The Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and local relevant agencies have taken strong measures to stop the illegal practice of touting for custom by some local dried food specialities and souvenir stores in order to ensure a safe and friendly tourism environment in the city.

It has been reported that touts from the Hung Phat and Mien Trung Ba Na stores, which sell dried seafood products on Vo Van Kiet and Nguyen Tat Thanh streets respectively, have been loitering at such local tourist attractions as the Linh Ung Pagoda and the Ba Na Hills Resort.  They were pressurising the drivers of tourist coaches parked there and tour guides to bring their passengers to the 2 stores to buy products.  In particular, these touts either had previous criminal records or were drug-addicts from the provinces of Lam Dong, Khanh Hoa, and other northern localities.

Foreign visitors on the Bach Dang pedestrian promenade

If the drivers of these coaches and tour guides agreed to the touts' suggestions, they would receive a commission of 10% of the total value of purchases by their passengers.  If they did not agree, the touts would make malicious and nuisance phone calls intended as threats.

In an attempt to deal with this problem, the Criminal Investigation Division of the municipal Police Department has asked the owners of the 2 stores to sign a commitment to strictly obey the laws whilst conducting their business activities, and to immediately halt the illegal touting.

A focus is now on increasing checks and monitoring of the operation of local shops selling dried specialities and souvenirs, plus restaurants, and asking them to publicly display their prices.  Strict penalties will be imposed on violators.

Special attention is being paid to assigning more security forces to local tourist sites which are crowded with visitors and to installing more surveillance cameras and loudspeaker announcement systems at such places in order to detect and deal with the harassment of tourists.

In addition, local travel agencies and tour guides are being encouraged help in the fight against crime and other social evils.

The Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Tran Chi Cuong, remarked that any store or restaurant which repeatedly violates the rules will have their business licence revoked and they will be listed on the city’s tourism portal.