Buying souvenirs is one of visitors’ favourite things to do in their visited places to retain memories of their trips, or to present to their relatives and friends as gifts. 

Visitors at a local night market

Currently, a wide range of souvenirs made from many kinds of materials are being offered to domestic and foreign visitors arriving in Da Nang.  The city is now focusing on taking more effective measures to develop locally-made special tourism products which feature distinctive characteristics of the culture, land and people of Da Nang to fully meet the diversified demands of the discerning visitors.

The Da Nang Souvenir and Café at 34 Bach Dang has become very popular with both residents and visitors thanks to its wide range of lovely and eye-catching souvenirs.  Apart from the opportunity to buy numerous nice souvenirs, customers can also enjoy tasty coffee in the beautiful café there.

On sale at this venue are such popular products as tasteful, hand-embroidered, fabric handbags, decorative objects, and table calendars featuring the images of the red-shanked douc langurs, the Son Tra Mountain, the Hai Van Pass, and other beautiful landscapes of Da Nang.  The visitors usually buy these items as gifts for their relatives and friends.

It is common to see many foreign visitors show their preference for lovely items featuring the city symbols rather than other types of products which are currently on sale at a shopping area near the Da Nang Marina complex on Tran Hung Dao.

A tourism product trader at the Han Market said that her own stand has seen a high consumption by foreign visitors of tourism products made of straw, including straw hats, conical hats, sandals and handbags over recent years.  Actually, these items are sourced from such other Vietnamese localities as Ha Noi, Bac Ninh, Ninh Binh and Binh Thuan.  This trader, therefore, hoped that Da Nang would see the establishment of big businesses specialising in making these highly-consumed products. 

Foreigners visiting a stand selling tourism products at the Museum of Da Nang

Amongst the city’s existing tourism souvenirs, Non Nuoc stone carving products are the most popular.  However, these items are relatively heavy and cumbersome, which is the main reason why many visitors are reluctant to buy them.  In reality, many visitors to the city said that they want to buy something special, compact and convenient.

Another fact is that not enough attractive dedicated tourism souvenir-selling centres are available in the city.

In attempting to increase the variety of tourism products to attract more buyers, local craftsman Le Nguyen Vy has exerted the great efforts to create works in quartz.  Interestingly, having succeeded at printing photography on stones and leaves, Mr Vy started working with sea shells – a tough material for photo printing – and pioneered the arts of printing photographs on shells in Viet Nam.  He has been considered as one of the first Vietnamese innovators of printing photos on leaves and stones. 

Mr Vy underlined the importance of establishing a dedicated area in Da Nang to sell local tourism products like the night markets in Hoi An, Hue, Sa Pa, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City.

Ms Truong Thi Hong Hanh, the Deputy Director of the municipal Tourism Department highlighted the significance of establishing dedicated tourism souvenir-selling centres at busy areas where both locals and visitors can find and buy them easily.

Ms Hanh also proposal that the city authorities should issue even more preferential policies relating to taxes, the rental fees of production and business premises, investment capital and other assistance for businesses making tourism souvenirs for sale.  This, thereby, will facilitate them to develop more attractive special products for visitors.