In recent years, tourism is a spearhead economic sector that brings a large source of revenue to the Da stategies. However, in order to increasingly make future development strides in the coming time, Da Nang tourism industry needs to continue to make more innovations to effectively adapt itself to the context of complicated and unpredictable COVID-19 pandemic.

Tourism products should be built in association with conservation and promotion of the local cultural values. Tourists experiencing the craft of making traditional 'banh trang' (rice paper) within the framework of the 2021 New Year Festival

Making a big mark

Tourism is one of the five key economic sectors to which Da Nang has given priorities in the spirit of the Politburo's Resolution No 43-NQ / TW dated 24 January 2016 on boosting Da Nang’s growth to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Over the past time, Da Nang tourism industry has made impressive growth steps, making a highly noticeable mark on the domestic and international tourism map with a series of international-level awards.

Noticeably, Da Nang has risen to fame in the eyes of international friends as the host of many major internationally renowned events such as the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival, Beach Leisure & MICE Travel Mart (BMTM Da Nang 2016), Cocofest Festival, Da Nang International Marathon (DNIM), IRONMAN 70.3 Viet Nam triathlon and the 2015 - 2016 Clipper Round the World Race, the 5th Asian Beach Games (ABG5) in 2016, the 2017 APEC Economic Leaders’ Week, the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)’s 37th Board of Governors (BoG) and related meetings in 2017, the 6th Assembly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF-6) in 2018, the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) in 2020.

There is no denying that tourism products are also increasingly diversified and enhanced in terms of both quality and quantity.

In addition, the presence of new tourism landmarks developed by internationally renowned ‘big boys’ in the tourism sector such as Sun Group, Vin Group and BRG has  contributed to lifting the face of the city in a more professional direction, meeting daily requirements and expectations of visitors from at home and overseas over recent years. 

Infrastructure projects to support tourism are under constriction with the aim of forming attractive new tourism products for the city. Included are the expansion of the APEC Park, Project, the BRG Danang Golf Resort Hotel Project and the expansion an aircraft apron in the Da Nang International Airport to the north.

Over the 2016 - 2018 period, the city saw a growing number of domestic and foreign visitor arrivals each year, showing an average annual growth rate of around 17.5%. Amongst, the average annual growth rate of international visitor arrivals was 30.9%.

During that period, the average annual growth rate of turnover of the tourism industry was 28.4%. In 2019 alone, the city hosted around 8.7 million visitors, a rise of 13.4% compared with the same period of 2018, surpassing the year's target by 6.1%. Of this figure, the number of foreigners went up by 22.5% to hit 3.5 million, whilst domestic visitor arrivals climbed by 8% to 5.2 million. Thanks to this, the city’s tourism sector earned an estimated 30,973 billion VND in revenue, up 16.7% against 2018.

Finding ways to overcome difficulties

The globally complicated COVID-19 pandemic has forced Viet Nam to remain shut to foreign tourists. As a result, Da Nang is doubling down on its efforts in attracting domestic tourists the more the better throughout this year.

In 2020, visitor numbers in Da Nang dropped by 68.6% compared with 2019 to stand at only 2.7 million. Revenues generated from accommodation, dining and travel services hit only more than 15,000 billion VND, down by 40.7% against 2019.

Tourists are excited to pose for a group photo with the image of Chatbox used in the music video "Da Nang miss you" in December, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Da Nang Tourism Promotion Centre.

Chairman of Da Nang Tourism Association Cao Tri Dung underlined a must-do to quickly restructure this non-smoke industry in a way that both changes made to the speeding habits of tourists, and the structure of tourist sources, products and services  structure by performing digital transformation in travel activities, in a prompt yet effective manner.

Virtually, every business is threatened by new competitors in the age of digitisation. In many cases, it is necessary to transform your own company so as not to be edged out. For smoother digital transformation process, it is a high time for local businesses to transform customer relationship management and enhance customer experience in order to meet the needs of visitors and exceed their experiences.

Ensuring harmonious and sustainable development

Director of the Department of Tourism Truong Thi Hong Hanh said that, during the rest of this year, the entire tourism industry will make greater efforts to overcome difficulties and challenges triggered by the pandemic.

Focus will be on promoting socio-economic development towards high-quality tourism and services associated with resort real estate, effectively tapping and using the city’s tourism development potential and advantages, thereby step by step developing the night-time economy in the coming time.

Under the soon-to-be-built communications plans for promoting the Da Nang image over the 2021 - 2022 period, importance will be attached to making the release of short MVs and clips to convey positive messages and images about Da Nang’s tourist destination. This is viewed as a good tourism promotion approach as they easily go on viral on social networking sites, thus widely spreading in the community. Once these products leave a good impression, it is easy for tourists to choose Da Nang as a destination for their trips.

The tourism industry continues to diversify tourism products and services, focusing on connecting businesses to implement stimulus programs to attract tourists and restore the development of tourism in the city in the coming time.

As initially scheduled, the April – August 2021 period will see a wide range of activities within the framework of the ‘Exciting Da Nang Summer’ showing off attractive deals on beach leisure services, nighttime discovery tours to the Sun World Ba Na Hills and the Marble Mountains Tourist Area.

In parallel with this landmark programme, locals and tourists will be treated to a chain of such other cultural and sports events which have lifted the city’s reputation over recent years as the Da Nang Fantasticity Festival, Da Nang International Fireworks Festival, Viet Nam International Travel Mart (VITM), IRONMAN 70.3 Viet Nam triathlon and Da Nang International Marathon (DNIM).

Interestingly, newcomers, the finale of the first-ever Miss Tourism Da Nang beauty pageant for instance, is expected to enrich the locally-developed tourism products.

By THU HA – Translated by A.T