Regional tourism is growing strongly.

Beach tourist spots are packed with people

Ms. Bui Huong Giang (Giang Vo, Hanoi) recently traveled with her company's office block in Sam Son (Thanh Hoa). "Every early morning and late afternoon, Sam Son beach is crowded with people, especially beaches A and B, where the slope is gentle and the waves are relatively moderate. Therefore, our group of sisters just enjoy the breeze and then go swimming at the hotel swimming pool," Ms. Giang shared.

Meanwhile, Ms. Ha Quynh Anh (Long Bien, Hanoi) and her family went on vacation to Cua Lo (Nghe An) and also commented that the beach was too crowded in the afternoon. “There are few tourist attractions in Cua Lo, so the family only took advantage of the morning to swim, rest and find delicious seafood restaurants for the children to enjoy the sea air. Tourism services have not changed much compared to before 2019,” Ms. Ha Quynh Anh commented.

According to the Nghe An Department of Tourism, due to the hot weather, the demand for beach resorts is increasing. Not only Cua Lo, coastal areas such as Nghi Loc district, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu, Hoang Mai town..., the room occupancy rate at large hotels reaches an average of 80% and is maintained at a high level, the number of guests using food and beverage services at the beaches is high, especially on weekends.

Statistics in the first 6 months of the year showed that the number of tourists to Nghe An reached 4.9 million, an increase of 22% over the same period in 2022, of which the number of overnight visitors reached 3.16 million, an increase of 25% over the same period in 2022; international visitors reached 32,500. Total revenue from tourists reached VND 11,491 billion, of which tourism revenue is estimated at VND 4,334 billion, an increase of 42% over the same period in 2022.

Meanwhile, according to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thanh Hoa, in the first 6 months of this year, Sam Son welcomed 5.3 million visitors, an increase of nearly 30%, accounting for 64% of the total number of visitors to Thanh Hoa, with revenue reaching over 9,100 billion VND, an increase of 2.7 times over the same period last year.

Mr. Dang Thanh Tung, Director of Neworld Travel, said: The reason why visitors from the North choose Sam Son and Cua Lo as their destinations is because of convenient roads and reasonable prices. Especially recently, Sam Son has changed a lot in terms of planning and significantly reduced the situation of "rip-offs" towards improving service quality. That is the reason why tour groups, especially for workers and laborers of manufacturing enterprises, choose Sam Son as their destination.

According to the Vietnam Tourism Association, during the summer, the number of visitors to beach destinations remained the same as last year. Beach destinations such as Da Nang, Binh Thuan, Phu Quoc… are still the chosen destinations of many families.

Regional tourism development

Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoan, Head of Communications and Digital Transformation, Vietnam Tourism Association, General Director of Flamingo Redtour Company said: Because hotel and restaurant services are publicly available online, tourists can completely book and organize their own travel. Therefore, this summer, the number of customers booking package tours through travel agencies has decreased significantly. "Even in our system, the number of customers booking hotels at Flamingo Dai Lai and Cat Ba is still very high, almost full on weekends, but individual customers booking tours has decreased. For domestic tourism, most customers book combos and groups book according to their own programs," Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoan shared.

Synthesizing information from tourism units in the Association shows that, due to the impact of economic difficulties, this summer tourist season, tourists have limited flights and chosen to travel by road. This also leads to a significant increase in intra-regional tourism (travel within a distance of about 300km), and famous coastal tourist destinations will be locally crowded. "This situation also leads to tourists traveling on their own, booking basic services themselves, reducing the number of tours booked through travel agencies," Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoan added.

The trend of tourists changing their travel habits has been warned by the Institute for Tourism Development Research (National Tourism Administration) since the end of last year through a survey of travel habits and behaviors. Mr. Phung Quang Thang, Chairman of the Sustainable Tourism Club, said: “In the era of digital transformation, when services have been made public and transparent on the internet, tourists will have more choices and comparisons. Therefore, in order to survive, tourism businesses need to find and build unique tourism products with high experiences for tourists to have a long-term source of customers. However, this period takes time because many tourism businesses have "run out of capital" after the COVID pandemic. Investment needs support from the State and local authorities."

In addition, reducing overloaded tourist spots requires coordination from management agencies and local authorities through planning with supporting destinations. According to tourism experts, with the General Department of Tourism being "downgraded" to the National Tourism Administration, the role of planning and managing destinations will depend heavily on local authorities.

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