Tourism authorities of Khanh Hoa and Danang provinces have taken steps to diversify their source markets so as to cut their heavy reliance on China.

Chinese tourists are seen at Cam Ranh International Airport 

The Department of Tourism of Khanh Hoa has proposed hotels in the south-central coast province set aside at least 15% of their rooms to serve tourists from different countries, instead of China only.

Chinese tourists to Khanh Hoa have soared significantly, making up most of international arrivals. Therefore, visitors from other markets, even domestic ones, have found it hard to book hotel rooms in Khanh Hoa.

Some hotels provide 15-30% of their rooms for tourists from other countries than China but room rates are high, said Nguyen Van Thanh, vice chairman of the Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa Tourism Association.

Khanh Hoa has around 30,000 hotel rooms, with half of them meeting three- to five-star standards. The scarcity of hotel rooms is mainly seen in its beach city Nha Trang which has been overwhelmed with Chinese tourists.

According to the Khanh Hoa Department of Tourism, the province welcomed some 2.03 million international tourists last year, surging 68.9% over the previous year. More than 1.2 million of them came from China and 450,000 from Russia. But European tourist arrivals declined.

In 2014, when China and Russia were Khanh Hoa’s largest source markets, hotels there took a big hit from drastic falls in visitors from these two markets.

In related news, the Danang City government has worked out measures to manage preferential policies for Chinese tourists.

At a meeting between municipal authorities and travel firms in the city last week, Huynh Tan Vinh, chairman of the Danang Tourism Association, said the city’s tourism sector is heavily dependent on some foreign source markets, especially China.

Vinh stressed the need to tighten control of cheap package tours for Chinese tourists. Such tours do not help Danang’s tourism sector as they may lead European tourists and those from other markets to shun Danang and choose to visit neighboring Hue or Hoi An instead.

According to the Danang Department of Tourism, 2.3 million international tourists visited the city last year, with 600,000 of them Chinese, up 25% against 2016.

The Danang Department of Tourism has announced a 1022 hotline under a Danang tourism promotion center, a rapid response tourism team under the Department of Tourism and a center for public service information under the Danang government.

SGT