Truong Thi Hong Hanh, Director of the municipal Tourism Department, said the department recently had meetings with airlines and travel companies of India to discuss the opening of direct air routes to Da Nang.

Meeting Indian carriers of Air India, Vistara, and Indigo, the department provided them with information about local destinations, potential, the impressive growth in the number of Indian tourists to Da Nang, and incentives for international airlines to open direct routes to the city. It also listened to their proposals about air route opening.

Hanh noted that Da Nang is a new and attractive destination for Indian visitors as it boasts numerous advantages such as marine tourism, world-famous hotel brands, theme parks, night entertainment activities, diverse cuisine, the connectivity with world heritage sites in neighbouring provinces, and its recognition as the leading festival and event destination in Asia.

During the first nine months of 2023, this city has welcomed more than 95,000 tourist arrivals from India, accounting for almost half of the total visitors from the South Asian country to Vietnam, statistics show.

The Tourism Department also met with many travel firms of India such as Motherson Air Travel, Dream Trip4U, Luxury Vacations & Holidays and ATG Holidays. These companies specialise in MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Conference and Event), FIT (Free Independent Traveller) and the hi-end family tourism segment, which also match Da Nang’s priorities.

Anuj Anand, Sales Director of Motherson Air Travel, said his business plans to arrange trips to new destinations, and Da Nang is a must-visit place.

Meanwhile, Director of ATG Holidays Vinay Arora noted he is surprised at and also satisfied with the quantity and quality of Indian hotels and restaurants in Da Nang. Vinay and Aishwarya Arora from Luxury Vacations & Holidays also spoke highly of the local treatment for MICE tourist groups.

Joining a recent tourism promotion programme in Seoul, Vice Chairman of the Da Nang People’s Council Tran Phuoc Son said the RoK has continually been a leading source of international visitors to the city.

He noted the local tourism sector has actively carried out promotion activities in the RoK and also worked to offer new and quality experiences to travellers from this Northeast Asian market. Particularly, the new visa policy of Vietnam, coming into force on August 15, will also make it more favourable for international tourists, including those from the RoK, to travel in the city.

During the programme, the city updated Korean travel and service businesses about its destinations along with new products and services, with a focus on marine, MICE, and golf tourism.

Da Nang’s tourism has been showing strong recovery recently. Since the beginning of 2023, local accommodation facilities have served over 5.8 million tourists, equivalent to 115% of the figure recorded in the same period of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. The visitors include 1.56 million foreigners, of which over 1 million are from the RoK, data show.