DANANG – To address the limitations of Danang’s tourism industry, from inadequate group accommodation options and tourism products to a shortage of international flights, industry experts, officials, hotel representatives and tour operators have started an open dialogue on solutions to attract more international and domestic tourists.

The Danang tourism sector is facing great pressure from the rising number of lodging facilities that have failed to reach full occupancy as tourist arrivals remain low.

Speaking at a workshop for hotel and tour operators on August 29 on the sidelines of the Danang Hotel Solutions Exhibition, Doan Hai Dang, director of Vietravel Danang, noted that domestic tourists account for the lion’s share of the total tourist arrivals in Danang City.

Besides this, domestic holidaymakers play a key role as a supporting tourist source for the city when the number of international tourists plunges, so the city should work to maintain the number of domestic visitors.

Dang also suggested that accommodation facilities should enhance the quality of their services and manpower to better serve both domestic and foreign visitors.

Cao Tri Dung, chairman of Vietnam TravelMart and chairman of Danang Travel Association, observed that many tourists use online travel agency (OTA) services, which allow consumers to book accommodations, flights and tour packages online.

As such, travel firms should closely collaborate with hotels to compete with OTAs, rolling out signature tourism products at reasonable prices to attract travelers, he remarked.

Chairman Dung also pinpointed some key source markets that travel firms and hotels need to serve, including Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Australia, the United States, India and the Middle East.

Addressing the event held at the Danang Ariyana Convention Center, Tran Tra, chairman of the city’s tour guide association, pointed out that tourists from Asia, including India and the Middle East, are more selective than European and American visitors. They often require special services and products, such as halal food.

Therefore, lodging facilities should focus on offering services and products tailored to the demand from these tourists, especially meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) tourists from India, whose arrival numbers are on the rise.

Apart from this, Danang City serves multiple international air routes, but there is only one flight operating on each of them, discouraging large groups of MICE tourists, noted Nguyen Duc Quynh, vice chairman of the Danang Hotel Association and deputy general director of Furama Resort Danang.

Another problem facing the city’s tourism sector is that three- and four-star hotels, which make up a large proportion of Danang City’s hotels, have few rooms, resulting in large groups being divided across different hotels, Quynh added.

Huynh Duc Trung, head of the Travel Management Office of the Danang Tourism Department, remarked that the city’s tourism sector will focus on certain segments, such as domestic visitors and MICE foreign tourists.

The city will soon set up a fund of up to VND10 billion for Danang tourism promotion.

The exhibition featured 60 booths of hotels and tourism product and service suppliers, attracting 2,000 participants.