In response to the 2013 World Tourism Day (WTD) on 27 September, a wide range of activities, such as energy saving and famtrip programmes and eco-tours, are being held in Da Nang.

The city’s travel companies have witnessed a decrease of up to 50% in the volume of domestic visitors during September compared with the peak because this month falls in the low tourism season. 

In an attempt to deal with this situation, local travel companies are trying to launch many unique tours at reasonable prices, in combination with publicising WTD through practical actions.  These include riding bicycles to publicise the campaign, collecting rubbish, distributing nylon bio-degradable bags, and launching team-building programmes.

Local young people actively involved in environmental protection activities

In addition, the travel companies are organising many famtrip programmes to survey new tourist attractions in the city in an attempt to attract more customers over the winter.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has also held many activities to welcome this year’s WTD, such as the final round of the 2013 Da Nang Hotel Receptionist Competition and a vote for the outstanding tourism enterprises.  The purpose is to help local tourism businesses to uphold their sense of responsibility for environmental protection and the community, as well as to improve the quality of their services and promote their brand names in the city.

WTD, which takes “Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future” as its theme, will be officially launched on 27 September in the Maldives.  The purpose is to highlight tourism’s role in water access and shine a spotlight on the actions currently being taken by the sector in order to contribute to a more sustainable water future, as well as the challenges ahead.