The upcoming 7-day Lunar New Year 2024 holiday is hoped to be the ideal time to attract tourists who hunt for fun and relaxations in Da Nang. Enterprises and tourism service units the citywide have prepared many programmes to serve the various needs of people and tourists on days leading to the much-awaited Lunar New Year 2024.

Many activities will be organised during the upcoming Lunar New Year 2024 festival to serve local residents and tourists. Tourists are seen experiencing a Tet 2023 programme held on the Da Nang beach. Photo: NHAT HA

One of the highlights to attract visitors during the Lunar New Year 2024 is that the city has 3 check-in models installed around the Dragon Bridge area (Tran Hung Dao and Bach Dang streets) to serve local city-dwellers and tourists.

Besides, the city plans to organise many outstanding cultural and artistic activities such a Countdown art programme - Welcome New Year 2024; New Year's Eve art performance to celebrate Lunar New Year 2024; Da Nang Spring Flower Festival; Traditional Vietnamese Lunar New Year Festival 2024 from the Hoa Vang District Administrative Centre to the Tuy Loan Night Street (January 26 to 29, 2024) featuring such highlights as recreating the Vietnamese Tet space, the old Tet market space, ares for writing artistic calligraphy, check-in experiences and ‘banh tet’ cooking contest; Tet Market 2024 at the Da Nang Museum (January 27 and 28, 2024) with booths and activities for visitors to experience fun and explore traditional Tet.

In addition, popular tourist attractions such as the Sun World Ba Na Hills, Asia Park, Than Tai Mountain Hot Spring Park, Da Nang Mikazuki Japanese Resorts & Spa; Tourist accommodation establishments such as Furama resort Da Nang, Da Nang Marriott Resort & Spa, Sheraton Grand Da Nang Resort; Wyndham Da Nang Golden Bay have launched incentive programmes for tourists when visiting, experiencing, relaxing, and using services.

According to tourism experts, although 2023 saw see a significant recovery in visitors, the number of visitors didnot change much at the end of the year. The travel trends of tourists on these occasions have changed a lot, often favouring relaxation, exploring nature and experiencing local culture and cuisine, so most travel service businesses and tourist areas have built product packages to suit tourists’ tastes, such as renewing existing tours. Tour programmes mainly include trips to tourist attractions, relaxation and service experience.

General Director of Vietnam Travelmart Joint Stock Company Nguyen Nhu Nam said, during Tet this year, the number of visitors is unlikely to increase suddenly. One of the factors that limits domestic Tet tours is that air fares are higher than usual so tourists are often hesitant to book tours.

Some others, especially residents and tourists from neighbouring localities travelling on this occasion, tend to use personal vehicles during their trips, so tourist areas and attractions may be crowded but travel agencies cannot exploit them much. As for international guests, the company plans to welcome guests from a number of markets that share the same Lunar New Year holiday with Viet Nam.

“To attract customers during this year's Lunar New Year holiday, our company as well as travel agencies in the city will focus on service quality and increase tourist experience by offering new products that are the advantage of the destination, improving the quality of destination products instead of stimulating demand and reducing prices like before.”, said Mr. Nam.

Sharing the same opinion, Director of Hai Van Cat International Travel Services Company Nguyen Minh Xoang said that the company is currently trying to connect with partners and travel agencies and it is expected to welcome a number of tourist groups from international markets during the Lunar New Year via charter flights. Travel businesses also hope that more flights will be connected here so that the tourist markets coming to Da Nang can be more diverse.

According to Chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association Cao Tri Dung, in 2023, Da Nang was considered one of the localities with a very good recovery in tourism. The main tourist source market, China, has so far recovered but businesses are still preparing products and services to serve customers from traditional markets such as South Korea, Japan and Taiwan (China).

The Da Nang tourism industry, the Da Nang Tourism Association, the Da Nang Tourism Promotion Centre and the Da Nang Tourism Promotion Fund are making joint efforts to connect with more international tourist markets that can recover in the short term to conduct tourism promotion activities. In particular, focus will be placed on nearby markets with existing flights like the Philippines. It is hoped that nonstop flights connecting Da Nang with Indonesia and Australia will be opened soon whilst air service connecting with Doha (Qatar) will be reopen to attract travellers from the Middle East.

Reporting by NHAT HA - Translating by A.THU