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Despite a lot of money spent to organize big events to popularize
Vietnam to the world, Vietnam still has not succeeded in persuading travelers to
spend more money when they come to Vietnam.
Huynh Minh Nhon, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports
and Tourism, said at the press conference introducing the tourism program “Da
Nang – the reservoir in summer 2012” held some days ago that travelers stay in
Da Nang City for less time than in neighboring localities such as Hoi An ancient
town or Hue City.
On average, travelers stay in Da Nang for 1.8-2 days. Meanwhile, if not counting
on the no-cost arising time, (on the way, sleeping time…), the durations when
travelers spend money on shopping and using services in Da Nang would be even
lower.
Russians are considered the potential travelers for Da Nang’s tourism. However,
in fact, Russian travelers on chartered aircrafts from Russia to Da Nang do not
stay for a long time in the city. In general, they only spend four days in their
15 day tours in Da Nang, while the other days are spent in Hoi An (4 days), Hue
(2 days) and Nha Trang sea city (4 days).
Reports show that 664 Russian travelers have arrived in Da Nang since the first
flight on May 12. However, only 200 stay in Da Nang, while the others go to Hoi
An and other destinations.
“Why do travelers favor Hoi An and Hue to Da Nang, even though Da Nang has an
international airport, the most beautiful beaches in the planet and the
reasonable service fees?” Nhon questioned.
“The problem is that travelers cannot see good conditions for them to integrate
into the community,” he said.
According to Nhon, the coastal resorts are located separately from residential
quarters and shopping malls, while souvenir shops are located in different
places, which take travelers much time to go there.
Meanwhile, travelers have complained that the accommodation fees in Da Nang are
higher than that in Hue and Hoi An, therefore, Da Nang is not the choice for the
travelers who take short term (several days) tours.
As a result, only 1/3 of Russian travelers choose to stay in Da Nang during
their tours.
Nguyen Xuan Binh, Director of the Tourism Promotion Center has cited the survey
conducted by the Da Nang Socio-Economic Research and Development Institute as
saying that 92.3 percent of foreign travelers to Da Nang spent less than 2000
dollars, 70.8 percent of travelers spent less than 500 dollars, 15 percent spent
500-1000 dollars. Only 6.5 percent of travelers spent 1000-2000 dollars, and
only 7.6 percent spent more than 2000 dollars when they were in Da Nang.
“The figures are at the low-average level,” Binh said. The tourism promotion
center is carrying out more surveys to update the information, because the
current situation is quite different from that of some years ago.
“The result of the survey would be released in one or two months. However, one
should not expect to see the travelers’ spending in Da Nang exceeding the
average level,” Binh warned.
High accommodation service fees and inconvenient traffic both are the reasons
that make travelers refuse to stay in Da Nang. The city’s authorities planned to
build up the shopping center for travelers, but the project remains
unimplemented.
The night entertainment complexes – the places where travelers can spend money –
are not attractive to travelers, while there are few souvenir products for
choice. Besides Non Nuoc fine art stone products, travelers cannot find any
other attractive products to buy.
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