London cabs will promote images of Vietnam through the dreary U.K. winter as part of a £20,000 (US$30,436) advertising campaign using the slogan, “Charming Vietnam.”

Twenty-seven taxis will transport a slice of Vietnam around London during the six-month campaign, Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper reported.

The cab advertisements will show Vietnam’s blue skies, the mysterious and beautiful Ha Long Bay and the iconic image of schoolgirls cycling in conical hats and white ao dai (long tunics).

The advertising campaign will harness the power of London’s black cabs, as iconic a London image as Big Ben and the city’s red telephone booths.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnamese Embassy in the U.K. are preparing for the launch of the campaign next month.

This year’s campaign follows a similar successful campaign last year. The previous advertising campaign, which cost £7,000 ($10,652), was only run on 10 cabs between September last year and February this year.

The first campaign coincided with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to the U.K. in March last year.

Dung has agreed to spend VND25 billion ($1.4 million) promoting tourism this year and the tourism sector has set a target of welcoming 4.5 million foreign visitors in 2009.

Source: Tuoi Tre

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