Efforts to enhance visitor spend in the city

Recent years have seen growing number of domestic and international visits to Da Nang. It is the fact that, however, their spending in the city has been still modest, with mainly poured into such services as accommodation, transportation, drinking and eating. Therefore, the city is making great efforts to encourage visitors to increase their spending during their stay periods in the city.

Foreign visitors enjoying city tours by cyclo

This year, Da Nang is expected to welcome about 8.7 million tourists, of whom about 3.5 million are foreign nationals, and earn 30,973 billion VND in tourism revenue, up 28% compared to last year.

It is noticeable that, South Korean and Chinese nationals still take the lead in foreign visitor arrivals to Da Nang, together accounting for 70% of the total international tourist arrivals to the city.

According to a recent survey conducted by the municipal Department of Tourism between September and November, 5.92 million tourists stayed overnight at local accommodation establishments, of whom 3.5 million were foreigners.

According to the Accommodation Management Office of the Department of Tourism, this year, the tourists’ stay period is estimated to stand at 2.68 days, down 0.05 days compared to last year. In detail, international and domestic travellers are likely to stay for 2.9 and 2.35 days, respectively, representing a slight decrease compared to last year.

The average daily spending by an international tourist in Da Nang this year is likely to be about 2.3 million VND – 2.86 million VND, well below their spending in other global destinations, whilst that of domestic ones is estimated at 1.4 million VND- 1.72 million VND.

Meanwhile, the average daily spending by visitors in Singapore is 286 US$ (about 6.3 million VND), Phukhet (Thailand) 239 US$ (about 5.26 million VND), Bangkok (Thailand) 173 US$ (about 3.8 million VND), and Seoul (South Korea) 181 US$ (about 3.98 million VND).

In the current context, given Da Nang’s popular tourism brand name in regional and international markets over recent years, according to insiders, it is high time for the city’s tourism industry to develop in a more sustainable and in-depth manner, with a focus on quality over quantity, and making more new breakthroughs in this lucrative aspect.

For further explanation, it is suggested that the city pay more attention paid to enhancing its tourism’s quality rather than the number of tourist arrivals, and identifying tourism as the main axis surrounded by other support industries.

Also, an issue of deep concern raised here that the city is now seeing an upward trend in the number of so-called zero-dong tours, mostly applied to Chinese tourists, which bring problems rather than benefits for the city. Such tours have resulted in the unfair competitive environment between travel businesses, the low quality of tourism services, and tax losses to the city budget.

Currently, such low-cost tours now have been reported in many other destinations around the world such as Russia, Japan, France, Thailand, and even in China.

According to Director of the Department of Tourism Truong Thi Hong Hanh, the city’s tourism industry is also considering taking solutions in the coming time to increase the stay periods and spending by visitors.

Importance will be attached to developing night-time tourism activities for the 3 main service groups, namely food, entertainment and shopping, renewing tourism products, and fostering the progress of inland waterway tourism by calling for investment in the creation of wharves, marinas, and tourist boats.

Besides, it is also necessary to developing 4-5 star standard tourist ships boasting high-quality accommodation and catering services.

Work has started on 85 tourism projects across the city at a total cost of 7.2 billion US$, of which 22 are foreign-invested luxury coastal hotels, entertainment and shopping mall systems.

By DA NANG Today / DA NANG Today