Though the multi-colored star and the slogan “Viet Nam- A Different Orient” got the first prize in the competition on composing logos and slogans for Vietnam’s tourism, they were not chosen by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) as the new slogan for Vietnam’s tourism in the new development period.

VNAT released more than 400 questionnaires about the logo and slogan to be applied for the Vietnam’s tourism program in the period of2011-2015; at the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism’s conference, reviewing the activities in 2010 held in late February 2011. However, it has got back 46 replies only. It seems that Vietnam’s tourism still has to wait some more time to reach a high consensus from experts, state officials and the public.

In the latest consultation with the ministry, VNAT made mention of using the slogan “Viet Nam- A Different Orient”, and the five-pointed star logo initiated by Cowan Company, which got the first prize in the competition on composing logo sand slogans for Vietnam’s tourism in 2011-2015, as the new logo and slogan. If approved, the new logo and slogan would officially replace the lotus shaped logo, and the slogan “Vietnam- the hidden charm” currently being used.

When launching the competition, VNAT stated that the logo and slogan to be chosen must clearly show Vietnam’s tourism development strategy for 2011-2015, with sea tourism, ecological tourism and cultural tourism being the advantages to attract more foreign travelers. The logo and slogan need to be easy to remember, impressive and must not coincide with any other logos and slogans in the world.

Cowan learned carefully about Vietnam’s tourism and designed a professional marketing program to build up a brand for Vietnam’s tourism.

However, “Viet Nam- A Different Orient” and the five-pointed star have not got a high consensus from the public. Experts commented that the multi-colored star could make people think about Africa, while “a different Orient” could recall to people, an image of Japan or South Korea.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Hoang Tuan Anh, stressed that the result of the competition and the selection of new logo and slogan are the two quite different things. It is true that the logo and slogan which got the first prize were the best among the 10 shortlisted works. However, the logo and slogan did not get a high percentage of votes at the public poll. As some problems have been found in the work which got the first prize, the ministry has decided not to choose it as the new official symbol.

“However, the ministry has decided to choose Cowan as the main partner to build up a logo and slogan for the tourism promotion program in the next stage,” Anh said.

After five years, the lotus shaped logo and the slogan “Vietnam - a hidden charm”, has made good impression to domestic and foreign travelers. Many people think that it is really necessary to renew logo and slogan, but they believe that it would be better to use the same logo and slogan and just change some details to make it more suitable to the new tourism development strategy.

“I think it would be better to replace the star with a lotus, or keep the word “Vietnam” and the lotus image; just to replace the slogan “Vietnam – a hidden charm” with another more suitable slogan,” said Dinh Ngoc Duc, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Department under VNAT. Many other people agree with Duc on the replacement of the star with a lotus.

“The multi-colored star may make people mistakenly understand that this is an African country with zebra symbol,” commented Nguyen Hai Anh, a senior official of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The suggested slogan “Vietnam – a different Orient” has also been not applauded by experts. Phuong Lan, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Department, noted that when talking about Orient, people would immediately think about China, South Korea, Japan, India or the Middle East with grandiose cultures. If putting Vietnam among them, it seems that Vietnam would be less competitive.

Dinh Anh Vu