Organizing competitions for creating beautiful photos, video clips, logos, slogans or voting for tourism brands are some of the positive solutions to promote tourism in Son La province. Products from the competitions create a strong influence and are effective communication channels to bring the beautiful image of Son La tourism further.

Pa Uon Bridge, Quynh Nhai District. Photo: PV

Building a database of beautiful photos and quality videos

In recent years, beautiful travel photo contests have been regularly organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (DTC) and localities, attracting the attention and participation of photographers and photography enthusiasts inside and outside the province. From the contests, a system of beautiful travel 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 considered to have high artistic quality, depth, reflecting the representative, characteristic and typical beauty of each land, conveying meaningful messages and having a strong influence.

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

Ms. Điêu Thị Nhất, Head of the Culture and Information Office of Quỳnh Nhai District, stated: Over the past two years, Quỳnh Nhai District has maintained its tourism photo contest, attracting a large number of photographers. With each edition, we acquire more beautiful photographic materials capturing moments and natural landscapes of the picturesque river and mountain regions—such as seasons of bright red kapok flowers along the river, unique festivals, friendly people, and a homeland undergoing transformation. In 2024, the district continues to organize the Art Photography Contest under the theme “Quỳnh Nhai - Sơn La affirms its potential and develops tourism”, with results expected to be announced and awarded during the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Week of Quỳnh Nhai District held in early 2025.

In 2024, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched several tourism-related competitions in Sơn La, including: the Tourism Brand Recognition Award; the Tourism Video Clip Creation Contest; and the “Beautiful Sơn La Tourism Photos” Contest. After nearly two months of launching, the organizing committee received 659 photographic works from 73 photographers nationwide for the “Beautiful Sơn La Tourism Photos” contest; 39 video clips submitted for the video creation contest; and 28 units and establishments registered for the Tourism Brand Recognition Award.

According to the organizers, the submitted photos and videos were highly creative, capturing images of various scenic spots, tourist potential and strengths, daily life, and the cultural practices of ethnic communities. They also depicted unique tourist destinations across Sơn La Province, such as Mộc Châu, Vân Hồ, Bắc Yên, Mường La, and Phù Yên; as well as beautiful, iconic moments of Sơn La in its journey of integration and development.

Among these, the “Beautiful Sơn La Tourism Photos” contest featured many high-quality works reflecting the beauty of nature, culture, and people from different regions of Sơn La. Notably, three works stood out and were awarded First Prize (A): “Tà Xùa Cloud Waterfall” by Vì Văn Hải from Phù Yên District; “On the U Bò Peak” by Nguyễn Văn Duy, also from Phù Yên; and “Mộc Châu in the Morning Mist” by Vũ Phi Long from Sơn La City. These pieces were praised for their artistic value, depth, and emotional resonance with viewers.

Exhibition of Award-Winning Photos from the “Beautiful Sơn La Tourism Photos” Contest 2024

Notably, the 2024 Tourism Video Clip Creation Contest was held for the first time and attracted significant participation, with a total of 39 video clips submitted. The entries demonstrated high creativity, capturing the beauty of scenic spots, tourism potential and strengths, the daily life and cultural practices of ethnic communities, as well as unique destinations throughout Sơn La Province—such as Mộc Châu, Vân Hồ, Bắc Yên, Mường La, and Phù Yên. These works highlighted iconic moments reflecting the integration and development of Sơn La’s homeland.

Author group Nguyễn Mạnh Hải and Ms. Phạm Thị Lan Anh, from Mộc Châu district, won the A prize at the 2024 tourism video creation contest

Among them, the work “Mộc Châu National Tourist Area – World’s Leading Nature Destination” by the author group Nguyễn Mạnh Hải and Phạm Thị Lan Anh, from Mộc Châu district, was one of two excellent works to win the A prize at the contest. Sharing about the idea of creating the video, Mr. Nguyễn Mạnh Hải said: With love for our homeland Mộc Châu, Vân Hồ, my wife, who is also my close creative partner, and I have spent many years creating in this land, “hunting” for beautiful moments at major tourist destinations as well as lesser-known places, with the desire to spread more widely the image of the land and people in the Mộc Châu National Tourist Area to friends near and far. This contributes a highlight to make the overall picture of the province's tourism more vibrant and unique.

The products from the contests help the province’s tourism industry build a high-quality photo and video clip database, widely used for Sơn La tourism promotion activities.

Seeking ideas for creating tourism logo and slogan

With the aim of building and completing a professional, attractive, and impressive tourism brand identity for Sơn La, serving the province’s tourism promotion and communication work, the logo and slogan design contest for Sơn La tourism held in 2021 attracted a large number of authors nationwide. There were 125 logo works and 104 slogans submitted to the contest, with creative and artistic ideas that expressed the unique and distinctive characteristics of Sơn La province. The logo by author An Bình Giang, from Cần Thơ city, won the first prize and is now widely used to promote Sơn La tourism.

Sơn La tourism logo (Photo: PV)

Keeping up with the requirements for professionalism in tourism promotion, localities in the province have also organized contests to find creative ideas for logos and slogans for tourism. In 2020, Bắc Yên was the first district to launch a contest for logo and slogan design for this highland district. The winning work “Bắc Yên, experience the sea of clouds” is still being used by the district as the official logo in communication and promotion activities about Bắc Yên’s tourism potential.

Mộc Châu tourism logo (Photo: PV)

Immediately after that, in 2021, Mộc Châu district also organized the contest “Creating tourism title - symbol of Mộc Châu,” attracting 58 authors from provinces and cities across the country, who submitted 107 works. The organizers conducted three rounds of judging and selected two works “Mộc Châu Tourism - The Charm of the Green Plateau” and “Mộc Châu - The Quintessence of the Northwest” to be made public for the audience and locals to vote.

Ms. Đinh Thị Hường, Head of the Culture and Information Office of Mộc Châu district, said: Currently, Mộc Châu is widely using the logo work “Mộc Châu - The Quintessence of the Northwest” to promote the district’s tourism. The logo is more widely used due to its highly appreciated stylized design, eye-catching layout, artistic colors and typography, conveying the meaning of highland tourism. In addition, some destinations in Mộc Châu also use the phrase “Mộc Châu, World’s Leading Nature Destination” to emphasize tourism brand promotion for Mộc Châu.

Tourism logo of Yên Châu district (Photo: PV)

Recently, the People’s Committee of Yên Châu district also successfully organized the Logo design contest. The first prize-winning work by author Nguyễn Phúc Khôi, from Ninh Bình province, was selected as the official logo of Yên Châu district, with a circular layout combining two basic colors (red and white); at the center of the logo is the Vietnam - Laos Friendship Monument combined with a lotus flower, and above is a five-pointed star.

Building tourism product brands

Along with contests for beautiful photo creations, impressive video clips, and creative logo and slogan designs, over the past two years, our province has maintained the contest “Voting Awards for Recognizing Sơn La Tourism Brands.” The contest has created a healthy and fair playground for units, enterprises, restaurants, hotels, and tourist sites in the province. It is also an opportunity for the public, especially tourists, to give objective assessments of service quality at destinations, restaurants, and accommodation facilities. Based on user voting results, the contest organizers also conducted direct assessments for a practical and objective evaluation of the service quality of participating organizations.

Mr. Nguyễn Đức Anh, from Quyết Thắng ward, the City, said: I knew about the Sơn La tourism brand voting award through social media. As someone who has had the opportunity to experience services at many tourism areas, restaurants, and accommodation facilities in the province, I also participated in voting. Based on my real experiences, this year, I voted for Mộc Châu Island as the outstanding tourism area, and for A Chu homestay and Mộc Châu Walking Street in terms of accommodation and service businesses.

A Chu homestay, Vân Hồ district

In 2024, the units participating in the tourism brand voting contest were evaluated in four categories: Outstanding tourism areas and destinations; Outstanding hotels; Other outstanding accommodations; and Outstanding service businesses. Voters assessed based on criteria such as product quality, service, price, service attitude, environmental hygiene, and security for tourists. Based on the voting results and the actual assessment by the judges, many establishments had unique and attractive tourism products, quality and professional services, attracting tourists and receiving high votes, such as: Mộc Châu heart-shaped tea hill; Dairy Farm Mộc Châu; Mộc Châu Island…

Mr. Trần Xuân Việt, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: Since its launch, the Sơn La tourism brand voting contest has created a widespread movement, attracting the participation of most units, enterprises, cooperatives, and tourism service organizations in the province. Through the voting results, businesses will know how their current services are being evaluated and 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 hope to achieve high voting results, affirming their brand and service quality in the local tourism market. In the coming time, the department will continue to advise on organizing tourism contests as annual activities to create opportunities to encourage businesses to upgrade their services and constantly renew the data sources used to promote Sơn La tourism.

Tourists visiting the Bạch Long Glass Bridge at Mộc Châu Island Tourist Area

Current tourism contests are held entirely on digital platforms, with fast, streamlined methods and low cost but bringing high efficiency. Through annual contests, the tourism industry continuously gains a source of beautiful photo materials, new videos, rich content, creative perspectives, realistic and vivid images, and timely messages. The contests also help discover new resources, services, destinations, and new methods of tourism development across the province, effectively contributing to tourism promotion. The organization of contests also helps to concretize the tasks of digital transformation in tourism, leveraging digital platforms to strongly spread the potential, beauty, and appeal of Sơn La tourism, gradually building the province's tourism product brands to attract tourists.