Many travel agencies in Da Nang are offering attractive discounts on their packages for the upcoming holiday for National Day (2 September).  Their tourism promotion programme begins the city’s “Tourism Stimulus in Da Nang 2013” campaign, which will run from 1 September to 31 December.

However, some of the major local tour companies, like Vitours, Saigontourist and Vietravel, have seen a 40% decrease in the number of tourists buying their domestic packages in August as compared with the previous month.  The main reason is thought to be that families are not making any plans to travel anywhere for the upcoming public holiday because their children are going back to school after the summer holidays.

Visitors to the Marble Mountains

The domestic tour programmes and schedules designed for this public holiday are 1-day and 2 to 5-day trips because employees have only one day off work for National Day on Monday 2 September.  In particular, short day trips have become popular, and the numbers booked account for between 70% and 75% of the total bookings.  The majority of bookers are from the north and south regions, and their travel destinations are Da Nang and other localities in the central region.

In detail, the Vitours, Saigontourist, Hoang Tra, Cong Doan and Huyen Thoai Viet companies are offering up to 25% off the usual prices for their special tours from early September until late in the year.  Some local hotels and resorts, including Green Plaza, Mercure, Furama and Sandy Beach, are giving up to 50% discount on their room rates.  In addition, discounts of between 20% and 50% will be offered on entrance tickets at such popular local tourist attractions as Marble Mountains, Ba Na Hills Resort and the Museum of Cham Sculpture.  

In contrast to the less popular domestic tours, overseas destinations, especially Asian countries, are more attractive to domestic travellers due to their relatively cheap cost and diversified tours.   Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, China, Cambodia and Thailand are among the popular destinations in Asia.

Thanks to the opening of the Da Nang-Seoul direct flights in early July, the number of travel bookers from Viet Nam to South Korea is 3 times higher than in the same period last year.