Central provinces promote tourism linkages

Hoi An’s Old Town is one of the top tourism destinations in the central region

Major advantage

The central region has the greatest potential for development of a full variety of tours since it boasts historical and cultural sites, seas, islands and beautiful coastal areas including world heritage sites such as Hue and Hoi An and the Cham religious site at My Son, and cultural elements such as Hue’s imperial ceremonial music, Cham historical sites and natural beauty spots in Hue, Lang Co, Bach Ma, Hai Van and Son Tra.

The central region also has some of the nicest beaches and bays in Vietnam such as Thuan An Beach and Lang Co Bay in Hue, Non Nuoc and My Khe beaches in Da Nang and Cua Dai Beach in Hoi An. Other attractions include specialties, seafood and traditional and contemporary festivals.

For these reasons, the Central Key Economic Zone received more than 7.2 million visitors, including more than two million foreigners, and earned more than VND7 trillion in 2010. The region welcomed 13.02 million visitors in 2014, including 3.94 million foreigners and 9.08 million domestic visitors. The growth rate in foreign visitors reached 13.8 percent and domestic visitors 16.9 percent. However, experts said that the achievement is not commensurate with potential.

New efforts

To promote tourism and boost the Three Localities – One Destination cooperation, Quang Nam, Da Nang and Thua Thien Hue will focus on presenting tourism services to people in Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Russia, Australia, the UK, Germany and France.

New direct flights between Bangkok, Australia and Moscow, and Phu Bai and Da Nang airports in the central region have been scheduled.

According to the Da Nang People’s Committee, following the Tourism Development Directions, the central region will try to become an attractive tourist destination by 2020 which will connect with other tourist destinations in Vietnam and regional countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The region is expected to become a regular destination in international tours, while making the most of its cultural and historical sites, marine ecology, coastal landscapes and heritage sites.

According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism General Director Nguyen Van Tuan, the three regional coastal provinces will together create a key tourism zone following the Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy and Master Plan until 2020, with a Vision to 2030. Once the model for tourism development cooperation between Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam is realized, it will deserve an example of inter-provincial tourism destination management which aims at high efficiency and sustainable development.

Thanh Tam