6:08:59 PM | 9/12/2011
Da Nang develops and makes the city more attractive. The city will invest more in infrastructure and services. “It will bring not only fast but also sustainable development,” affirmed Mr Ngo Quang Vinh, Head of Da Nang Culture, Sports and Tourism Department, in an interview with Vietnam Business Forum magazine. Quoc Hung reports.
Please, tell us the comparative advantages of Da Nang tourism and how do you develop them effectively?
Da Nang City is located in a favourable geographic position with well developed transport and communication networks. The city lies in a triangle of world cultural heritage sites: Hue ancient capital, My Son Holy Land and Hoi An ancient streets. In addition, Da Nang has great potential with tourist attractions such as the Cham Sculpture Museum, Ngu Hanh Son mountain, Ba Na, Son Tra, etc. to satisfy various kinds of tourists. In particular, Da Nang beach has been elected by Forbes magazine as a most attractive beach of our planet. Presently, Da Nang is developing those advantages into special tourist products of the city.
In the orientation of socio-economic development, Da Nang has decided to make tourism a spearhead industry and foundation of the service sector of the city. To this end, Da Nang has focused on the development of infrastructure and increased direct domestic and international flights. With the advantage of favourable location, the city can organize several cultural-sports-tourism events, develop tours of world cultural heritage sites and combine tourism with conferences and seminars (MICE) attracting visitors from throughout Vietnam and the world. Da Nang will select and encourage investors of great financial potential to develop tourist centres of high competitiveness in such areas as Ba Na Mountain, Son Tra Peninsula and beach resorts. So far, the city has 57 investment projects in tourism with total investment capital of US$3,148 million, including 11 FDI projects worth US$1,536 million.
In addition to favourable environment, security, safety and hospitality, the city is implementing programmes to prevent pedlars from harassing tourists, to increase public awareness and friendliness towards tourists. The initial success of such programmes has attracted more tourists to Da Nang in recent years.
Since early this year, tourists have visited Da Nang in large numbers, what are the reasons for this?
Due to the concerted efforts of the city and tourism sector, the number of tourists increased sharply in recent years and especially since early 2011. In addition to the above-mentioned factors, the city has combined tourism development with environment protection, safety and friendliness in the interests of tourists.
The city has paid particular attention to the improvement of service quality and diversification of tourist products. Many high quality tourism projects have been implemented and started operating such as five-star resorts and hotels: Life Style Resort, Crowne Plaza, Fusion Maia; tourist centres: Da Nang Museum, Dong Dinh Museum; and recreation centres: Fantasy Park in Va Na, mud bath and hot spring in Phuoc Nhon. In particular, tourism promotion and infrastructure development have been upgraded. Direct air flights have been established with Chinese cities (Guangzhou, Kunming, Shengdu, Hong Kong), Singapore and chartered flights from Taiwan every two days. Meanwhile, domestic flights have been maintained with increasing daily flights from Da Lat and Haiphong, bringing more tourists to Da Nang.
With those concerted efforts, Da Nang has become a place of “happy life”. It is also the reason tourists keep coming to Da Nang.
What will you do to increase the number of foreign tourists in the coming years?
The strategy and development plan of Da Nang tourism in the coming years is to increase the ratio of foreign tourists among visitors to Da Nang. Consequently, Da Nang tourism will focus on infrastructure development, implementing high quality projects, recreation centres and other facilities still lacking in Da Nang. We will also upgrade tourist products, services and human resources development.
Presently, what do you do to improve infrastructure and services?
We have decided to ensure Da Nang tourism’s rapid and sustainable development. Therefore, the City has reaffirmed that tourism-service development is one of the five driving forces in the implementation of XI Party Congress Resolution and Da Nang XX Party Congress Resolution. The City has approved Programme of Tourism Development 2011-2015, accelerated the implementation of tourist projects with priority for services still lacking, upgraded human resources with high quality and professionalism, making tourism a spearhead economic sector in the socio-economic structure of the city.
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