Create unique night tourism products to "retain" tourists

Many new products are exploited

Hanoi is a locality that has successfully built night tourism products, with 16 night tourism products currently in the city. Night tourism products have brought many experiences to tourists, creating a unique feature of Hanoi tourism. With its success, many localities have learned and followed suit to develop this tourism model. A typical example is Quang Ninh province.

During the past time, many night tourism activities have also taken place and brought positive signals to Quang Ninh province. Since the end of April 2022, Quang Ninh has put into operation Ha Long Cruise Night Street from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day. Accordingly, visitors can enjoy unique culinary spaces, enjoy cultural spaces, and explore the sparkling coastal city of Ha Long at night. There are also music nights with the appearance of many famous artists, creating richness and diversity for night tourism.

Many localities have identified 2024 as the key year for developing night tourism, including Quang Ninh.

In Quang Ninh province, some walking streets are also opened to serve tourists from 6pm to 12am on weekends such as: Tran Phu walking street (Mong Cai city), Tien Yen walking street (Tien Yen district), Minh Chau walking street (Van Don district)... creating many experiential spaces to attract tourists.

To continue these successes, at the meeting to deploy the pilot project of the night-time economic development model in early March 2024, Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province Cao Tuong Huy emphasized that it is necessary to immediately identify pilot models to serve tourists, especially foreign tourists, to increase the length of stay of tourists, thereby promoting spending of tourists and people in the province.

Accordingly, the request is for the 5 localities selected to pilot the night-time economic development model, including Ha Long, Mong Cai, Cam Pha, Dong Trieu and Co To, to urgently develop and approve a night-time economic development project in the area before April 30, 2024. During the project development process, the locality needs to consult with travel agencies, tourism businesses and tourists, and develop unique products in accordance with the 5 areas of the project issued by the province, including cultural and artistic performances; shopping and night entertainment; sports, health care, and beauty at night; night tourism and sightseeing; and night food and beverage tourism.

Notably, in 2024, a number of night tourism products are being researched, built and organized by Quang Ninh province, promising to be very attractive, such as: Hai Long walking street (Ha Long city), community tourism in the highland communes of Ha Long city, overnight camping in Thanh Lan and cycling tourism to experience Co To (Co To district) at night, night food street in Dam Ha town (Dam Ha district),...

Walking street in Mong Cai city, Quang Ninh province

Deputy Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, Dr. Truong Sy Vinh, shared: "Vietnam is one of the tourist destinations loved by international tourists, however, for a long time we have been limited in keeping tourists staying for a long time. Therefore, it is very necessary for provinces and cities across the country such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Ninh to plan and implement the expansion of the night-time economic development space to create many new and unique products for tourists to experience. Thereby, both meeting the needs of tourists and increasing the length of stay and spending of tourists on their journey to Vietnam."

Need to plan accordingly

However, according to Dr. Truong Sy Vinh, in general, developing night tourism products plays an important and necessary role in promoting tourism in localities, but in reality there are many barriers. Specifically, in many provinces and cities, even in Hanoi today, night products and services are still not diverse and rich, mainly simple activities such as: walking, eating, drinking, ... while cultural, artistic and sports activities are not many, there is no connection between services to create attractive programs for tourists to experience.

In addition, there are still difficulties and limitations in managing night service activities. That is the lack of human resources to participate in managing night activities; there is no mechanism to encourage households to expand their business activities. In particular, there is a lack of clear planning on space and time of night services, so the organization of night entertainment services lasting until 6am the next morning is limited. Because the problem of noise pollution can affect surrounding residential areas and can cause more social evils that cause disorder and insecurity. This is the most difficult problem to solve when developing a night tourism model."

A corner of Ha Long city at night

"Moreover, not every night tourism product that is launched has a stable number of customers. For example, the night tour "The Heart and Talent" of the Vietnam Literature Museum, when it was first launched, attracted a large number of interested tourists, but currently this tour has very few participants, and some weeks it even had to be temporarily suspended due to lack of customers. This will affect the development of night tours and will not bring sustainable results in tourism development" - Dr. Truong Sy Vinh added.

Faced with that situation, in order for night tourism services and products to become a bright spot in the development of the night economy in particular, contributing to the growth of Vietnam's tourism industry in general, Dr. Truong Sy Vinh said: Night tourism products must be developed in a diverse manner and must have distinct characteristics for each region. Localities and destinations need to focus on exploiting indigenous cultural values ​​in building night tourism products such as visiting ancient villages, craft villages, historical and religious relics... at night. In addition, not only developing the city center, it is possible to develop more products in suburban or rural areas with convenient connections.

In particular, tourism products not only focus on entertainment, cuisine, and night shopping, but also need to invest in spiritual experiences, physical activities such as night team building, night sports, night sightseeing, etc. and other cultural and artistic activities that tourists can participate in and experience.

In 2024, Quang Ninh province is researching and building a number of attractive night products such as: Hai Long walking street (Ha Long city), community tourism in the highland communes of Ha Long city.

Along with that, areas for developing night tourism need to be planned appropriately, not just any place can do it. Areas planned for night tourism services and products should be located in the center, with many tourist attractions, easy access for many tourists, adequate facilities and convenient transportation. At the same time, when developing night tourism, authorities and localities need to take measures to manage and closely monitor night tourism activities to ensure safety and avoid unwanted social evils.

"In addition, there needs to be a legal corridor and a close handshake between localities, investors, cultural activists and the creative community to create impressive night cultural spaces, bringing sustainable development value to the tourism industry in particular and the country's economy in general" - Dr. Truong Sy Vinh emphasized./.

Source: https://toquoc.vn/tao-san-pham-du-lich-dem-doc-dao-de-niu-chan-du-khach-20240313161735918.htm