The trend of staycation (a portmanteau of “stay” and “vacation”) is gradually becoming familiar to many people. In the current context of global complicated COVID-19 pandemic acting as a barrier to tourism activities, the form of relaxation and discovery right in residence locales is a suitable solution for many families.

Many Da Nang residents, over recent times, turned to a new and extreme form of staycation: transforming their hometowns into their favourite vacation spots. Under staycation, an individual or family stays home and participates in leisure activities within day trip distance of their home, and does not require overnight accommodation.

Da Nang residents and tourists enjoying moments at the Water Park 365 entertainment complex at the 100 million US$ Da Nang – Mikazuki Japanese Resorts & Spa project in Hoa Hiep Nam Ward, Lien Chieu District

Last weekend, Mr Bui Ngoc Thuy's family living in Hoa Cuong Bac Ward, Hai Chau District, enjoyed a full day of fun at the Water Park 365 entertainment complex at the 100 million US$ Da Nang – Mikazuki Japanese Resorts & Spa project in Hoa Hiep Nam Ward, Lien Chieu District.

Here, his family immerse themselves into joyful and relaxing moments with thermal bath services and indoor entertainment activities. He said, for more than a year, his family's travel plans has been cancelled due to the coronavirus resurgence in Viet Nam. His family, therefore, has been made trips to destinations close to Da Nang.

“We often choose destinations that are spacious, cool, and have places for children to play. We like staying in nearby resorts or cafes with open spaces close to the nature”, said Thuy.

For many people like Thuy, staycations are a really interesting way to ‘scratch their travel itch’ by staying close to home rather than travelling to faraway places.

This form of travel is less about the journey itself and more about breaking old patterns and habits to discover something new and becoming open-minded.

In fact, staycations also help ensure that hotels and resorts that usually cater to foreign travellers can keep running and working as normally as possible by catering to domestic ones.

Domestic travellers can find it much easier to access special travel deals with high-quality services offered at unprecedented attractive prices.

According to Mr Truong Ngoc Thanh – PR Manager of Furama Resort and Ariyana Convention Centre Danang, the number visitors to this venue from other Vietnamese localities is not high, while there is a growing demand of local residents for relaxation.

Fully aware of this fact, Furama has formed a number of daily services for tourists such as highly-inviting packages for stays at only 499,000 VND/ person. Here, guests will experience the 5-star services, use the infinity pool, enjoy Vietnamese meals, and one glass of tasty drink free of charge. In addition, guests to Furama also have the opportunity to book rooms at preferential prices of only 650,000 VND /person, including free breakfast when booked with a day's package (applied for two guests / room).

In a similar vein, culinary services offered at attractive charges are now available at some other resorts and hotels such as Grand Mercure Hotel, Risemount Resort, Four Points by Sheraton, Diamond Sea Hotel, Haian Beach, Grandvrio hotel.

The launch of reasonably-priced attractive service packages indeed helps Da Nang hospitality establishments fully tap infrastructure function, and ensure financial ability to keep their staff remaining on the payrolls.

According to tourism experts, the aforementioned entertainment and culinary packages target customers who are from the city and nearby localities, thus contributing to diversifying locally-developed products and services and ensure better customer experience. In parallel with, these preferential packages also help tourism businesses  partially compensate the shortage of tourists coming to the city due to the negative impacts of the coronavirus.

For his perspective, Mr Nguyen Ngoc Thien, Deputy General Director of Hai Van Cat International Travel Co., Ltd., said that the current tourism trend is moving and changing positively to suit the actual situation of society. Not only accommodation establishments but also businesses themselves have to change tourism products to meet the diversified tastes of visitors. It is a good idea to launch short-term, day-trip tours but still ensuring their novelty and attractiveness. That is such a new way to really tempt visitors back to Da Nang in the coming time.

By SONG KHANH – Translated by A.T