In recent years, Da Nang has continuously been honoured with many international notable awards and recognitions by prestigious tourism organizations and magazines in the world. The positive results are mainly attributed to continued efforts of Da Nang tourism industry to secure its position as a leading sector in the Da Nang economy, as well as to make Da Nang one of the most popular travel destinations in Viet Nam, and in the world.

The Cau Vang has come first in a list of fresh wonders of the world in 2021 compiled by the UK’s daily newspaper Daily Mail.

Continuously winning international awards

2019 was the best year for Da Nang tourism on record in the last decade, with arrivals reaching about 8.7 million visitors, of whom, about 3.5 million arrivals were foreigners, and 5.2 million people were domestic travellers.

In total tourism generated close to 30,973 billion VND to Da Nang economy in 2019, a rise of more than 28% compared to 2018.

Data published by the Da Nang Department of Tourism showed the number of people visiting Da Nang increased from 1.3 million in 2009 to 8.7 million in  2019. In particular,the number of international visitors to the city in 2019 was 10 times higher than it was in 2009.

Da Nang has increasingly affirmed its position on the world travel map with numerous international prestigious awards and recognitions.

Here is a list of international awards that Da Nang has been received from 2014 to 2020:

- Named among the top ten new emerging destinations in Asia in 2014, according to Agoda.com, the renowned hotel booking website of Asia.

- Ranked the 6^th most improved city in the world to visit in 2015 by THE RICHEST magazine.

- Ranked 9^th amongst the top holiday destinations in Asia in 2016 by readers of Smart Travel Asia - the leading regional online travel magazine.  This is the 4th consecutive year that the city has been ranked in the top 10.

- Voted 9^th out of the top 10 attractive holiday destinations in Asia by readers of the Hong Kong-based Smart Travel Asia magazine. This was the fourth consecutive year Da Nang has been listed Smart Travel Asia's top 10.

- Honoured as ‘Asia’s Leading Festival and Events Destination’, at the World Travel Awards Asia & Australasia Gala Ceremony in 2016. This is the most prestigious awards given to the Da Nang tourism industry in recognition of its efforts in building and creating its own brand for the city with major events such as the international fireworks festival, IRONMAN 70.3 Vietnam Triathlon.

- Named among the top 10 beautiful places in Viet Nam  by Rough Guides in 2017.

- Named among the top 10 best places in the world for foreigners to live in 2018, according to the international tourism magazine Live and Invest Overseas (LIO).

- Ranked 15^th in the world’s famous 52 Places list for 2019 by The New York Times

- Named among the top 12 travel destinations and trends in the world for 2019 in a list released by Finder, an Australian travel website.

- Topped a list of the world’s top 10 trending destinations in 2020. The list has been released by Google based on its research methodology by comparing the number of hotel searches with travel dates in 2020 to a similar number of searches from 2018 for 2019 travel dates.

- Ranked 7^th in TripAdvisor’s global list of 25 trending destinations in 2020. TripAdvisor is the world's most popular travel guide and review website and its ranking recognises destinations that saw the biggest increase in positive reviews, booking interest and searches over the year.

In addition, Da Nang beach and many tourist sites and holiday resorts in the city have also received many international awards. For example, Non Nuoc Beach ranked 10th out of the top 25 beaches in Asia in TripAdvisor’s 2017 Traveller’s Choice Awards. Sun World Ba Na Hills was named 'Viet Nam's Leading Theme Park 2019' at the World Travel Awards (WTA) Asia & Oceania. Sun World Ba Na Hills is the first entertainment complex to be honoured as 'Viet Nam's Leading Theme Park' by the World Travel Awards, which held its annual gala ceremony on Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam on October 12, 2019.  InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort is the only resort in the world winning for two consecutive years (2014 and 2015) the title "Luxury resort in the world" from the World Travel Awards. It has been continuously honoured at many global ranking charts in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Many still recall the opening of the Cau Vang (Golden Bridge) on Sun Group's Ba Na Hills in 2018, and this make Da Nang more attractive to both domestic and international visitors. The Cau Vang features a pair of giant hands lifting the ribbon-like Golden Bridge up in the air. It was ranked among the top 100 World’s Greatest Places in 2018 by Time magazine. It was named one of the world’s most striking pedestrian bridges by the UK newspaper The Guardian in August 2018. Another UK newspaper, The Independent, has listed the the Cau Vang in its top 10 list of the world’s most incredible bridges. Other major news outlets like the BBC, AFP, Reuters, and CNN have also gushed over it. Business Insider, a U.S. business and technology news website based in New York City, has named the Cau Vang on the top of Da Nang’s Sun World Ba Na Hills among the 28 most stunning bridges around the world in 2020. In addition, the Cau Vang has come first in a list of fresh wonders of the world in 2021 compiled by the UK’s daily newspaper Daily Mail.

International awards as dominant driving force for the city's tourism growth

Mr. Nguyen Nhu Nam, General Director of Vietnam TravelMart JSC said that prestigous international awards won by Da Nang has helped increase city reputation, and make the city more inviting to both domestic and international travellers. Da Nang has witnessed a sharp increase in visitor numbers before COVID sweeps the city.

The positive results have been mainly attributed to great efforts of the Da Nang government, the tourism industry and tourism businesses in creating new products attractive to visitors. In addition, prestigous international awards won by Da Nang play the driving force for Da Nang tourism sector to develop more attractive products in order to tempt visitors back after the epidemic is under control.

Da Nang Department of Tourism Deputy Director Nguyen Xuan Binh said that prestigous international awards won by Da Nang have been a great encouragement to the local tourism industry over recent years, and offered a great opportunity for Da Nang to promote it as an attractive destination for domestic and international travellers.

For the time being, Da Nang is focussing on taking drastic action to fulfilling its dual objectives of effectively managing the COVID-19 crisis and driving recovery and sustainable growth of the tourism sector. The priority will be given to developing new tourism products, and improve the quality of tourism services in a bid to increase tourist experience. In addition, heed will be paid on issuing  preferential policiesto support tourism businesses to re-open and return to growth after the pandemic is over.   

Reporting by THU HA – Translating by H.L