Since mid-October, many 4- and 5-star accommodation establishments in Da Nang have reopened and offered great deals on their services.

Travelling locally and enjoying your home city as a tourist

For example, Risemount Premier Resort Danang in Ngu Hanh Son District has offered vacation packages that include a 1 night stay with free breakfast, tea and coffee for 2 adults and 1 child at a best price of VND 850,000. In addition, the resort has offered a free room hotel upgrade, allowed an early check-in and late check-out at no extra charge, along with offered 20% rebate on its accompanied services.

Many young people choose to travel locally to keep their travel desires satisfied. Photo: Tieu Yieu

Since early October, the Topbooking system in Da Nang has reopened for online hotel reservation services.

Ms. Dang Thi Phuong Thao, the Manager of Topbooking system said that apart from taking day trips to explore the city, Da Nang citizens prefer to stay in luxury resorts and villas such as Ocean Villas, Ocean Estate, The Point Villa, Furama, Vinpearl Resort & Spa, Risemount, or apartment hotels such as K-house, Chi House.

Ms. Thao said that Da Nang citizens only choose resorts that have large space or have their own secluded space for their vacations in order stay safe amid the complex developments of COVID-19.

Therefore, Topbooking only introduces its guests to stay in the resorts with their room occupation rates not exceeding 50% in order to avoid large gatherings and ensure a relaxing space for them, said Thao.

Cautiously reopening serviced accommodation establishments

The Da Nang Tourism Promotion Centre has launched the survey of 3,061 people across the city from June 20 to July 10.

The survey was designed to help Da Nang tourism industry grasp the psychology and needs of the general public as well as look at changes in the travel behaviour of Da Nang citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby developing solutions and tourism products suitable to local residents’ travel demand.

The survey’s contents revolved around access channels to learn about staycation, factors that make the respondents decide to take staycation, the form and duration of stay, means of transport, an estimated budget for the trip and other related matters.

The survey results indicate that 86.7% of respondents answered that they are looking to travel locally once they’re able to do so while 6.7% do not want to go anywhere due to COVID-19 fears or financial reasons, and 6.6% want to travel outside of Da Nang. The results also indicate that there are four factors that influence local people's travel plans, namely safety with 49.6% of the respondents, pricing policy with 58.5%, and financial capacity with 6.7%, and service quality with 49.6%.

Many young people choose to travel locally to keep their travel desires satisfied. Photo: Tieu Yieu

Staycations are becoming the most popular tourism trend during the COVID-19 pandemic as you can explore your home city as a tourist. Grasping outstanding travel trends of Da Nang citizens, the municipal Department of Tourism has launched a tourism program in an attempt to encourage local people to be tourists in their own city with a focus on calling for active involvement of accommodation service providers in Da Nang to give special offers to their local guests.

The COVID-19 outbreak has been basically brought under control in Da Nang but most of serviced accommodation establishments in Da Nang are still very cautious in deciding whether to reopen their doors to their guests.

Mr Nguyen Duc Quynh, the Director General of Furama Resort, said that, apart from putting in place strictest heath and safe measures, the resort is also conducting rapid antigen tests for its guests before they check in for the venue.  

Mr Cao Tri Dung, the Chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association, said that the city needs to take all necessary measures to control COVID-19 in tourism in a bid to help local residents feel secure and safe while travelling locally. The focus must be on speeding up COVID-19 vaccination program for hospitality workers and developing specific medium- and long-term plans to restore tourism from the ciris in a safe and effective manner.

Therefore, the tourism recovery plan has been created in a flexible and adaptable way while ensuring the safety of tourists, the community and hospitality staff.

The Department of Tourism has also created a roadmap which sets out two-phase approach to welcome back domestic visitors. Phase 1 starting from October will focus on restoring confidence among local residents in travelling locally in the new normal in order to motivate local residents to explore tourism attractions across the city by offering attractive tours. Phase 2 starting from November will introduce a bio-bubble model for inter-regional vacationers to revive the tourism sector while ensuring a protective layer from coronavirus to the tourists in Da Nang and elsewhere in regional localities.

Reporting by TIEU YEN – translating by H.L