After model Vu Hoang Diep was crowned Miss International Beauty in China, many people said that this is only a local pageant in China.

Model Vu Hoang Diep at Miss International Beauty in China.

Many people in showbiz stressed that Hoang Diep’s crown is even less valuable than Thuy Lam’s tenth position in the Miss Universe 2008 and it doesn’t help raise Vietnam’s position on the world map of beauty. China has a dozen “international” beauty contests to lure tourists.

Meanwhile, many others are very merry for Hoang Diep’s victory and modelling companies have sent representatives to other overseas pageants. These days, the local media has been flooded with information about Vo Hoang Yen at Miss Universe 2009 in Bahamas, Thai Ha at Miss Tourism Queen International 2009 in China, Chung Thuc Quyen’s preparation for Miss Supernational 2009 in Pland.

Nguyen Quang Minh, director of the Cat Tien Sa company, a member of the Vietnam Model Association’s organising board, said that the association is conducting a survey on the scale and the real value of international beauty pageants.

Minh said the quality of an international pageant is evaluated based on the number of participant countries, the titles of contestants in their countries, the jury, the media coverage and the bonuses for winners.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s rules, local companies can send representatives to international beauty contests. However, information about these events is insufficient and vague, except for the most famous contests like Miss Universe and Miss World. In these cases, only contestants – often models – benefit from the local media because their names appear in local newspapers every day.

Asking Cat Tien Sa’s director Nguyen Quang Minh, a highly-regarded company in event organisation and sending Vietnamese representatives to international pageants, whether Vietnam is harmed because of the rules that restrict organising beauty contests in Vietnam, Minh said: “No”.

“I see no loss for limiting beauty contests in Vietnam because the organisers are also very tired because they do not get any benefit, contrary to rumour,” Minh said. “But it is very good to send our representatives to the world’s top five beauty pageants, especially if they are held in Vietnam. That is a real opportunity for advertising Vietnamese tourism,” he added.

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Tran Chien Thang said the ministry will look at the actual situation to decide whether to loosen the rules on organising beauty contests.

Retuning to the Miss International Beauty 2009 pageant in China, there are many things that make people doubt its value. Firstly, in the final night, only Vu Hoang Diep was announced as the beauty queen. The next day, the organisers gave the names of the four runners-up.

Over a week after the crowning ceremony, the pageant’s website (http://www.miss-international.org) is not updated with the latest information about this event.

VietNamNet/Nong Nghiep