As one of the top destinations on Vietnam's tourism map, Quang Nam's tourism revenue is "running out of steam" compared to other provinces and cities.
Not in the top
According to statistics from the authorities, Quang Nam is not in the top 10 localities with the highest tourism revenue in the first quarter of 2023. The two leading positions are still occupied by the two key tourism hubs of our country, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
In the first quarter of 2023, Ho Chi Minh City welcomed 8.6 million visitors with total tourism revenue reaching over 36.1 trillion VND. Hanoi welcomed nearly 5.9 million visitors with total tourism revenue reaching nearly 21.5 trillion VND.
The remaining provinces and cities in the leading group in tourism revenue include: Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Lao Cai, Kien Giang, Binh Thuan, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria - Vung Tau...
Tourism revenue of these localities ranges from 3.5 to 8.5 trillion VND. Meanwhile, according to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Quang Nam's tourism revenue in the first quarter reached about 1.85 trillion VND. This number is quite impressive when compared to "itself" (9 times higher than the same period in 2022) but is still very modest in comparison to the map of Vietnam's tourism revenue.
The reality is that Quang Nam's tourism revenue is "out of breath" compared to other localities as well as the reputation and number of visitors that the province has attracted for a long time. Last year, although it was the locality that organized the National Tourism Year - Quang Nam 2022, with an estimated revenue of about 3.8 trillion VND, Quang Nam was still left quite far behind the provinces and cities in the top group.
Mr. Van Ba Son - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism explained that this is partly because Quang Nam, especially Hoi An, regularly welcomes a large number of visitors who only want to visit and sightsee. The number of visitors staying in Hoi An is quite small compared to other localities (average about 2.3 days/visitor).
In other provinces and cities in the Central region, when tourists arrive, they often stay in that locality, but in Quang Nam, a part of visitors tend to stay in Da Nang after visiting Hoi An.
The risk of “cheap destinations”
In the first quarter of 2023, Quang Nam welcomed about 1.63 million visitors and overnight stays. This number is not small compared to the carrying capacity of the destination, especially Hoi An. Compared to neighboring localities, in the first quarter of 2023, Da Nang City welcomed 1.42 million overnight stays and generated a revenue of more than 5.2 trillion VND.
On a broader scale, the average revenue per visitor of Quang Nam (about 1.13 million VND/visitor) is only about 50 - 70% compared to many localities with tourism strengths nationwide.
Mr. Nguyen Van Son - Chairman of Hoi An City People's Committee said that since around 2015, the number of visitors to Hoi An Ancient Town from evening to night has been very large, crowded together. In particular, after the COVID-19 pandemic, some travel agencies wanted to reduce costs and increase competition, so they tried to avoid paying tickets to this destination, leading to overloading of the heritage but the revenue generated was not commensurate.
“Recently, some famous world travel information sites have ranked Hoi An as a top destination for cheap travel. This is more harmful than beneficial because Hoi An is gradually becoming a cheap destination, at risk of becoming a satellite destination of Da Nang,” Mr. Son confided.
Not only Hoi An, the stagnant tourism revenue has also been a long-standing concern of many other destinations in the province. In My Son Temple Complex, in addition to revenue from entrance tickets, service revenue and tour guide revenue are currently quite modest and insignificant.
Many destinations such as community tourism villages, beaches, streams, waterfalls... but the revenue is insignificant while the pressure from tourism on the environment is not small.
At the Loc Yen village festival (Tien Canh commune, Tien Phuoc) which took place at the end of March 2023, preliminary statistics showed that this destination welcomed more than 30,000 visitors after only 3 days of organizing the festival, but the revenue from selling products was only over 400 million VND.
This may be an initial boost, but in the long run, if the destination wants to develop sustainably, it cannot accommodate such a large number of visitors while generating extremely little revenue. It is time for a more systematic strategy to exploit destinations to increase value and benefits for all parties instead of wasting tourism resources as before.
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