Vietnam's advertising law for foreign tourism brands

Article 39 of the 2012 law distinguishes two cases. Foreign organisations and individuals that operate in Vietnam may advertise their products, goods, services and activities there under the law. Those that do not operate in Vietnam and want to advertise there must hire a Vietnamese advertising service provider to do it.

For most foreign tourism boards, overseas hotels and attractions, the second case applies: campaigns aimed at Vietnamese audiences are placed through a Vietnamese agency. Article 41 allows foreign advertising businesses to open representative offices in Vietnam, licensed by the provincial People's Committee, but those offices may only promote; they may not trade advertising services directly.

We read Article 39 as displayed in LuatVietnam's text, which lists the later amending laws. We did not verify article by article whether Law 75/2025 changed it, so confirm the current wording with Vietnamese counsel.

Law 75/2025 introduced the term người chuyển tải sản phẩm quảng cáo, a conveyor of advertising: a person who directly advertises, recommends or confirms products, goods or services online, or carries advertising by wearing, hanging or attaching it for profit. New Article 15a gives conveyors their own duties: to comply with consumer-protection and product rules, to provide documents about the advertised content when a competent authority asks, and to answer for content that breaches the requirements of Article 19.

Influencers, as defined in consumer-protection law, have further duties under Article 15a(3). They must not introduce products they have not used or do not clearly understand, and they must announce clearly that the content is advertising, immediately before and during it. A November 2025 seminar heard officials say that KOL advertising on social networks and livestreams must carry the label "quảng cáo" or "tài trợ". Breaches can lead to administrative penalties or, depending on severity, criminal liability, and officials also mentioned corrections and compensation.

For a tourism brand, the "not used" rule is the one to plan around: a creator who has never been to your destination or stayed in your hotel is in a weak position to promote it. Famtrips become part of compliance, not only of content quality. The briefing page builds this into a brief.

Law 75/2025 sets out, for the first time, conditions for foreign organisations that advertise across the border into Vietnam. Under Article 23(6) they must not cooperate with organisations, individuals or platforms publicly named by the authorities as violators, must not place advertising next to, before or after unlawful content, and must cooperate in removing violating content. Under Article 23(7) violating advertising must be removed within 24 hours of a request from a competent authority. Foreign businesses advertising online in Vietnam must also register, declare and pay tax on the related revenue under tax law.

Decree 342/2025 repeats the 24-hour duty for advertisers, advertising service providers, conveyors and publishers in Article 18(2), acting on a request from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism or another competent body. Under Article 19(1), businesses providing online advertising services in Vietnam, domestic or foreign, must notify their contact details to the ministry, on Form 03, before starting business; the ministry confirms within four working days.

For a foreign tourism board this mostly lands on the agency and the platforms. What you control is the contract: name who receives takedown requests, who acts on them out of hours, and who pays if a campaign must stop.

1. Confirm with Vietnamese counsel whether you "operate in Vietnam" under Article 39, and if not, contract a Vietnamese advertising service provider.
2. Write all creative in Vietnamese first, with any foreign-language line smaller and below.
3. For every influencer, record that they have used or experienced what they promote, and require the "quảng cáo" or "tài trợ" label and the platform's paid-partnership setting.
4. Keep a file of documents that support each claim in the campaign: prices, inclusions, visa information, photographs' rights.
5. Name in the contract who handles a 24-hour takedown request and how the campaign is paused.
6. Ask the agency to confirm its notification to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism if it provides online advertising services.
7. Check tax registration questions for any online advertising bought from abroad.