Smart tourism and digital tourism are being targeted and developed by tourism professionals to woo more tourists to Da Nang. However, so as to develop digital tourism, a longer strategy is in a need with the cooperation of State management agencies and the business community.

Tourists self-check-in at an automatic kiosk at the Da Nang International Airport. Photo: THU HA

In fact, most accommodation, travel and tourism service businesses have built their own channels, which are social networking platforms (facebook, instagram, tiktok, youtube) and websites in a bid to reach customers. Many restaurants and service businesses have quickly approached and used information technology (IT) applications to serve customers.

According to Mr. Le Hoang Bao Nhan, the manager of Mr Anh restaurant on Ong Ich Khiem Street, instead of letting customers place orders on the regular menu, the restaurant has built an electronic menu by scanning QR codes. In addition to the Vietnamese menu, the restaurant has updated English and Korean versions bring the best convenience and experience to customers.

Similarly, many accommodation service businesses have invested in booking software and book services through OTAs (online travel agents). This is a popular booking application chosen by many businesses because of its high convenience.

Mr. Nguyen Son Thuy, Director of Indochina Unique Tourist Company (Indochina Unique Tourist) said that, after a period of research and application of digital transformation at businesses, digital transformation for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) has faced many difficulties such as investment costs and the application of digital technology, the synchronisation of digital technology infrastructure at businesses, human resources to apply IT at businesses.

To deploy a smart tourism ecosystem, the national government should need to build a financial package that is attractive enough, in tandem with applying loans with low interest rates and serving digital transformation tasks at SMEs.

Along with that, it is necessary to build a team of digital transformation consultants to guide businesses that are interested in digitally transforming tourism products and services, creating new values and experiences in tourism.

Recently, the Da Nang Hotel Association has also regularly organised professional activities on digital transformation for its members. Vice Chairman of the Da Nang Hotel Association Le Dinh Nam said that every year the Association often organises training and inspirational courses for members such as the training course ‘Applying digital platforms and building a sustainable tourist source’.

Participants have access to knowledge and application of platforms used to convey messages about products, services or brands to target customer markets (digital channels) to create a continuous source of customers and sustainability at businesses.

It is known that the tourism industry is making great efforts in applying IT and digital transformation. The Da Nang Department of Tourism has completed construction and put the smart tourism monitoring system project into trial operation, deploying the installation of 26 cameras at 3 tourist areas, namely the Linh Ung Pagoda in Son Tra District, the Museum of Da Nang and the Marble Mountains special national monument. The system has been updated and is capable of identifying more than 40,000 tour guides nationwide, detecting garbage warnings, street vendors and counting tourists.

In addition, the Department has completed building a tourism database, published 6 open data sets, digitised information of nearly 2,000 tourism businesses, completed and put into operation the application ‘One touch to Da Nang’ at vr360.danangfantasticity.com with more than 300 scanning points (80 points in the air and 220 points on the ground) with many outstanding features such as 3D scanning at the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture Museum, the Huyen Khong Cave at the Da Nang Marble Mountains space, ability to collect aerial and ground image data at tourist attractions in the city with more than 500 scanning points at beaches, the Ngu Hanh Son landscape and the Son Tra Peninsula, the landscapes on both sides of the river, eco-tourism and community sites, festivals and events, virtual space ‘Metaverse Da Nang’ with contactless economy at Dragon Bridge, the APEC Sculpture Garden Park, Love Bridge’s outstanding features such as setting up accounts in a virtual environment, connecting with 3D character interface; voice interactions, unlimited virtual reality events and exhibitions at the VR Mall space.

In tourism promotion and promotion activities, the city’s tourism industry will continue to operate and manage the Da Nang Tourism Information Portal https://danangfantasticity.com and online communication on social networking sites, big conferences like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and VR360, communicate effectively to the international market through the application of digital technology and social platforms such as developing social networking sites to promote Da Nang tourism in the South Korean market through Naver social network.

The number of followers reading news on Naver Blog of Da Nang tourism reached more than 20,000 times, up 30% compared to 2023. The main keywords ‘Da Nang’, ‘travel’ when searching will bring the Naver Blog of Da Nang tourism to the top 10 of the Naver search page.

The city will continue to update two 360 format videos, 30 points in the air and on the ground for some items such as Mikazuki's new products, pedestrian bridges, indoor entertainment systems, new products of Sun World Ba Na Hills (Moon Castle...), ecological spots in Hoa Bac Commune, Hoa Vang District.

Also, updates will be made on 360 format videos for the city's unique cultural and festival activities such as ‘ao dai’ shows, yacht experiences, exploring Ba Na through a 3600 panoramic view.

Reporting by THU HA - Translating by A.THU