moments of Son La homeland in integration and development.

In particular, the “Beautiful Photos of Son La Tourism” Contest with many quality works, reflecting the beauty of nature, culture, and people in each region of Son La. Of which, 3 works are “Ta Xua Cloud Waterfall”, author Vi Van Hai, Phu Yen district; “On the top of U Bo” author Nguyen Van Duy, Phu Yen district; “Moc Chau Morning Mist”, author Vu Phi Long, Son La city are evaluated as works rich in artistic quality, depth and influence to viewers and won the A prize.

 

Exhibition of winning photos at the "Beautiful Photos of Son La Tourism" Contest in 2024.

Impressively, the first-ever tourism video creation contest in 2024 attracted many authors to participate, sending in a total of 39 video clips. The works are highly creative, recording images of many famous landscapes, potentials, tourism strengths, life, and cultural activities of ethnic minorities; unique tourist destinations in Son La province, such as: Moc Chau, Van Ho, Bac Yen, Muong La, Phu Yen ...; typical beautiful moments of Son La homeland in integration and development.

 

The group of authors Nguyen Manh Hai and Ms. Pham Thi Lan Anh, Moc Chau district, won the A prize in the 2024 Tourism Video Creation Contest.

Among them, the work "Moc Chau National Tourist Area - the world's leading natural destination" by the group of authors Nguyen Manh Hai, Pham Thi Lan Anh, Moc Chau district is 1 of 2 excellent works that won the A prize at the contest. Sharing about the idea of ​​creating the video, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hai said: With the love for the homeland of Moc Chau, Van Ho. My wife and I, who is also my close partner, have spent many years composing here, "hunting" for beautiful moments at the main tourist spots and places that are not known to many people with the desire to spread more and further the image of the land and people at Moc Chau National Tourist Area to friends near and far. Contributing to creating a highlight to help the overall picture of tourism in the province become more brilliant and unique.

Products from the contests help the province's tourism industry build a database of quality images and video clips, widely used for Son La tourism promotion activities.

Find creative travel logo and slogan ideas

With the aim of building and perfecting an impressive, attractive, professional Son La tourism brand identity, serving the propaganda, promotion and tourism promotion of the province; the Son La tourism logo and slogan creation contest held in 2021 has attracted a large number of authors from all over the country to participate. There were 125 logo works, 104 slogans submitted to the contest, the works have unique artistic creative ideas, expressing the characteristics and differences of Son La province. The logo work of author An Binh Giang, from Can Tho city won first prize, and is currently being widely used to promote Son La tourism.

 

Son La tourism logo

Keeping up with the demand for professionalism in tourism promotion, localities in the province also organize competitions to find creative ideas for logos and slogans for tourism. In 2020, Bac Yen was the first district to launch a competition to create tourism logos and slogans for this mountainous district. The work "Bac Yen, experience the sea of ​​clouds" won first prize and is still being used by the district as the official logo in information, propaganda, introduction and promotion activities about the tourism potential of Bac Yen.

Moc Chau tourism logo.

Immediately after that, in 2021, Moc Chau district also organized the contest "Composing titles - symbols of Moc Chau tourism", attracting 58 authors from provinces and cities across the country to participate, sending 107 entries. The Organizing Committee conducted 3 rounds of judging, selecting 2 entries "Moc Chau Tourism - Charming green plateau" and "Moc Chau - Quintessence of the Northwest" to disseminate to the audience and people to vote.

Ms. Dinh Thi Huong, Head of the Department of Culture and Information, Moc Chau district, said: Currently, Moc Chau is widely using the logo "Moc Chau - The Quintessence of the Northwest" to promote the district's tourism. In particular, the logo is used more because it is highly appreciated for its stylized design, beautiful layout, artistically stylized colors and letters, conveying the meaning of tourism in the highlands. In addition, some destinations in Moc Chau also use the phrase "Moc Chau, the world's leading natural destination" to emphasize the promotion of Moc Chau tourism brand.

Recently, the People's Committee of Yen Chau district also successfully organized a logo design contest. The first prize winning work by author Nguyen Phuc Khoi, Ninh Binh province was chosen as the official logo of Yen Chau district, with a circular layout combining two primary colors (red and white); in the middle of the logo is the Vietnam - Laos Friendship Monument combined with a lotus flower, above is a five-pointed star.

Building tourism product brands

Along with the contests on creating beautiful photos, impressive video clips, logos and slogans, in the past 2 years, our province has maintained the contest "Son La Province Tourism Brand Recognition Award". The contest has created a healthy and fair playground for units, businesses, restaurants, hotels, tourist areas and spots in the province. This is also an opportunity for the public, especially tourists, to give their opinions and objective assessments of the quality of services at destinations, restaurants and accommodation facilities. Based on the voting results of users, the Organizing Committee of the contest also organized direct appraisals to have realistic and objective assessments of the quality of services of participating organizations.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Anh, Quyet Thang Ward, City, informed: I learned about the Son La tourism brand voting award through social networks. As someone who has had the opportunity to visit and experience services at many tourist areas, attractions, restaurants, and accommodations in the province, I also participated in the vote. Based on my actual experience, this year, I voted for the typical tourist area for Moc Chau Island, for accommodation and service businesses, I voted for A Chu homestay, Moc Chau walking street.

 

A Chu homestay, Van Ho district.

In 2024, the units participating in the tourism brand voting will be evaluated in 4 categories: Typical tourist areas and spots; typical hotels; typical other accommodation establishments and typical businesses. Voters will evaluate based on criteria on product quality, services, service prices, service attitude, environmental hygiene, ensuring safety and security for tourists. Based on the voting results and the actual assessment of the jury, it is shown that many establishments have unique and attractive tourism products, quality and professional services, creating attraction for tourists and achieving high votes such as: Moc Chau Heart Tea Hill; Moc Chau Dairy Farm; Moc Chau Island...

Mr. Tran Xuan Viet, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: The contest to vote for the recognition of Son La tourism brand has created a widespread movement since its launch, mobilizing the participation of most units, enterprises, cooperatives, and organizations providing tourism services in the province. Through the voting results, businesses will know how their current services are being evaluated in order to improve and enhance the quality of their products and services. This is a prestigious award of the province that tourism businesses need to participate in and hope to achieve high voting results, affirming their brand and service quality for the tourism market in the province. In the coming time, the department will continue to advise on organizing tourism contests as annual activities to create opportunities to encourage businesses to strive to upgrade their services, while constantly updating the data sources used to promote Son La tourism.

 

Tourists visit Bach Long glass bridge, at Moc Chau Island tourist area.

Tourism competitions are now held entirely on digital platforms, a fast, compact, low-cost method that brings high efficiency. Through annual competitions, the tourism industry continuously has a source of beautiful photos, new videos, rich content, creative perspectives, realistic, vivid and topical images. Through competitions, it also helps to discover new resources, services, destinations, new ways of developing tourism everywhere in the province, contributing effectively to tourism promotion. Organizing competitions also helps to specify the content of the digital transformation tasks of tourism, taking advantage of digital platforms to strongly spread the potential, beauty, and appeal of Son La tourism and gradually build the province's tourism product brands to attract tourists.

According to Son La Newspaper