Da Nang strives to become continental-class tourist city

Convergence of potentials

The ranking of the most attractive cities in the world has a common feature: the emergence of modern and bustling destinations, with outstanding service quality.

In addition to long-standing economic, political and cultural centres such as London, Paris and New York, to be listed in the rankings, every city needs to become a tourist city with attractions such as Bangkok, Singapore and Dubai. They must not only give visitors the experience of discovering nature and indigenous culture but also provide diverse service infrastructure systems to meet all needs. In Vietnam, Da Nang is holding the advantage to pursue this direction and aims to develop into a continental tourist city.

Possessing many fascinating landscapes and rich nature with a terrain embracing rivers, mountains and sea, as well as witnessing the revolution in urban planning, transportation, and infrastructure, the city of the Han River is now at the top "position" on the tourist map of Vietnam.

From the "identity" as the transit point to Hue and Hoi An, Da Nang has become a familiar face on the world's prestigious travel rankings with an impressive journey. It all started when this city successfully attracted leading private economic groups to invest in tourism infrastructure.

From the modern bridges connecting the Han River’s banks, to the Golden Bridge that swayed the world's media, Da Nang has put on a new look of a tourist city, which is reaching out to the continent. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Da Nang used to welcome 3.5 million international visitors per year. The first 7 months of 2023 recorded a strong recovery with more than 1.1 million foreign visitors, 7.7 times higher than the same period last year. The number of guests served by the accommodation establishments during this period was estimated at more than 4.32 million.

Experts said despite a late start, Da Nang has gone very fast, very far and soon completed the tourism infrastructure, to reach the achievements that every destination desires. These are attractive tourist attractions, high-class resorts, events and festivals that have been deeply imprinted in the minds of tourists, such as Ba Na Hills, InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, Asia Park, Than Tai Mountain Tourist Area and Da Nang International Fireworks Festival (DIFF).

Ba Na Hills - one of the "brand" destinations of Da Nang. (Photo: Sun Group)

To meet the needs of millions of visitors coming here each year, the accommodation facilities have been increasingly upgraded in terms of number, size, architecture and convenient services. Da Nang at night is not only shimmering with bridges and river cruises but also brilliant in the lights of buildings and crowded with numerous shops and services. In particular, Da Nang is like a sleepless city, thanks to the bustling fireworks of the DIFF during this summer.

The "second revolution"

To name each development stage of Da Nang, the recent period is like a leap that took Da Nang from a transit point on the heritage road to becoming a tourist centre of Vietnam. Now, the city of the Han River is entering the second infrastructure revolution, with a comprehensive upgrade of tourism experiences to match its position as the focal point of regional tourism.

Da Nang is an important traffic hub connecting all regions of Vietnam and the region to the world via air, road, railway and even sea. Broadly, the city of the Han River is also the focal point of Southeast Asia.

Da Nang tourism has been comprehensively upgraded to create breakthroughs. Photo: Sun Group)

Besides the wonderful nature and hard service infrastructure, Da Nang is also the land of events and festivals that are vibrant all year round. In just 5 years, Da Nang was honoured twice by WTA as "Asia's Leading Festival and Event Destination", which has proven a new way to open up a different travel experience for Da Nang.

Continuing investment to create unique new tourism products and develop the night economy is opening a "new horizon" for Da Nang to attract more international visitors. Ba Na Hills, which has always been “hot” on any tour, has been constantly adding new works such as Moon Castle, Eclipse Square, Sun God Waterfall and year-round art shows. In the near future, the city will make decisions to plan and invest in more high-class construction items, with a scale of over 39 trillion VND.

Meanwhile, in the inner city, music festivals, light festivals, street carnivals and the check-in space at the WOW Danang photo exhibition near the Dragon Bridge, have contributed to embellishing the vitality of a professional tourist city.

The inner space of the city has also been regularly supplemented with experiences. Photo: Sun Group

Thanks to the internal resources of Da Nang tourism and the extremely convenient connections with famous tourist destinations such as Hoi An, My Son, Hue, etc., attractive long-day tours have been being created, turning Da Nang into a destination not to be missed by Asian tourists, when exploring Vietnam or Southeast Asia.

The boom in the near future

According to experts, the future of Da Nang is shaped to become a continental-class marine tourist city, and this is a worthy direction.

To develop a spearhead industry in line with local realities and improve competitiveness, the Da Nang Municipal Department of Tourism has completed a project on the orientation for tourism development in Da Nang until 2030, with a vision to 2045. In particular, 2 orientations and 11 groups of solutions have been identified and carried out to invest in and develop tourism service activities in the coming period.

At its 11th session (Thematic session), which took place on the morning of March 24, the tenth People's Council of the city approved a Resolution on planning Da Nang, during the 2021- 2030 period, with a vision to 2050, featuring many important contents.

According to this plan, the viewpoint of building and developing Da Nang into the growth pole of the central economic dynamic region was unified. The city focuses on economic development under 3 pillars. In particular, the top priority is tourism associated with resort real estate, international event centres and cultural factors, creating uniqueness, difference and added value for the mainstay of tourism.

With the converged potentials and large-scale planning, Da Nang is considered to be the paradise of the tourism service system, offering attractive tourism business and investment opportunities, with huge room to meet evolving requirements.