Da Nang travel firms concerned over limited number of foreign visitors

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourists from China, the Republic of Korea (RoK), and Japan made up a large proportion of international visitors to the central city. However, international visitors from these markets are proving to be very limited this year.

Nguyen Thi My Lan, marketing communication manager of Sheraton Grand Danang, revealed that in the past the hotel had welcomed dozens of international delegations every month, although now it has received only a few visitors from the United States this year.

Despite there being a rebound in terms of the number of international arrivals during the first months of the year, visitor numbers from the RoK has not exploded as expected, Lan said, adding that tourist numbers from the Japanese market have also yet to show any signs of recovery.

Experts attribute this fall in visitor numbers to strict COVID-19 pandemic measures put in place in several countries.

During the opening seven months of the year the total number of tourists staying in Da Nang surged by 83% to reach more than 1.88 million compared to the same period last year, with the number of international visitors making up 10% of the overall figure.

Most notably, Da Nang's tourism industry has organised a series of market stimulus programmes by launching new air routes, thereby luring potential visitors from locations such as India and Thailand.

Nguyen Duc Quynh, general director of Furama Danang Resort, said local businesses have offered promotional schemes for international arrivals offering a number of attractive incentives, noting that the company will be putting forward five destinations from India to Da Nang from October to December.

“We expect to receive between 3,000 and 4,000 Indian visitors to Da Nang each week in the time ahead as the source of tourists can partly compensate for the shortage of visitors in the domestic market and the Chinese market,” Quynh added.

The local tourism industry has been urgently expanding the source of international visitors, with a specific focus on visitors from Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and India.

Nguyen Xuan Binh, deputy director of the Da Nang Department of Tourism, said that Meetings, Incentive, Conferences, Events (MICE) tourist groups are also the central city’s target visitors in the future.

Binh emphasised that the company has been in the process of applying information technology and deploying digital transformation in promotional tourism activities by launching an online fair on VR 360 technology known as 'One Touch to Da Nang' as part of efforts to elevate the image of Da Nang to the key and potential international market moving forward.