The night economy is considered a "gold mine" of tourist destinations and services, including night market business activities. However, for night markets to operate in a more effective way, there needs to be mechanisms, policies as well as tourism products and services that suit the tastes of tourists.

Tourists are pictured shopping for favourite products at a night market in Da Nang. Photo: DNO

Da Nang's tourism and night services are of great interest to the city’s administration. Investment has been poured into many new products and services in many different types such as the pilot model of My An night beach, Son Tra and Helio night markets, An Thuong Tourist Streets quarter comprising of walking streets and night markets, art performances (Ao Dai and ‘Hon Viet’ (Vietnamese Soul) shows, Han River tour at night, ‘Rong’ (Dragon) Bridge experiencing Ba Na by night, nighttime service activities on both banks of the iconic Han River and at beaches such as bars, entertainment venues, restaurants, health care and beauty spots.

These above-mentioned activities were put into operation, significantly contributing to diversifying products and tourists attractions for Da Nang night tourism; however, after the service period, they were still not as expected. For example, the walking street and night market model at the An Thuong tourist street, opening from mid-August 2023. This is a new tourism product, connecting the activities of My An night beach to form a product chain that promises to attract the attention of tourists, especially international visitors. However, after more than 3 months of implementation, the service business activities here have revealed shortcomings and inadequacies.

According to some accommodation service businesses near the An Thuong walking street and night market, this area has long been considered a neighborhood with many foreign visitors staying, eating, drinking, and enjoying entertainment.

The An Thuong walking street and night market model has been organised on a pilot basis to serve tourists but the scale is quite small with about 30 stalls, mainly for food, popular drinks, snacks. Therefore, it has not created a highlight and cannot attract the attention of tourists when coming here. In addition, this is located on a residential street, open space with many accommodation establishments, so the problems of urban order, environmental sanitation, noise pollution have not been completely resolved.

In a bid to develop the night-time economy to attract more customers, it is necessary to grasp the needs and tastes of each customer market.

When it comes to the psychology of international visitors, during travel, they do want to experience products and services that are rich in local culture, so tourists sites can form culinary service business clusters with dishes that are rich in local characteristics, with the participation of local people in trading activities, or have more stalls selling souvenirs and specialities of Da Nang and the Central Region to stimulate experience, enjoyment and shopping demands.

Da Nang tourism has made a pretty good recovery, the total number of visitors served by accommodation establishments in the 10 months of 2023 reached an estimate of nearly 6.4 million, an increase of 96.6% from the same period in 2022, 1.7 million of whom were international visitors, up by 153.3% over the year-ago period and more than 4.7 million were domestic ones, an increase of 83.5% from the same period.

It is expected that, in 2023, the number of visitors served by the accommodation establishment will be more than 7.1 million, with the numbers of domestic and international visitors reach about 2.2 million and 4.9 million, respectively. With regard to the target in 2024, the volume of visitors served by accommodation establishments is highly projected to reach 8.05 million, with about 2.5 million international visitors and about 5.55 million domestic ones.

In an attempt to achieve the set goals as mentioned above, it is high time for the Da Nang tourism industry to deploy key tasks and solutions to attract even more visitors. In addition to preparing tourism products, it is a need to organise an evaluation of the results of pilot implementation of night entertainment activities at the My An night beach.

At the same time, relevant local agencies should review and deploy solutions to perfect the An Thuong Tourist Streets complex in a professional, civilized, and courteous manner, highly suitable to tourist tastes, in tandem with creating favourable conditions to support tourist attractions and sites in organising sightseeing and night tour programmes in service for tourists.

Reporting by CAO MINH - Translating by A.THU