Nearly 20 years ago, in June, Da Nang’s leaders received a group of overseas Vietnamese businesses who visited the city to seek investment opportunities. During their meeting with the city’s leaders, a member of the Vietnamese American delegation confided that he was deeply impressed with the young city which is full of life and vitality, its beautiful scenery, and its under construction projects during nearly two day visit to Da Nang by his delegation. However, most of people in the US only knew that there was Furama world-class resort in Da Nang. Therefore, the Vietnamese American delegation underlined the need for Da Nang to promote its brand through festivals and events so that investors and tourists around the world know more about the city.

This year’s Fireworks Festival is the 11th event to have been organized in Da Nang, and this international event has performed very well in promoting Da Nang as a dynamic and welcoming city.

Useful ideas suggested by the visiting delegation helped the city's leaders address their long-standing concern about how to make Da Nang become an eventful city, one of best festival city at regional level and in Asia. Till date, Da Nang has undergone the long, challenging journey to organize numerous national and international-level events and festivals that have been attractive to both domestic and foreign tourists. Da Nang’s residents are proud of the efforts of their city to organize such famous events and festivals as the Quan The Am (Avalokitecvara) Festival, hot air balloon festival, and the 'Cau Ngu' (Fish Worshipping) Festival. In particular, the 2015 - 2016 Clipper Round the World Race which had 12 teams travelling across the globe, sailing its 40,000 nautical miles started in London on 30 August, 2015 and stopped off at Da Nang in February, 2016. Most notably, the the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival (DIFF) is now the top and best international event in the city, making it very inviting to domestic and foreign tourists.

DIFF has been successfully organized in the city 11 times by the Da Nang Government since 2008. This international event has performed very well in promoting Da Nang as a dynamic and welcoming city.

The success of DIFF has motivated Da Nang and given it a lot of experience to help the city to confidently organize such international events as the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week (AELW 2017), the IRONMAN 70.3 Viet Nam, and the Da Nang Asian Film Festival (DANAFF). These events have attracted a large number of participants who were local residents, tourists, reporters from media agencies around the world. Da Nang has been praised by international friends for its great efforts of hosting these international events due to meeting their strict requirements in terms of facilities, managing personnel, medical staff, and volunteers.

Especially, Da Nang has found the most effective way to organize DIFF and other events with a focus on the coordination between the municipal government and local businesses. With their respective advantages, the municipal government and local businesses are working together to maximize their available resources to reap greater success from these events.

Da Nang was recognised as Asia’s Leading Festival & Event Destination in 2022 by the World Travel Awards after it had beat eight rivals, namely Bangkok (Thailand), Beijing, Shanghai, Macau, Hong Kong (China), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Seoul (South Korea) and Singapore to win the award. This is the second time Da Nang has received this prestigious title since 2016.

It is very remarkable that Da Nang has not taken rest after receiving significant international awards, and it has been active in promoting its image as an attractive destination for domestic and foreign investors, contributing to reaching its economic development goals and achieving success. In the context of Covid-19, although the global recessions affected Da Nang's socio-economic development, the city still attracted 55 new foreign direct investment (FDI) projects totaling more than USD 8.7 million in the first 5 months of 2023, bringing the total number of FDI projects in the city to 1,004 as of May 2023 with a total investment of more than USD 4 billion.

Besides, the city has seen a continuous rise in the number of domestic and international tourist arrivals in recent years. These positive results have been mainly attributed to the city's successful organization of events and festivals to attract investors and visitors at both home and abroad.

Hopefully, the success from DIFF along existing and future events will help Da Nang to brand it as an eventful city and an attractive destination for travellers and investors from around the world.

Reporting by THANH MAI – Translating by H.L