This study attempted to identify the image representations of Vietnam tourism videos by analyzing the contents of variety of videos on the YouTube.com – a website which provides many videos online – of different authors Vietnamese Government, Vietnamese Tourists, Western Tourists, Eastern Tourists and Publication Companies. The purpose of this study is to identify the holistic images, attribute images as well as unique images of Vietnam. The images of Vietnam as a travel destination in views of 5 research groups are examined by ANOVA and Correspondent Analysis.
The study found that Vietnam is considered as a country of developing infrastructure/ transportation and high degree of urbanization with many historical sites, cultural interests as well as the natural beauty in the content of videos of all 5 research groups. Most of videos were shown many interesting tourist spots in Vietnam combined with the charming and gentle of Vietnamese. In there, Ho Chi Minh City is considered as the destination of Vietnam which Eastern Tourist often visit while Vietnamese Government and Publication Company introduce the image of Vietnam stretching in all 3 dimensions. Western Tourist show more about Mekong Delta and nice beaches in their videos meanwhile Vietnamese Tourist focus on “Tet” – Vietnamese Lunar New Year. This study also found that different groups holding different images about Vietnam based on their point of view. Vietnamese Government prefers showing the most interesting and unique image of Vietnam in order to introduce about the country to the world while Publication Company tends to show a complex image of Vietnam as tour packages. International tourist (Western Tourist and Eastern Tourist) films more about dissimilar traits compare with their countries. Vietnamese Tourist stands from local view point pay more attention on film national events or festivals.
