Hanoi (VNA) – The success of Bac Bling, I See Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass, and Kong: Skull Island shows how music and cinema can propel Vietnamese destinations into the spotlight, but experience suggests that only places investing in infrastructure, services and cultural storytelling can turn a cultural sensation into sustained tourism growth.
When singer Hoa Minzy’s Bac Bling became a social media phenomenon about a year ago, visitors flocked to Bac Ninh to see landmarks featured in the music video, including Dau Pagoda, Ba Chua Kho Temple, Phu Lang pottery village, Dong Ho folk painting village, Quan Ho singing villages and the now-famous “lonely tree”.
Bac Ninh quickly responded by offering free tours showcasing its heritage sites, and tourist numbers rose sharply in the early stages. The surge fuelled hopes that the province had discovered a new engine for tourism through art-inspired travel. Yet after the initial excitement faded, most of the region’s temples, pagodas and communal houses continued to attract large crowds mainly during festival seasons, while year-round growth remained more modest than expected.
Vietnam has seen similar examples before. The 2015 film I See Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass introduced audiences to the landscapes of Phu Yen, now part of Dak Lak province. Local authorities capitalised on the attention by promoting destinations such as Ganh Da Dia, Nhan Tower, O Loan Lagoon, Ganh Den Lighthouse and Vung Ro Bay, while investing in tourism infrastructure and human resources. The strategy paid off, with tourism growth exceeding 20% annually at certain times and previously overlooked attractions becoming firmly established on the tourism map.
Ninh Binh offers perhaps the clearest example of how a cultural phenomenon can be converted into lasting appeal. After Kong: Skull Island was filmed in the province and released in 2017, local tourism operators quickly incorporated the film’s “native village” set into tour programmes and intensified promotion of destinations such as the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, Tam Coc–Bich Dong and Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve.
Even after the movie’s global buzz subsided and the film set itself faded from public attention, Ninh Binh’s tourism continued to flourish. The province remains one of Vietnam’s strongest tourism magnets and has since benefited from serving as a filming location for other productions.
Across Vietnam and around the world, travel inspired by music and film has become an increasingly influential trend. Cultural blockbusters can provide destinations with extraordinary visibility and a level of publicity that money alone often cannot buy. But attracting visitors is only the beginning.
Travellers also expect convenient transport, quality accommodation, good food, a pleasant environment, professional service and authentic cultural experiences. Equally important is a destination’s ability to tell its stories in a compelling way. Ninh Binh and several other localities have shown that combining these fundamentals with the momentum created by popular culture can deliver lasting results.
The lesson is increasingly clear: artistic works can serve as a powerful catalyst for tourism, but without long-term investment in infrastructure, services and people, even the hottest cultural trend can fade as quickly as it appears./.
