Over recent years, Da Nang has seen a growing increase in the number of tourist arrivals and the majority of them are domestic visitors.

Domestic visitors going shopping at the Son Tra Night Market.

In particular, in 2012, the city welcomed 2.66 million visitors, 2.03 million of whom were from elsewhere in the country.

In 2018 alone, a total of 7.66 million travellers visited the seaside city, including 4.78 million domestic visitors.

However, the annual domestic tourism growth rate has been quite low. 

According to a survey conducted by the municipal Department of Tourism and the city-based Duy Tan University last year, most of domestic visitors were not satisfied with traffic problems in the city, and low traffic safety awareness of local residents.

The frequent occurrence of traffic congestion in the centre of the city, especially near the My Khe Beach, causes very difficult for visitors to get across main streets.

Besides, environmental hygiene at some local attractions has not yet to be ensured, whilst underway construction works are causing difficulties in travelling in the city for visitors . In addition, the number of public toilets in the city is still modest.

Moreover, the city is facing a shortage of qualified human resources in tourism sector, and new and attractive tourism products.

Furthermore, the cost of travelling to such foreign countries as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea is now cheaper than that of travelling to domestic localities. Therefore, recent years have seen an upward trend in the number of Vietnamese people travelling abroad over public holidays and Tet Festival.

Mr Nguyen Van Tai, Deputy Director of the city branch of the Ben Thanh Tourist Services Joint Stock Company, highlighted the significance of establishing closer cooperation between domestic airlines and local 3 to 5-star accommodation providers, offering many attractive promotional programmes, and organising numerous fascinating cultural, historical and festive events in the city in order to increase domestic visitor arrivals.

The focus should be on building more entertainment areas in the centre of the city, and developing more adventure and water sports activities.

Mrs Truong Thi Hong Hanh, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Tourism, remarked special attention would be paid to enhancing the quality of tourism promotion activities in localities nationwide, especially in Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, as well as advertising the city’s tourism images through the mass media.

She added importance would be attached to cooperate well with Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue provinces in order to establish a tourism network associated with UNESCO-recognised world cultural heritage sites.

Emphasis will be on launching new tours combining cultural and eco-tourism in the central highlands provinces with beach tourism in Da Nang.

“My agency will also give some suggestions to the local authorities about developing the Hoang Sa-Vo Nguyen Giap-Truong Sa route into a specialised tourism road with a chain of bars, coffee shops, shopping areas and others”, Mrs Hanh noted.