Hội An's old town has been quieter than usual for several weeks, and local tourism figures say the fix is new things to do rather than more of the same. Tuổi Trẻ reported on October 25 that the town is well managed and UNESCO-recognised but lacks fresh products to bring visitors back.
The paper's earlier quick survey found visitor declines of 20% to 70%. At the Cẩm Thanh coconut forest, visitor numbers are about 50% below summer but unchanged from a year ago, said Lê Công Sỹ, director of the Hội An Đông public service supply centre, because the forest routes are less affected by flooding.
What people are proposing
Nguyễn Đức Quỳnh, vice chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association, told Tuổi Trẻ that Hội An needs products strong enough to prompt a second visit. He criticised the spread of similar-looking shops and called for new stories and art spaces without altering the heritage itself, and cited a Hội An tourism worker, Phan Ngọc Minh, who proposed art tours.
His fellow vice chairman Lê Quốc Việt, who heads the Xứ Quảng Destination Club, proposed a bamboo bridge of roughly 1.2 kilometres at the Cổ Cò river junction linking the Trà Quế vegetable village, An Mỹ rice village and Tân Thành fishing village. He suggested adding a floating market, bài chòi and hát bả trạo performances, sunset tours and fishing-life experiences.
Việt also floated a health-tourism concept built on traditional medicine, and said residents should take part in and benefit from tourism. These are proposals from association officials, not approved projects.
Weather and forecasts
Nguyễn Sơn Thủy, director of tour operator Visit Indochina, said foreign partners hesitate to sell Central Vietnam tours in October and November over storm and rain worries. He called for local authorities to work with meteorological agencies on early, regularly updated seasonal forecasts.
Tuổi Trẻ says an unnamed leader at the city's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism told it the city has rolled out measures to reduce dependence on peak season, such as rainy-season and flood-season old-town tours. The paper notes that earlier ideas of this kind have mostly not become concrete products.
Sources
This story was compiled by the Da Nang Voice news desk from the published sources listed above. Facts, figures and quotes are attributed to those sources; Da Nang Voice did not conduct interviews for it unless the text says so. Corrections are dated and noted at the top of the story. Read our corrections policy. Spotted an error? Tell us.
