A consultant from the Vietnam Tourism Association confided that not only Da Nang, tourism across the country had a boom period from 2014 to 2019, with revenue increasing more than 10 times.
Da Nang stood out during that period, growing 15 times between 10 years from 2009 to 2019. But that was a period of superficial "sublimation", thanks to a favorable general context. After the pandemic, and facing the current economic recession pressure, tourism in all countries must return to the question of their real strength, and Vietnamese tourism, Da Nang tourism is no exception.
From the reality of opportunity…
Da Nang tourism has had a period of "miraculous" growth, from "a cultural niche" to suddenly becoming the economic spearhead of the locality. The number of tourists from less than 2 million in 2009 to more than 9 million in 2019 shows a major change in the stature of Da Nang tourism industry.
There are two reasons for this situation. Firstly, Da Nang, in 17 years of urban restructuring, has become a center of impressive economic growth and opened up a glorious scene of civil infrastructure.
Major traffic projects, plans to improve and complete infrastructure, from the environment to people's lives, have been effectively invested in by Da Nang, thereby creating a reality full of opportunities, attracting tourists to pay attention, come to learn and experience life in this city.
Second, the government and businesses of Da Nang are very responsive, grasping the needs of public opinion, continuously making decisions on economic development with tourism, having a series of programs to promote the image of Da Nang, creating an attractive destination, a locality associated with events and festivals.
These two reasons, combined with the optimistic global economic context, the trend of widespread exchange, and favorable tourism between countries, have created an image of prosperous tourism development in general, and are especially given priority in attractive, new destinations such as Da Nang.
To three core issues
However, when the general economy declined, the consequences of the epidemic made people cautious about their health and tightened spending, Da Nang immediately fell into a state of "exhaustion" of tourism. According to the assessment, there are three core issues that must be identified with Da Nang tourism.
That is, after a period of "brilliant harvest", Da Nang tourism has to face deeper demands, higher quality of organization, immediately revealing the weakness of "no unique products". This is also the common situation of the tourism industry, when the appearance of success, attracting millions of visitors, makes the requirements and criteria on the quality of construction, organization of tours, destinations, and itineraries are neglected.
The general image of “one day to ten destinations” of the “surface” tour has lost the strategy of building sustainable destination systems. The quality of the tours needs to be polished, the need to “tell tourists interesting stories” is overlooked.
In addition, superficial tourism only attracts a large number of visitors, is "noisy" and has limited spending. Thanks to the large number, this source of "traveling for the experience" tourists is overwhelming, enough to convince local tourism investment activities to eagerly rush into infrastructure investment sectors to provide "quantity over quality".
The consequence is that local tourism “cannot find specific tourists”. When economic investment requires more careful and reasonable calculations, the tourism industry is forced to re-evaluate the needs of tourists who are culturally tolerant, have more sophisticated, knowledgeable and humane requirements.
The “mass tourism” loophole was immediately exposed, forcing tourism and local culture to recalibrate, boldly select, and approach tourist sources with a completely different travel experience mindset, “learning more than playing”. The number of these special tourists is not much, but the total spending will be large.
Finally, the combination of the need for tourists to be screened, the need for investment in tourism quality, and the need to “affirm unique values” must be established. This is the reason why many tourism units in Da Nang as well as the whole country are struggling to gain competitive advantages in the market, and local tourism cannot avoid “stumbling blocks” in the development roadmap.
That is, tourism products, such as cuisine, fashion, cultural events, community relations, etc. will be stereotyped, following the tastes of tourists, losing their identity, unique characteristics of culture, customs, and local people. Once the bowl of Quang noodles for tourists does not reflect the quality that local people are used to, the gestures and intonation of the 5th region are no longer as sophisticated as in the traditional past, tourists will only be "riding horses to see flowers" and natural tourism will "bloom in the morning and fade in the evening".
To regain tourism opportunities in Da Nang, the locality needs to focus, re-evaluate, and find solutions. However, from the perspective of consultants, Da Nang tourism needs to urgently identify and correct three core issues that are limiting, even weakening, the locality’s tourism opportunities and capacity.
Da Nang tourism needs to re-evaluate its strengths, see its weaknesses and overcome them. Only then can Da Nang tourism soon return to its desired position, "get back on track" to continue to contribute effectively to the economic and social corridor of this central coastal city.
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