Pá Uôn Bridge, Quỳnh Nhai District.

 

Build a database of beautiful images and high-quality videos.

In recent years, tourism photography contests have been regularly organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (CST) and local authorities, attracting the attention and participation of photographers and photography enthusiasts from within and outside the province. These contests have built a system of beautiful photographic documentation of tourism destinations and scenic spots, capturing beautiful moments of life, culture, and people in Son La. Many award-winning photographs are considered to be of high artistic quality, profound, reflecting the representative, characteristic, and typical beauty of each region, conveying meaningful messages with strong influence.

 

An exhibition showcasing high-quality photographs from the Quỳnh Nhai District Tourism Photography Contest.

Ms. Dieu Thi Nhat, Head of the Culture and Information Department of Quynh Nhai District, said: "In the past two years, Quynh Nhai District has maintained a tourism photography contest, attracting a large number of photographers. Each time we organize it, we gain more photographic material capturing beautiful moments and landscapes of the picturesque riverside scenery, the seasons of red kapok flowers along the river, unique festivals, friendly people, and a modernized homeland… In 2024, the district will continue to organize an art photography contest with the theme 'Quynh Nhai - Son La affirms its potential and develops tourism,' with the announcement and awarding ceremony expected at the Quynh Nhai District Culture, Sports and Tourism Week held in early 2025."

In 2024, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched the Son La Tourism 2024 competitions, including: the Son La Tourism Brand Recognition Award; the Tourism Video Clip Creation Contest; and the "Beautiful Son La Tourism Photos" Contest. After nearly two months of launching, the organizing committee received 659 entries from 73 authors nationwide for the "Beautiful Son La Tourism Photos" Contest; 39 video clips for the Tourism Video Clip Creation Contest; and 28 units and establishments registered for the Son La Tourism Brand Recognition Award.

According to the organizers, the submitted photographs and videos were highly creative, capturing images of many scenic spots, tourism potential and strengths, the 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…; and typical beautiful moments of Son La homeland in integration and development.

The "Beautiful Photos of Son La Tourism" contest featured many high-quality entries reflecting the beauty of nature, culture, and people in each region of Son La. Three entries – "Ta Xua Cloud Waterfall" by Vi Van Hai from Phu Yen district; "On the Summit of U Bo" by Nguyen Van Duy from Phu Yen district; and "Moc Chau Morning Mist" by Vu Phi Long from Son La city – were judged to be of high artistic quality, possessing depth and a wide reach to viewers, and won first prize.

 

An exhibition showcasing the winning photos from the 2024 "Beautiful Photos of Son La Tourism" contest.

Notably, the 2024 tourism video creation contest, held for the first time, attracted a large number of participants, with a total of 39 video clips submitted. The entries were highly creative, capturing images of many scenic spots, tourism potentials and strengths, the 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…; and typical beautiful moments of Son La in its integration and development.

 

Authors Nguyen Manh Hai and Pham Thi Lan Anh from Moc Chau district won the A prize in the 2024 Tourism Video Creation Contest.

Among the entries, the work "Moc Chau National Tourist Area: A World-Class Natural Destination" by authors Nguyen Manh Hai and Pham Thi Lan Anh from Moc Chau district was one of two outstanding works that won the A prize in the competition. Sharing about the creative idea behind the video, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hai said: "With a love for our hometown of Moc Chau and Van Ho, my wife, who is also my ideal partner, and I have spent many years creating content here, 'hunting' for beautiful moments at major tourist spots and lesser-known places, with the desire to spread the image of the land and people of Moc Chau National Tourist Area to friends near and far. Contributing to creating a highlight that makes the overall picture of tourism in our province even more vibrant and unique."

Products from these competitions help the province's tourism industry build a database of high-quality images and video clips, which can be widely used for promoting tourism in Son La.

Find creative logo and slogan ideas for tourism.

With the aim of building and perfecting an impressive, attractive, and professional brand identity for Son La tourism, serving the province's tourism promotion and marketing efforts, the 2021 Son La tourism logo and slogan design competition attracted numerous participants from across the country. 125 logo designs and 104 slogans were submitted, showcasing unique and creative artistic ideas that reflected the distinctive characteristics of Son La province. The logo designed by An Binh Giang from Can Tho city won first prize and is now widely used to promote Son La tourism.

 

Son La tourism logo

Keeping pace with the demand for professionalism in tourism promotion, localities in the province also organized competitions to find creative logo and slogan ideas for tourism. In 2020, Bac Yen was the first district to launch a logo and slogan design competition for this mountainous district. The winning entry, "Bac Yen, experiencing the sea of ​​clouds," is still used by the district as its official logo in information dissemination, promotion, and advertising activities about Bac Yen's tourism potential.

Moc Chau tourism logo.

Shortly after, in 2021, Moc Chau district also organized a competition titled "Creating a Title and Symbol for Moc Chau Tourism," attracting 58 authors from provinces and cities nationwide, submitting 107 entries. The organizing committee conducted three rounds of judging, selecting two entries, "Moc Chau Tourism - The Charm of the Green Plateau" and "Moc Chau - The Quintessence of the Northwest," to be presented to the public for voting.

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

Recently, the People's Committee of Yen Chau district also successfully organized a logo design competition. The winning entry, by Nguyen Phuc Khoi from Ninh Binh province, was selected as the official logo of Yen Chau district. The logo features a circular design combining two basic colors (red and white); in the center is the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Monument combined with a lotus flower, and above it is a five-pointed star.

Building a tourism product brand.

Along with competitions for beautiful photos, impressive video clips, and creative logos and slogans, over the past two years, our province has maintained the "Son La Province Tourism Brand Recognition Award" competition. This competition has created a healthy and fair playing field for units, businesses, restaurants, hotels, and tourist areas and attractions in the province. It also provides an opportunity for the public, especially tourists, to give objective opinions and assessments of the quality of services at destinations, restaurants, and accommodation establishments. Based on the user voting results, the competition organizers also conduct direct assessments to obtain a realistic and objective evaluation of the service quality of the participating organizations.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Anh, from Quyet Thang Ward, Son La City, said: "I learned about the Son La Tourism Brand Award through social media. As someone who has had the opportunity to visit and experience services at many tourist areas, restaurants, and accommodations in the province, I also participated in the voting. Based on my actual experience, this year I voted for Moc Chau Island as a typical tourist area, and for accommodation and service businesses, I voted for A Chu homestay and Moc Chau Walking Street."

 

A Chu homestay, Van Ho district.

In 2024, the tourism brand selection process was evaluated across four categories: Outstanding tourist areas and destinations; outstanding hotels; outstanding other accommodation establishments; and outstanding businesses. Voters assessed based on criteria such as product and service quality, service prices, service attitude, environmental hygiene, and ensuring safety and security for tourists. Based on the voting results and the judges' on-site assessment, many establishments demonstrated unique and attractive tourism products and high-quality, professional services, creating a strong appeal to tourists and receiving high votes, such as: Moc Chau Heart-shaped 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 competition to recognize Son La's tourism brand, right from its launch, has created a widespread movement, mobilizing the participation of almost all units, businesses, cooperatives, and organizations operating various types of tourism services in the province. Through the voting results, businesses will know how their current services are being evaluated, so that they can 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 aspire to achieve high voting results, affirming their brand and service quality in the provincial tourism market. In the future, the department will continue to advise on organizing tourism competitions as an annual activity to create opportunities to encourage businesses to strive to upgrade services, while continuously updating the data used to promote Son La tourism."

 

Tourists visit the Bach Long glass bridge at Moc Chau Island Tourist Area.

Tourism competitions today are organized entirely on digital platforms, offering a fast, efficient, and low-cost approach that yields high results. Through these annual competitions, the tourism industry continuously acquires a wealth of beautiful photos, new videos, rich content, creative perspectives, and authentic, vibrant, and timely images. These competitions also help discover new resources, services, destinations, and innovative approaches to tourism development throughout the province, contributing effectively to tourism promotion. Furthermore, organizing these competitions helps concretize the tasks of digital transformation in tourism, leveraging digital platforms to strongly disseminate the potential, beauty, and attractiveness of Son La tourism and gradually build tourism product brands to attract visitors.

According to Son La Newspaper