Khanh Hoa Province's tourism sector is actively carrying out solutions to attract international tourists and Mice (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) tourism in low season.
Khanh Hoa Province’s tourism sector is actively carrying out solutions to attract international tourists and Mice (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) tourism in low season.
Tourism entering low season
Since the beginning of the year, Khanh Hoa’s tourism has revived spectacularly with a very high increase in the number of domestic tourists. According to the provincial Department of Tourism, in the first eight months of 2022, the whole province received more than 1.8 million tourists, an increase of 287.2% over the same period in 2021, including more than 116,280 international visitors and more than 1.7 million domestic tourists. The total revenue from tourists reached nearly VND9,540 billion, up 305.2% over the same period last year.
On the occasion of National Day, the province welcomed 136,000 visitors, including about 6,500 international visitors and 129,500 domestic visitors. Total revenue from tourism was about VND576.2 billion. However, that was the last high season of tourism in 2022. Currently, the province’s tourism is entering low season, seeing a decrease in the number of tourists.
Efforts to attract international tourists
In order to overcome difficulties in low season, the province’s tourism sector is striving to diversify sources of visitors and expand to new tourism markets. According to the provincial Department of Tourism, while Chinese and Russian tourism markets have been brought to a temporary halt due to COVID-19 and fighting, South Korea has become the largest international tourism market of Khanh Hoa. It was estimated that in the first eight months of 2022, 7,000 South Korean tourists visited Khanh Hoa, accounting for nearly 66.2% of the province's international tourists. Khanh Hoa’s tourism sector is focusing on boosting Korean tourism market in the last months of the year.
As said by Pham Thi Sen, director of Good Feeling Travel Company, the prospects from South Korean tourism market are great because many airlines have opened direct flights from Seoul, Busan, etc.to Cam Ranh City. South Korean tourists come to Vietnam the most in the last four months of every year because this period is the winter holidays. South Korean visitors can go on holiday combined with golf vacation.
Khanh Hoa has favorable weather and many tourism products to serve international tourists, according to Nguyen Quang Thang, director of Tictours International Travel Co., Ltd. In addition to island tours and city tours, visitors to Khanh Hoa can experience paragliding at Hon En, ziplining, off-road riding, and rafting at Kong Forest Adventure Park. Cultural and spiritual tours associated with Ponagar Temple, Long Son Pagoda; tours to the places relating to Doctor Yersin; resort tours combined with playing golf; vacations combined with conferences and seminars are also suitable for many people. However, the most important thing to boost tourism and attract tourists is opening air routes (at least for charter flights) and relaxing tourist visa policies.
South Korea is currently the key tourism market of Khanh Hoa besides Southeast Asian markets (Thailand, Malaysia, etc.). The province’s tourism sector is trying to open new markets such as India and Kazakhstan. According to Cam Ranh International Airport, it is expected that from the beginning of October, Vietjet Air will cooperate with travel agencies to run charter flights from Kazakhstan to Cam Ranh City with a frequency of two flights/week.
The delegation of Khanh Hoa Province led by Le Huu Hoang, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, is taking a trip to promote commercial tourism in India. The delegation will work with the Civil Aviation Authority of India, travel agencies and Indian airline IndiGo about opening of an air route from India to Khanh Hoa.
Xuan Thanh
Translated by H.N