Da Nang officials responded on Friday, October 23, to reports of unusually thin crowds in Hội An's old town, saying the dip is largely seasonal and that storm coverage is hurting how the city is seen abroad, Tuoi Tre News reported. The comments came at the city leadership's third-quarter press briefing.

Nguyễn Thị Thu Phương, deputy director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the period is traditionally low season and is associated with rain and storms. Since Quảng Nam merged with Da Nang, she said, flood and storm reports from the former province often carry the Da Nang name, so international buyers now link the city with natural disasters. Large tour groups planned for the fourth quarter have cancelled, she said, and she urged the media to report weather accurately, according to Viet Nam News.

Nguyễn Đức Bình, chief of the city People's Committee Office and a former Party secretary of Hội An Ward, said long-time old-town residents see the pattern as normal. "However, for people operating in other areas, the decrease may appear unusual," he said, adding that it has recurred for years. Rain usually begins in Hội An in October and November, he said, and the Hoài River can rise after heavy rain upstream.

Bình said visitor numbers typically recover before Christmas and hold through New Year. He acknowledged that hotel stays and experience tours have been less lively than hoped this year and said the performance of tourism businesses is one factor to examine, per VTC News. A tourism business representative quoted by Tuoi Tre News also pointed to unrest in France and instability elsewhere affecting long-haul travel to Southeast Asia.

The explanation sits alongside our earlier report, based on Tuổi Trẻ's own visit, that shopkeepers and a lodging owner described a sharper slump over about a month. The conservation centre's figures, 121,402 entry tickets from September 6 to October 10, have not yet been compared publicly with the same period last year, so the size of any fall is still unmeasured.

Sources

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