Over recent years, Da Nang, and Viet Nam as a whole, have seen a significant rise in the number of tourists from such Asian countries as China and South Korea.
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| South Korean visitors at the Furama Resort Danang |
Last year, Da Nang hosted a total of more than 2.3 million international tourists, and around 600,000 of whom came from China. However, the remarkable rise of Chinese travellers has resulted in the appearance of so-called zero-dong tours, the unfair competitive environment between travel businesses, and the uncontrolled extensive operation of unlicensed Chinese tour guides.
Mr Trinh Bang Co, General Secretary of the Da Nang Tourism Association, highlighted the significance of increasing the city's checks of the quality of tourism services at travel agencies, transportation service providers, restaurants, and shopping and tourist areas. Heed should be paid to enhancing the State management and dealing with travel agencies for conducting illegal tourism activities in the city.
An owner of a hotel on Nguyen Van Linh highlighted the necessity of tightening the monitoring of tourism services in the city to create a healthy business environment, and to avoid tax collection losses from some of local hospitality services.
Mr Tran Chi Cuong, Deputy Director of the municipal Tourism Department, said that his agency conducted inspections of 45 travel agencies in attempting to ensure a healthy tourism environment in the city. Strict penalties have been imposed on 3 foreign tour guides for carrying out illegal tourism activities.
Chairwoman of the city’s Hotels Association Nguyen Ho Phuong Chi underlined the importance of creating a detailed plan for the development of a hotel system in the city. She added that the ineffective operation of many small-scale hotels has adversely affected the quality of the hospitality services, and resulted in unfair competition amongst tourism service providers.
Deputy Director Cuong remarked that Da Nang will soon implement a management system of local accommodation providers by 2025, with a vision towards 2030. Special attention will be paid to providing necessary information for investors, and cooperating with relevant local agencies to develop community and eco-tourism in Tho Quang and Man Thai wards in Son Tra District. A project for managing and deploying tourism services on Nguyen Tat Thanh over the 2018-2020 period will be also implemented.
Speaking at the recent Spring Talk Show held in the city, many participating businesses proposed the city leaders should improve the investment and business environment with a focus on boosting investment attraction. Top priority should be given to developing more new tourism products such as the construction of the 2nd phase of the Asia Park, the Ba Na-Suoi Mo expanded golf courses and the Son Tra Night Market, plus the installation of lighting systems at the Marble Mountains Tourist Area. Also, the building of the Hoa Sen shopping centre on the Son Thuy Beach in coastal Ngu Hanh Son District should be accelerated.
Mr Trinh Bang Co also asked the relevant agencies to speed up the use of E-marketing application to advertise and manage tourism services, as well as to establish more representative offices of the Tourism Department at Japan, China, Australia, India, Russia and other European countries.