After the peak summer tourist season, Da Nang’s tourism industry continues to implement programmes and activities to attract international visitors, especially from traditional tourist markets. The return of visitors as well as the expansion of new tourist markets will help Da Nang have more diverse sources of visitors.

A music performance performed at Da Nang International Airport’s International Terminal. Photo: THU HA

Efforts to "attract visitors" from traditional markets

For a long time, tourists sourced from Northeast Asia such as Japan and South Korea have been traditional markets of the city's tourism industry. To retain these markets and expand new ones, the local tourism industry and tourism firms have continuously organised many activities.

According to the municipal Department of Tourism, South Korea was Da Nang's leading international tourist source market during the 2015-2019 period. In 2022, right after reopening its doors to international visitors, Da Nang recorded a remarkable growth in the number of South Korean visitors. The total number of Korean visitors staying in the city in the first 6 months of 2024 was more than 822,000, accounting for more than 41% of the total number of international visitors to the city, up 40% over the same period in 2023.

To continue woo more South Korean visitors, the municipal Department of Tourism has launched the "Enjoy Danang Again" campaign lasting from July 15 to the end of 2024. South Korean tourists who have been to Da Nang benefit from the campaign. Accordingly, they will receive a souvenir gift of an umbrella with stylised images of the city's prominent destinations and symbols when returning to Da Nang.

Additionally, there are attractive incentive packages and discounts on accommodation services at 4 to 5-star hotels; entertainment services at the Danang Downtown and the Charming show; and cuisine, shopping, spa and transportation services.

South Korean visitors who return to visit Da Nang will receive souvenirs and capture the moment right at the Visitor Support Centre at the International Terminal of Da Nang International Airport. They can scan the QR code provided in publications and information pages about the campaign to receive incentives from participating service providers.

Since early August, the Da Nang International Terminal Investment and Operation Joint Stock Company (AHT) has cooperated with the city’s College of Culture and Arts to expand and renew the art performance programme "Heritage Road" at Da Nang International Airport's Terminal T2.

Since its launch in December 2022, the programme has become a cultural highlight at Terminal T2, bringing more than 330 unique performances from Thursday to Sunday every week with a variety of performances such as traditional opera, dance, solo and ensemble of traditional musical instruments, and Hue royal court music.

After nearly 2 years of operation, the "Heritage Road" programme has created a vibrant cultural exchange space and received much love and support from many international tourists.

In the near future, the programme promises to bring more new and captivating performances imbued with local culture to tourists, such as lotus dance, traditional musical instrument ensemble, Hoi An lantern dance "Hoai Street Festival Night", Arirang" monochord solo, and Apsara dance. The new performances are scheduled to take place from 10 - 11 pm from Monday to Wednesday every week in the international terminal’s isolation area in addition to the current performances from Thursdays to Sundays.

According to Mr. Do Trong Hau, Deputy General Director of AHT Company, the "Heritage Road" programme makes a significant contribution to preserving and further promoting local culture to international passengers. The performances will continue to bring visitors meaningful pre-flight experiences, and contribute to building Da Nang into an attractive and unique tourist destination.

A South Korean visitor excitingly receiving a gift from a representative of the city’s Tourist

Diversifying visitor sources

Tourism experts believe that Da Nang's peak tourist season is still the summer months, while the number of visitors is usually lower in the remaining months.

Director of Visit Indochina Co., Ltd. Nguyen Son Thuy stressed the need for the city's tourism industry to roll out solutions to attract diverse visitor sources to spread the number of visitors evenly throughout the year.

Mr. Thuy suggested that tourism festivals and events, conferences and seminars should be one of the tools to effectively stimulate demand and overcome seasonality in the tourism industry.

However, currently, festivals are often focused on the domestic tourist season, especially the summer, while in the low tourist season, events are sparse and small-scale. Therefore, he underlined a necessity for the city to increase its attractiveness to lure more international visitors such as the Mid-Autumn Festival which is a time when South Korean natives have a very high demand for tourism.

The city can pay attention to investing and upgrading it to an event to attract more South Korean visitors during this period, or have activities to attract Japanese tourists during the Golden Week holiday in September.

In addition, Mr. Nguyen Son Thuy proposed the city add more diverse MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) services to attract more organisers of this kind of tourism.

Sharing his opinion, Nguyen Nhu Nam, who is Executive Director of the Da Nang Tourism Promotion Fund, said that the city's tourism industry is making efforts to connect and attract visitors from traditional international and new markets, including Malaysia.

It is expected that from late September 2024, Malaysia Airlines will start to operate direct flights to Da Nang with a frequency of 7 flights per week. This shows that Da Nang is an attractive destination for the Malaysian market. To connect and enhance cooperation, Malaysia has a cooperation and promotion programme in Da Nang.

In late August, the Da Nang Tourism Promotion Fund organised a promotion and tourism connection programme in the Malaysian market. Da Nang businesses have the opportunity to participate and connect with partners in the neighbouring country to cooperate and exchange visitors in the future, contributing to diversifying the source of visitors for Da Nang in the coming time.

Reporting by THU HA - Translating by M.DUNG