70-year-old Guillaume Van Grinsven, a senior expert from the Netherlands’ PUM organisation, has a special love for Da Nang and he has made significant contributions to promoting Da Nang’s tourism over recent years.

Mr Grinsven first arrived in Da Nang in 2012 to participate in a programme teaching marketing to people involved in the local tourism sector.  The Dutchman said that he had never visited Viet Nam before then, so Da Nang was completely new to him.  He didn’t know what to expect in this city of more than a million inhabitants with a completely different culture.

Mr Grinsven introducing his “People Who Built Bridges” research project

He is a member of the board of directors of Sporthuis Centrum/Center Parcs, a European network of holiday villages, and in Da Nang he works as a lecturer at Duy Tan University.  This interesting job has given him the chance to share his tourism experiences with the university’s students and young employees working in local tourism.

Mr Grinsven (left) and a colleague from Duy Tan University

 Mr Grinsven has a high appreciation of Da Nang’s tourism potential and he has presented his ideas for promoting the city’s tourism at numerous local workshops.  He remarked that recent years have seen an increasing number of domestic and foreign tourists coming to the city.  However, this will bring more challenges to the city as it is facing a shortage of international conference centres, and shopping and entertainment areas which are not situated very close to each other which could discourage visitors to them.

The Director of the city’s Tourism Promotion Centre, Mr Nguyen Xuan Binh, has praised Mr Grinsven for his high-level of professional skills, rich tourism experience, and insight into many attractions around the world.  Using his expertise, in late 2013 Mr Grinsven developed a study entitled “People Who Built Bridges” in which effective plans are identified to further the development of local tourism in the years ahead.  The strong-willed expert stressed the urgent need for the city to uphold its role as a bridge of friendship, cultural exchange, knowledge and integration in the years ahead in order to forge even closer links with other localities worldwide.

Mr Grinsven participated in a writing contest entitled “Da Nang and International Friends” which was organised by the Da Nang Union of Friendship Organisations in 2013.  His story outlined his impressions of some local tourist attractions and the specific characteristics of the Con Market and local delicious dishes.  “….the city has stolen my heart” he wrote in his story.

In reply to our reporter’s question about his plans for the forthcoming Tet Festival, Mr Grinsven said that, regretfully, he had never experienced a Tet Festival in Viet Nam before despite making numerous trips to Da Nang.