The Vietnam entity of short video app TikTok has recently signed an agreement with Vietnam Society of Travel Agents (VISTA) – a social organization that includes Vietnamese travel and tourism businesses, tour guides and facilitators – to help its members promote Vietnam’s tourism through TikTok.
According to Nguyen Lam Thanh, TikTok’s head of public policy in Vietnam, the organization and its members will open official accounts that are verified by TikTok on the platform. TikTok will also organize training courses on how to create short videos and use the platform more effectively for members and partners of VISTA.
TikTok, which is part of the Chinese tech company ByteDance–currently considered the most valuable startup in the world–just had its official launch in Vietnam in April this year. But even before that, by March, it had already accumulated 12 million monthly active users in the country. In June, TikTok launched a #HelloVietnam campaign with the goal to create 50,000 short videos and reach 100 million viewers to promote Vietnam’s tourism across the world in 2019-2020.
The firm also signed a similar partnership in Indonesia, where the platform will support the promotion of ten must-see destinations in the country.
Vietnam welcomed nearly 7,3 million international tourists in the first five months of this year, according to government data, much lower compared than Thailand’s 10,7 million in the first quarter of 2019. Vietnam’s state-sponsored promotional campaigns are often criticized for being poorly designed and executed.
Update July 1st: Edited third paragraph to point out that TikTok was already accumulating users in Vietnam before its official launch in April.