First cruise ship passengers of Lunar New Year welcomed to the city
MS Chinese Taishan cruise ship berthed at Da Nang’s Tien Sa Port yesterday afternoon (the 1st day of the 1st lunar month), bringing the first 900 international cruise ship passengers of the Lunar New Year to the city.
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| Leaders of the Tourism Department and the first cruise ship passengers to set foot in the city on the first day of the Lunar New Year. |
During their stay in the city, the foreign guests visited some of the popular local tourist attractions, and went shopping. As scheduled, the ship stayed overnight in the city, allowing its passengers to spend more time taking tours to Hoi An and Hue cities, and visiting another local attractions, including the the Linh Ung Pagoda, the Pham Van Dong Beach and the Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theatre. In addition, they enjoyed a city tour by cyclo, and used transit buses in front of the Trung Vuong Theatre.
During the Tet holiday, Da Nang is expected to welcome such large cruise ships as Dream Cruises’ Genting Dream, and Star Cruises' SuperStar Virgo. These ships are likely to bring passengers from foreign countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, France, the UK and the USA to visit the city.
According to a spokesperson for the municipal Department of Tourism, the city has seen an increasing number of cruise ships arrivals over recent years with the annual growth rate of cruise ship passengers of 22%.
During last year, the city received a total of 81,271 passengers from 58 cruise ship arrivals, a 3.6-fold rise against 2015.
Da Nang is now home to 4 travel companies specialising in welcoming and serving cruise ship passengers. They are the Xuyen A company, and the city’s branches of the Saigontourist, Tan Hong and OSC ones.
In addition to tours to local cultural heritages, the travel companies are organising many attractive programmes for their cruise ship passengers. Included are a homestay programme for the Japanese Peace Boat’s passengers, as well as making sedge mats, cooking and farming activities with locals in Cam Ne Village in Hoa Vang District.