1The wedding, particularly in Asian culture, is a memorable, defining moment in adult life. Nowadays, young people are demanding when it comes to organising their weddings, investing time and money not only in the ceremony and reception, but also in their wedding photo album, which they see as a tool for affirming their new identity. To ensure an exquisite album, they are willing to spend a lot of time and money on a pre-wedding trip lasting several days. To attract this clientele, destinations must make a move towards romanticism. Our analysis suggests a similarity between a destination’s evolution towards romanticism and its kitschification.
2Our research focuses on Vietnam’s romantic pre-wedding tourism, of which Dalat is one of the most emblematic romantic destinations; its many related nicknames attest to this, in particular “City of Dreams” which it has been attributed since the 1950s (Tessier and Bourdeaux, 2013). In turn, these nicknames generate symbolic representations that make Dalat an especially interesting destination.
3In this context, the pre-wedding tourism circuit will be the object of our study, which aims to examine the growth of this form of tourism, analyse its role in tourism development, and show a destination’s transition from romantic evolution to kitschification.
4We will begin with a brief summary of the origins of honeymoons and wedding trips around the world. In particular, the advent of such “Western” practices in Vietnam is a subject that is worth analysing to determine its evolution over time. We will then study the pre-wedding tourism circuit, considered to be one of the developments in matrimonial practices among future brides and grooms in Vietnam today, using field observations in Dalat and semi-structured interviews with agencies offering this service and young couples who have used it. The aim is to show how a romantic destination has become kitschified and to uncover the underlying messages of this process.
When did the first wedding trips and honeymoons appear in Vietnam?
10Despite early Western influence in many areas, including dress (by the 1920s-1930s, the Vietnamese elite had adopted Western-style clothing - suits for men and dresses for women), paradoxically, wedding attire was not part of this evolution and the Vietnamese still wore traditional clothing, known as áo dài, for weddings. For example, Bao Dai - the last Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty - and his wife, Empress Nam Phuong, chose not to dress in Western style on their wedding day in 1934, even though this had become a part of their daily lives when they lived and studied in France for several years.
11After colonization, with the arrival of the Americans, Francization was replaced by Americanization. And while European culture had taken a century to become established in Vietnam, it was only around two decades before American culture became widely disseminated. Matrimonial practices evolved from this new point of reference: Doan Thi Tinh’s research has shown that city brides started to wear long white dresses and white veils on their wedding day, and men began to opt for suits over áo dài (Doan, 2006). This shift in the direction of Western-style dress has led us to hypothesize that honeymoons and wedding trips became popular around this time for the following two reasons:
- Firstly, the development of media and technology accelerated the spread of American culture in Vietnam. The Vietnamese could easily observe (television), access (going to the cinema, bar, club) and imitate (fashion, practices) American ways. We imagine that in such an environment, honeymoons and wedding trips were unable to escape this trend.
- Secondly, from that time onward, tourism sites were no longer exclusively the preserve of European and Vietnamese elites, as they had been during the Indochina era, and instead were becoming increasingly accessible to all social classes.
12As part of our research, we will analyse the pre-wedding tourism circuit among future brides and grooms in Vietnam. We chose Dalat to study this related phenomenon, and its popularity as a wedding destination became apparent during the course of our study.
A. Dalat - the ideal romantic destination for young couples
B. Description of the “pre-wedding timer” - Dalat’s flagship pre-wedding romantic tourism product
14From the 1950s onwards, Dalat’s romantic image was successively crafted to attract couples, and over the last ten years or so, we have observed segmentation in the choice of target clientele. Couples - Dalat’s main clientele - can be divided into three groups, each with their own product: lovers (romantic tourism), brides and grooms (honeymoon tourism) and future brides and grooms (pre-wedding romantic tourism to create their photo album). For the purposes of our research, we will focus on the third group.
15“Pre-wedding timer” is a pre-marriage sightseeing tour that is specially designed for future brides and grooms who want to travel and create their wedding photo album. The name comes from the Dalat Trip travel agency, one of the first companies to offer this product in Dalat.
16To find out about the features of this new product, we conducted semi-structured interviews with two actors representing market supply and demand:
-Supply: 5 photography studios and a travel agency.-Demand: 10 brides- and grooms-to-be from different parts of the country.
- Clients who have already created their album: this forum was originally designed for people to share their experiences, give their advice and opinions, or simply recommend a studio whose services they had used. We selected this type of client for the semi-structured interviews because their opinions can help us better understand their expectations and experiences of this circuit. We will expand on the description in the interview results section.
- Future customers: they participate to find out everything about the subject according to their preferences and expectations: questions on budgets, studios, photography styles, etc.
- A large number of studios: we counted around sixty studios who participate in this forum to promote their services. By way of an example, a simple question asked by a future client about choosing a studio immediately attracted around a hundred responses, most of them from studios. Studios also use the site’s paid advertising to increase their visibility.
18The results are as follows:
- Travel agencies: Middle-income Vietnamese couples are fairly independent in organising their own trips to save money, whereas more well-off couples, often foreign couples and/or Vietnamese-Non Vietnamese couples - prefer to leave the entire management of photo shoots and other activities to a tour operator. For this reason, travel agencies offer full tours. In 2017, Mr Huong NGUYEN, director of Dalat Trip, a pioneer in romantic tourism, described his product to us (Le, 2020, p. 113):
- Duration of the trip: around two to three days.- Price of the trip: around 350 US dollars (USD)/person, or 700 USD/couple (price in 2017).
The product includes:- Accommodation in a four-star hotel.- First day: clients are collected from the airport and taken to the hotel where they choose their outfits for the next day’s photo sessions, have dinner, then rest.- Second day: choice of one to three locations, for example: coffee and tea plantations, Dalat railway station, Tuyen Lam Lake, Suoi Vang, Bao Dai palaces. (In general there are around twenty photo sessions).- Final day: couples receive their album and go home.
- At this time (2017), Vietnamese couples, from Saigon and Hanoi in particular, were the main clients for this package. The agency also had foreign clients from Thailand, Singapore and Europe.
- Photograph styles requested by the couples were either classic (Figure 4), modern (Figure 2: the bride is wearing a dress and the groom is in a Western-style suit), or a mixture of the two (Figure 3: the same couple, colonial-era style: the bride wearing the áo-dài, and the groom wearing a jacket and holding a rattan suitcase).
19The table below compares the Pre-wedding timer comprehensive package and the wedding album only options:
Content
Pre-wedding timer
(album + trip)
Wedding photo album
(photo album only)
Duration
2-3 days or more
One day
Budget
25-30 million Vietnamese dollars (VND) (1,000-1,200 Euros (EUR))
7-8 million VND (300-350 EUR)
Number of photo locations
3-6 locations (according to package)
1-3 locations maximum
Final product
Receipt of album before departure
Album sent out a week later
The opinion of future brides and grooms - representative of market demand
20By selecting the most recent comments on this forum from people who had already completed their wedding photo album, we contacted around thirty participants by private message (Messenger) to invite them to an interview. Ten couples accepted our invitation.
21The participants, aged 22 to 27, were all Vietnamese and came from various provinces in the country: Ho Chi Minh City (3), Mekong Delta (3), Nha Trang (1), Dong Nai (1), Hanoi (1) and Hai Phong (1). There were eight couples from southern Vietnam. Travel between Ho Chi Minh City and Dalat is facilitated by a number of factors: the journey is only 300 km, much of it on the well-maintained highway, and the area is well served by bus companies and airlines.
22Regarding destination choice, interviewees gave two types of response. The first group chose Dalat because it was a symbolic destination in the history of their relationship (first date, first trip as a couple, etc.). The second had never been to Dalat but chose it because of its poetic and romantic images portrayed on tourism websites. This confirms the role of the media and marketing in attaching an image (poetry and romance in this case) to a destination (discussed in part II.B.1).
23All participants chose the outdoor photoshoot option to make the most of the beautiful Dalat landscape. Nature was the favourite theme for young couples, for example, lakesides, pine forests, at sunrise and/or sunset, at the top of the mountain for the clouds, etc. Vintage and “colonial nostalgia” were also themes proposed by the studios and/or requested by clients, because this city was planned and developed by the French during the colonial era, with historical monuments such as Dalat Railway Station, Yersin High School, Saint Nicolas Church and the series of villas being the most popular choices. In particular, one couple from Dong Nai province chose hanbok traditional clothing as their wedding outfit because they considered Dalat to be a romantic city, which reminded them of the scenery in Korean romantic films. In fact, during our doctoral research we noticed a recent trend, over the last 7-8 years, in which different cultures are making their appearance in the layout of tourism sites in Dalat, such as the Gates of Heaven (Bali), the Korean street in the Moc Tra Farm, and especially Mongo Land (Mongolia), inaugurated in 2022, which quickly attracted young couples’ attention for creating their wedding photo album. Even though these themes revolve around romance (the main subject), this accumulation has turned Dalat into an all-round kitsch destination.
25The budget for the trip is between 15 and 20 million Vietnamese dollars (VND) (or 600-800 Euros (EUR)), with photography and album production accounting for 50-60% of the total cost.
26We asked the interviewees to rate their level of satisfaction with the purchase. Nine out of ten couples were very satisfied with their choice. Although the trip was more expensive and took longer than having their photos taken in a studio or somewhere close to home, not only did they leave with an “original” album, they also had “unforgettable” memories of this important landmark in their lives.
28This survey revealed a part of Dalat’s kitschification process through the young couples’ choices of themes, and will be analysed further in the section below in an attempt to understand the reason(s) why a destination labelled as romantic becomes kitschified.
A. Dalat: a “romantic destination” valorized, commodified and kitschified
29After analysing Dalat’s romantic pre-wedding tourism through the pre-wedding timer product, our research problematic is illustrated by a destination’s evolution: from romantification to kitschification. To understand this process better, we have created the following diagram:
30As can be seen in the above diagram, the kitschification process can be divided into three phases:
- Phase 1 - Authenticity of a destination: due to its natural features, Dalat’s romantic, poetic and even melancholic image has been gradually developed since the 1950s. The tourism appeal of this destination was mainly based on its natural features (forests, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, biological resources, etc.), and the tourism products of this phase were fairly simple, revolving around the French people’s need for rest, complemented by leisure activities such as hunting, sports and golf.
- Phase 2 - Romantic destination valorized: among the three aforementioned components making up this resort’s image, romanticism was chosen as the key element for promoting Dalat’s reputation, and has even become its identity. At this point, the destination was labelled “romantic”, i.e. it was promoted in order to develop romantic tourism. In such a context, romantic tourism attracted several types of tourists; not only recently married couples, but anyone who wanted to experience it for themselves.
- Phase 3 - Romantic destination kitschified: couples are the most prominent customer type in phase 2 and account for a large share of the market. By capitalising on this element, tourism products are created to target this specific clientele. The image of “valorized romanticism” has changed as various subjects have been added to it, the accumulation of which has resulted in destination overload. Media and marketing have played a significant role in stimulating sites to diversify the tourism products. The original A product has been transformed into two scenarios: either (A+)B (this new product is still romantic (even renowned for being so) and also adds a variety of attractions); or B(A+) (this new product has become a substitute for the original product, and may even replace it. The recent construction of replica villas imitating colonial architecture is a case in point). This process of kitschification risks erasing an area’s identity and typical characteristics and becoming a kind of “disneyfication” (Brunel, 2011, 2012). This trend is regularly adopted by destinations in the development of tourist sites, particularly in South and South-East Asia (Bachimon et al., 2020).
B. The underlying messages of the kitschification process
32According to our previous research on “the kitsch landscape as a tourism destination in South and Southeast Asia”, the message of the kitschification process has been interpreted through three elements: a figure of cheap Western modernity, soft power aesthetics, and a means of legitimizing power (Bachimon et al., 2020). Based on these, and in the context of our research topic, we will develop other elements, drawing on consumerism, which is considered to be the key objective of this kitschification process.
1. Creating a new type of touristified identity for the destination
33Since its foundation, Dalat has regularly been likened to the image of a French city (see the aforementioned “Little Paris”). Capitalizing on this comparison, investors have duplicated it in the sites’ construction and decoration. Moreover, marketing and media constantly reinforce this Western image, even claiming it to be a kind of local heritage. As a result, Dalat has become an ideal substitute for Vietnamese brides- and grooms-to-be to easily make their dreams come true. “This clientele is not demanding, readily accepting the replicas as attractive images of the “Little Paris” Dalat, which they do not see as “fake”, but as substitutes for a trip to Paris that is far too expensive. Dalat thus plays the role of a “transitional object” (Amirou, 1994; Bachimon and Le, 2021), helping this clientele to be satisfied with their actual context (Le, 2020).
34Nowadays, Dalat is set to move beyond the image of a “Little Paris”, and become a “global” destination, represented by a multi-origin décor (Korean, Japanese, and recently Mongolian). This accumulation of styles appeals to visitors. We believe that the latter is clearly geared towards the thinking of young married women, who choose quantity over quality; in a photo album, multiple styles are preferable to a single style throughout. This preference is also reflected in how they dress on their wedding day: instead of spending their money on one dress that they will always keep, brides prefer to hire clothes so that they have as many outfits as possible.
2. Boosting consumerism
35The main aim of commercializing a destination is to boost consumerism so as to maximize profits. The use of tourism is seen as a way of integrating “the opportunities offered by the consumer society” (Condominas, 1993). In the romantic tourism market especially, this consumerisation is extremely lucrative because psychologically couples are more generous than usual. Besides the wedding photo album - the main product - they are attracted by a list of kitsch ‘add-on’ products during their pre-wedding trip: hybrid games, activities and extras based on the same subject, not to mention the kiosks and souvenir shops that are there simply to encourage them to spend. This kitschification process has become a commercial and even a political strategy, as it encourages its customers to spend a lot of money by “enchanting” them in a “paradisiacal” world in which everybody, lives happily ever after with their Prince or Princess Charming.
3. A soft-core ambience - a management tool for the city authorities
36In general, a romantic destination can appeal to several types of tourist, not only couples for ‘official’ matrimonial events such as weddings and honeymoons, but also people looking for short stays for sexual and/or romantic experiences. See, for example, the research conducted by Staszak (2012) on sex tourism in Amsterdam, Prague and Bangkok, and the work by Laporte (2003) on the increase in sex tourism among young Western women to southern countries such as Jamaica, Barbados and Ecuador. In some destinations with straightforward matrimonial laws, tourists may use the opportunity to enter into non-consummated marriages (mariage blanc) (Amaya Schaeffer, 2018). To make these romantic types of tourism less complex, the soft-core ambience created by the kitschification process is one of the city authority’s destination management objectives, particularly when it comes to filtering tourists.
37Our previous research on kitsch has shown that the kitschification process of a destination is composed of several elements: physical resources (landscape, historic buildings), tourism activities and destination image (or even identity). The pre-wedding tourism circuit in Dalat that we have just described is emblematic of this process. The transformation of romanticism into kitsch is part of an industrial production process, satisfying a consumerism that targets young couples for wedding photo albums. In this context, kitsch is a toned-down commodity, creating a sentimental environment that enchants clients and entices them to spend money. Following the photographers’ lead, the bride and groom must smile as much as possible when posing next to magical scenes in order to get the best photos. When their album - the end product of the circuit - is put online, it is a concrete reflection of la vie en rose (life through rose tinted glasses), because it is actually made up of pink objects. In other words, it is still “a form of the ‘art of happiness’ that Moles and Baudrillard explored when postmodern consumerism first emerged (Baudrillard, 1968, 1974, 1985)” (Le, 2020, p. 291). But will this love for love only last momentarily, much like the ephemeral nature of kitsch? This issue has not yet been fully determined in the context of our research.
38Besides the security of romantic tourism without the aforementioned side-effects in part 3 and the boost to consumerism, this “romantic kitschification” can provide destinations with a touristified identity it can use to attract customers, but in the process will erase and replace its distinctive characteristics with an all-round kitsch tourism culture.
