Da Nang city in central Vietnam is the most popular summer vacation destination of tourists from the Republic of Korea (RoK) this year, a shift from last year’s preference for Japanese cities.

Son Tra Peninsula - a tourist destination in Da Nang city

The RoK media quoted e-commerce website Ticket Monster (TMON) as saying that flight ticket sales in the July-August period showed Da Nang as the top foreign travel location. Travel in the city is relatively cheap, about 100,000 won (90.33 USD) per day, and is a manageable distance from the RoK, about four and a half hours by flight.

TMON said its sales data shows a growing preference for places that offer hotel, resort, shopping and tourism activities altogether.

In this website’s rankings, Da Nang is followed by the Japanese destinations of Osaka and Fukuoka.

[Photos: Walking high above on Golden Bridge in Da Nang city]

Last June, TMON named the city among the most popular tourist destinations for Koreans, both solo and couple travellers as well as those travelling with their families.

Da Nang has emerged as a destination of leisure, media and spiritual tourism, as well as entertainment and shopping activities, and a venue of conferences.

According to the municipal Department of Tourism, the number of visitors to the city is increasing with annual average growth of 20.06 percent in the 2013-2017 period.

It welcomed more than 4 million tourists in the first half of 2018, surging by almost 30 percent year on year. Notably, vacationers from the RoK shot up by 100 percent to account for half of the over 1.6 million foreign arrivals in the city during the period.-VNA