Da Nang’s events and festivals are very potential products that can easily attract tourists. However, to fully promote the values of traditional and modern festivals, there should be more harmonious coordination between relevant parties to bring an attractive product to tourists arriving in the city.

Festivals help to attract the attention of local people and tourists. Local residents and tourists experience activities at the Vietnamese Tet Festival taking place in Hoa Vang District from January 26 to 29. Photo: THU HA

Diverse festivals and events

One of the advantages of Da Nang is that there are long-standing traditional festivals such as the Avalokiteśvara Festival at the Marble Mountains Tourist Site, the ‘Cau Ngu' (Fish Worshipping) Festival, Hai Chau village communal house festival, Shepherd's Festival (Hoa Vang), Tuy Loan village festival in Hoa Vang District are rich in local culture, partly showcasing the spiritual life of indigenous people.

These festivals attract a great deal of attention of not only local people but also domestic and international tourists because through the festivals visitors will better understand the culture and beliefs of the people and the land. Along with traditional festivals, with the goal of becoming an event - festival city, Da Nang is gradually concretizing solutions to make this orientation soon become a reality.

One of the products that has been creating a bold impression on city tourism is the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival, which has been held for many years and has become Da Nang's own brand. In addition, there are many major domestic and international events and festivals regularly held in Da Nang such as the Da Nang Wonderful Festival, the Da Nang Summer Enjoyment Festival, the Golf Tourism Festival, the International Food Festival, the New Year Festival, the GBA Oktoberfest, the Viet Nam - Japan Cultural Festival and Viet Nam - Korea Exchange Festival.

Tourist attractions across the city also have their own festivals such as the Lantern, Water and Beer festivals. According to the Da Nang Department of Tourism, every year, the city organises 20-30 festivals and events from traditional and folk festivals to cultural exchange events organised for tourism activities.

Enhance festivals and events

According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thien, the Deputy Director of Da Nang-based Hai Van Cat International Travel Company, the current trend is that many tourists like to combine travel with experiences and explore local culture through events and ceremonies.

Fully aware of understanding this need, instead of simply selling tours, the company has built a tour programme based on the city's festival schedule and divided the packages into smaller packages for sale, bringing unique and strange products to customers.

“Instead of going on a 3-day, 2-night tour at tourist attractions, the company has developed a product to explore the festival in 1 day or half a day, depending on the nature and scale of the festival. For example, during Tet, you can experience the Tet flower street, participate in street activities, and in addition to Tet, there is the Avalokiteshvara Festival, village communal house festivals and the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival. Visitors do not just travel but can immerse themselves in the vibrant, festive atmosphere imbued with the culture of the local people.”, said Mr. Thien.

However, according to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thien, in order to attract more visitors to festivals and events, especially traditional festivals, the city needs to further enhance the scale of festivals. Specifically, infrastructure, especially the public transportation system, needs additional investment to meet the growing needs of tourists. This makes travelling and participating in the festival more convenient for visitors.

Every year, Da Nang organises many festivals and events to attract visitors. Here is a scene of the Kite Art Festival 2023 at Da Nang Beach. Photo: THU HA

Besides, the city should diversify festivals to create attraction and increase experiences for tourists. At the same time, it is a need to launch more promotional activities for festivals through media channels, coordinate with tourism partners such as hotels, restaurants, and travel companies to create travel packages combined with festivals, offer travel packages that can include festival tickets, accommodation, local cuisine and entertainment activities, thereby attracting tourist interest and increase tourism activities.

Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Nguyen Duc Quynh, the Chairman of the Da Nang Hotel Association, the General Director of Furama Resort Da Nang, expressed that compared to the two ends of the country, Da Nang needs to have more worthy events and festivals. There should be annual, large-scale events held in open spaces to attract a large number of local people and tourists.

Along with that, the city must communicate more widely about the events and festivals that will take place in the city in order to attract the participation of both locals and visitors. According to Chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association Cao Tri Dung, effectively exploit the values of the festivals and events will greatly contribute to local tourism development, contributing to diversifying tourism products, creating a difference for tourist attractions, and improving competitiveness with other localities and countries in the region.

“For many years, Da Nang has successfully organised many major domestic and international events, creating a mark evidenced by the fact that Da Nang has twice been recognised as “Asia's Leading Festival and Event Destination” at the 2016 and 2022 World Travel Awards (WTA).”, said Mr. Dung.

In the coming time, Da Nang tourism industry will focus on implementing many synchronous solutions on innovation and creativity in communication activities, tourism promotion, improving infrastructure quality and applying new policies, incentives on procedures, investment resources for new and potential tourism products.

In particular, heed will be paid to increasingly diversifying and upgrading events and festivals throughout the year to serve the community, residents and tourists. Besides, the city should strive to host more prestigious international events while increasing the experience of tourists through festivals.

Reporting by THU HA - Translating by A.THU