Taking a leisurely stroll along the Han River, enjoying the weekend shows of fire breathing and water squirting at the eastern end of the Rong (Dragon) Bridge, and admiring the beauty of sparkling bridges at night are among Da Nang's popular inland waterway tourism products, all creating uniqueness and impression to domestic and international tourists.
Tourist boats operating on the Han River at night. Photo: Thu Ha
An inland waterway tour departs from the Han River area in front of Novotel Hotel on Bach Dang Street to bridges of Han River, Dragon, Nguyen Van Troi and Tran Thi Ly, and then takes back to the Dragon Bridge to watch the incredible fire breathing and water spraying shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
During the tour, passengers have the opportunity to enjoy traditional performing arts on the boats or listen to presentations about the city.
Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Tourism Tan Van Vuong said that, 19 businesses in the city are now offering inland waterway tourism services, with the involvement of a total of 25 qualified tourist boats providing accommodation capacity of more than 2,308 seats.
In 2023, local businesses put into operation 4 more high-end yachts with a total of 108 seats.
The total number of crew members and service staff to date is 219 people, all of whom have participated in tourism professional training courses.
In 2023 alone, tourist boats served about 897,000 passengers, 2.4 times higher than compared to the same period in 2022 (370,713 passengers), and an increase of nearly 29.6% compared to the same period in 2019 (692,120 passengers).
To diversify and enrich inland waterway tourism activities, in 2023, the city launched the CT15 - Hon Sup - Bai Nam - Bai Da inland waterway tourism route, as well as continued to effectively exploit the Han River - Tran Thi Ly Bridge route.
In addition, the city's tourism industry coordinates with other industries to develop a project to develop inland waterway tourism to 2023, with a vision towards 2045.
District-level authorities preside over the implementation of a project on developing tourism products in the locality, thereby creating momentum to develop inland waterway tourism in the coming time.
In addition, the municipal Department of Tourism coordinates with the Department of Transport and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to consolidate activities to ensure security and safety on tourist boats, improve service quality, and update the explanation on the Han River - Tran Thi Ly Bridge route in English, Chinese, South Korean, and Vietnamese languages so that guests can better understand the destinations on both sides of the river as well as promote the image of Da Nang.
However, one of the obstacles of current inland waterway tourism is that service stops still have some problems. Therefore, recently, the municipal People's Committee has issued Document No. 6552/UBND-KT to relevant units on handling and removing difficulties and obstacles in tourism activities, including those related to inland waterway tourism activities.
Specifically, the municipal People's Committee requests the district-level authorities to handle difficulties and problems proposed by local businesses.
The local Department of Transport coordinates with relevant agencies and units to dredge channels, ensuring that tourist boats operate effectively along the Han River Port - Inland Wharf K20 (X5) - Quan The Am Pagoda (X6) route and vice versa.
The Department is assigned to review, propose and adjust operational items and services of tourist boasts to ensure efficiency and suitability to the actual exploitation situation.
According to General Director of the Viet An Group JSC Nguyen Thanh Tam, in order to maximise the potential of river and sea tourism associated with the natural landscape as well as the urban development value of Da Nang, draw much attention of tourists, and prolong their stay in the city, the business community needs to develop river tourism and sea tourism in parallel.
He stressed the need for the city to continue to improve product quality on nighttime sightseeing tours on the Han River; increase the operation hours of these tours to 1:00 am; and diversifying entertainment activities to attract more customers.
Along with that, General Director Tam underlined a must-do for the city to have regulations on improving safety criteria, discharge levels, and products served on tourist boats.
Besides, it is necessary for the city to develop more daytime waterway products on routes departing from the Han River Port by quickly and synchronously investing in the infrastructure of inland waterway wharfs to connect with existing tourist destinations.
Currently, under the tourism development plan for the fourth quarter of 2023 and 2024, the city's tourism industry is promoting the opening of the Da Nang - Cu Lao Cham waterway transport route; and developing the Han River - Tran Thi Ly Bridge, Han River - Hon Chao, Da Nang Bay, and Han River - Marble Mountains routes.
Furthermore, a night sea view tour will be combined with the CT15 - Hon Sup - Bai Nam - Bai Da - My Khe Beach inland waterway tourism route. Meanwhile, heed will be on piloting the performance of arts on high-end cruise ships during peak hours.
Reporting by Thu Ha - Translating by M.Dung