Between January and October, the total number of tourist arrivals to the city reached 4.8 million, including 1.42 million foreigners.  This is an increase of 19.1% compared with the same period last year, and fulfilling 93.6 % of this year’s target.  The city earned nearly 13,957 billion VND from tourism, up 26.5% against the same period last year. 

Visitors at the Nui Than Tai Hot Spring Park

By the end of this year, the city is likely to have welcomed 5.51 million tourist arrivals and the local tourism sector is expected to have a total revenue of 16,000 billion VND.  Currently, there are 2,598 tour guides operating in the city.

At a meeting on Tuesday to review the performance of the city’s tourism sector over the past 10 months, representatives from the Department proposed that a local tourism police force should be established very soon on a trial basis.  The dredging of the Co Co River to develop river tours should also be accelerated. 

Special heed should be paid to appealing for more domestic and FDI inflows into the construction of national-level tourism sites in the city in the years ahead. 

In particular, it was suggested that the city authorities should issue even more preferential mechanisms for airlines to open direct flights connecting Da Nang with its key domestic and foreign tourist markets in the years ahead, especially those departing for European countries.

Also at the meeting, discussions focused on dealing with the current severe shortage of tour guides for Chinese and South Korean tour groups visiting the city.

Greater efforts should be made to establish more shopping areas featuring duty-free shops and more specialised night markets selling flowers, locally-made tourism products, and other related items. 

Furthermore, even more effective measures should be taken to promote the local development of eco-tourism and medical tourism, ensure food safety and hygiene, and reduce tax collection losses from local tourism businesses.