Over the past two years, Da Nang has seen a significant rise in the number of passengers taking sightseeing boat tours on the Han River.

Visitors in a Kayaking tour on the Han River

Every evening, especially in the weekends, the former Han River Port opposite the Novotel Danang Premier Han River on Bach Dang Street is always crowded with visitors from both home and abroad.

According to a spokesperson for the municipal Department of Tourism, there are now 20 eligible tourist boats operating on the Han River-Tran Thi Ly Bridge route.

Last year, the number of tourist boat passengers rose by 79% against 2016 to hit over 350,000. In the first 9 months of this year alone, tourist boats welcomed around 350,000 passengers, a jump of 32% in comparison with the same period last year.

The majority of the passengers are foreigners, with Chinese and South Korean visitors accounting for 85% of the total, and the domestic travellers for around 10%.

However, the city has yet to tap fully its waterway tourism potential.

In particular, the Tran Thi Ly Bridge-Thuan Phuoc Bridge tour is operating between 40 and 50 minutes. It only gives passengers the chance to admire beautiful bridges spanning the Han River at night, and to watch the dragon’s head breathe firing and squirting water at the eastern end of the Rong (Dragon) Bridge at weekends.

Passengers getting off a tourist boat after finishing their tour on the Han River

Mr Le Van Phu, Director of the An Pha Son Trading and Service Company which is directly exploiting passengers for waterway tourism products, underlined the importance of creating a common design for all tourist boats operating on the Han River with specific logos, images, colours and identities in order to ensure the best service quality of the city’s river tourism products

He also asked for permission from the local authorities to extend the operating time of tourist boats on the Han River on weekends to help passengers watch the Han River Swing Bridge opening.

Mr Ngo Quang Vinh, Director of the local Tourism Department, his agency has made great efforts to promote the city’s potential for developing inland waterway transportation services to international markets. The focus has been on conducting surveys for the mouth of the Han River - Son Tra Peninsula, Han River-Hon Chao, and Han River-Ngu Hanh Son routes.

He also suggested that the former Song Thu Port should be converted into a trip boat pier, with some public facilities such as a waiting lounge and souvenir shops to be built in order to meet the growing demand of passengers. In addition, importance should be attached to accelerating the construction progress of the trip boat piers CT15, K20, Tuy Loan and Thai Lai.