Inland waterway tourism is one of Da Nang’s unique products, attracting the interest and experience of many tourists at both home and abroad. The city's tourism industry and businesses are gradually perfecting products so as to further promote the development of inland waterway tourism.

Waterway tourism is a nighttime tourism product chosen by many tourists when coming to Da Nang. Photo: NHAT HA

On weekday evenings, the Han River Port area in front of the Novotel Hotel is always bustling with domestic and international tourists who come to experience inland waterway services. While waiting for sightseeing tourist boats to depart, tourists can enjoy fascinating cultural activities such as Cham dances, and traditional dances.

Ms. Yeun Lee, a South Korean national, shared “Before coming to Da Nang, we were introduced to the river cruise product and wanted to experience this service. We were instructed to wear life jackets to ensure safety, listened to the explanation about the Han River and eagerly waited to take check-in photos with the Dragon Bridge and the fire-breathing and water-squirting shows”.

As recorded by our reporters, all tourist boats operating on the Han River ensure the safety regulations before leaving the port. With many years of experience in exploiting inland waterway tourists, Mr. Nguyen Huu My, the owner of the My Xuan tourist boat, is always aware of the need to comply with regulations and criteria to ensure safety in transporting passengers on inland waterways such as not carrying more than the prescribed number of passengers, and asking tourists to wear life jackets.

According the municipal Department of Tourism, there are now a combined total of 27 tourist boats, accommodating from 16-250 passengers, qualified to provide inland waterway services. Of this figure, 22 boats operate on the Han River, and the remaining 5 operate near the Son Tra Peninsula (an increase of 1 boat, 16 seats compared to 2023) with a total capacity of 2,468 seats.

The total number of crew members and service staff on board is 219 people, all of whom have participated in training courses on tourism services and safety. In the first 9 months of 2024, the number of inland waterway tourists reached about 742,000, up 17.6% over the same period in 2023.

To date, river tourism has been considered a fairly stable product of the Da Nang tourism industry. However, the tourism industry needs to add more services and utilities to increase the attractiveness and fully tap the potential of this tourist product.

Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Tourism Nguyen Thi Hoai An said that on December 29, 2023, the Da Nang People's Committee issued the project on developing inland waterway tourism in the city by 2030, with a vision to 2045. The overall goal of the project is to develop inland waterway tourism in the city to become one of hubs for infrastructure and tourist boat services nationwide, acting as a centre connecting inland waterway tourism to other provinces and cities in the region and international sea routes.

Da Nang makes great efforts to turn itself into a high-quality tourism and service centre, and one of the centres for high-class, creative, green, smart, eco-tourism and sea resort tourism. The city plans to organise many international conferences and festivals, as well as develop a variety of service types and promote the strong development of high-class waterway vehicles such as luxury yachts, private yachts, and 4-5 star cruise ships.

To concretise the project, the municipal Department of Tourism has advised the People's Committee to issue a plan with 6 key groups of tasks. Included are management and investment in waterway routes; policy mechanisms; human resource training to ensure service quality; guaranteeing security and safety, and waterway tourism environment; promoting and advertising products for tourists; and boosting the application of information technology, digital transformation.

Based on the plan, the goal of developing waterway tourism in the 2024-2025 period is to attract more inland waterway tourists, expected to reach 12% of the total number of visitors served by accommodation establishments (equivalent to about 1 million inland waterway tourists in 2024).

During this period, inland waterway tourism activities will focus on effectively exploiting the 2 main inland waterway tourism routes, including the Han River - Tran Thi Ly Bridge route and the CT15 - Hon Sup - Bai Nam - Bai Da route. Heed will be on implementing the steps of phase 1 to put into operation two Han River - Co Co River inland waterway tourism routes.

Reporting by NHAT HA - Translating by M.DUNG