Vietnam Launches New Tourism Logo: Industry Has Another Hissy Fit

the new logo

At the end of last year Vietnam’s long-reigning national tourism slogan ‘Vietnam, the Hidden Charm’ (not to be confused with similar slogans; ‘Vietnam, the Inapparent Charm,’ or ‘Vietnam, It Takes a While to Get to Know Us but Our Charm Might Grow on You If You Try’) was finally discarded. The old logo, meant to be a golden lotus bud above red text, looked more like Aladdin’s lamp, which may or may not be harbouring a dysfunctional, little red Marxist genie inside.

the old logo 

A new logo was announced about 2 months ago, and is actually quite attractive. The blue text (‘Vietnam, Ve Dep Bat Tan,’ or ‘Vietnam, Timeless Charm’) set in contrasting fonts, is topped once again with a lotus flower, though the 5 petals are now a separate colour of the rainbow. For once I think the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism did an OK job.

The other 'new logo' that was implemented then quickly rejected last year. Vietnam, A Different Orient--not necessarily the orient you were looking for; just different--but thanks for coming.

Unfortunately, even when someone at the top finally makes a fair decision, we can always trust someone else at the top to screw with things. Here come the petty rants from government employees who can’t take credit for someone else’s achievement…

Director of Hanoitourist, Luu Duc Ke, complained that the logo didn’t help tourists imagine the beauty of Vietnam, “Our products that use this logo will have to be accompanied with explanations to highlight the logo meaning.”

Director for the Viet Media and Tourism Company, Tran Van Long, also commented, “International tourists cannot image how Vietnam is when they look at the logo and slogan. Long said that the slogan so far is “Vietnam – The destination of the new millennium.”

Many in the Vietnamese media went on explain, it would seem, how they thought the logo was unintelligible too.

My response, apart from the fact that Mr. Long’s top slogan choice is about 13 years out-of-date, is that you fellows are looking for a t-shirt design, not a logo. Logos don’t need to be explained; they need to catch eyes. They don’t need deep, auspicious meanings nor antiquated Confucius symbolism; they just need to be recognizable. As neither of your departments currently fit that criteria, I’d say you could learn something from the new logo yourselves.

Much like my previous post regarding VNAT’s selection of Ly Nha Ky as national tourism ambassador (and the public’s backlash over her audacious half-Chinese cleavage), my suggestion is this:

OK Vietnam, you’ve got the new resources—they are decent--now you need to just make use of them!

Unfortunately, much like Mrs Ky, who seems to have disappeared immediately after Vietnam squeezed its way into the 7 Natural Wonders honours 3 months ago (the honour seems to have all but disappeared too), Vietnam has done nothing with the new slogan or logo.

Doan Thanh Tra from Saigontourist complained, “We are waiting [for 2 months already] for the VNAT’s action program but the agency has not launched any event that goes with the new logo.”

Ho hum.

UPDATE: Thua Thien-Hue Province has announced a new tourism website today which forms the corner stone of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism program for 2012. The website is a hodgepodge of plagiarized, out-of-date articles and tidbits lifted from all over the internet. Also included are many empty pages and broken online forms. Some of the negative reviews that were plagiarized are, if not unfortunate, rather comical at times.  My favorite restaurant review states:

"The decoration is cheesy by any standards; right down to the ragged map of India that looks like it was forgetfully ripped from a National Geographic and stuck to the wall with the shop's last thumbtack."

Well, at least VNAT is putting its best foot forward now...