'Hide the heat' tourism is on the rise

It's so hot, I can only go swimming!

Taking advantage of the 5-day holiday to return home to his family, Quoc Cuong (living in Binh Tan, Ho Chi Minh City) bought a train ticket from Saigon to Quang Ngai on the evening of April 26. The journey from the South to the Central region, the scorching heat made Cuong "get goosebumps". The train had just arrived at Quang Ngai station at 11am, but at 4pm, Cuong "rushed" straight to the sea despite having just gone through a tiring 15-hour journey on the train.

Foreign tourists excited at Da Nang beach

"Normally, when I get home, I rarely go to the beach to swim. I just hang around on the shore and eat seafood. But this time it's crazy hot. It's so hot that I can only swim in the sea. I swam in the afternoon but the water was freezing cold, it was great. The beach near my house has very few tourists but it's still crowded, because everyone in this area now goes to the beach to cool off," Cuong said.

In Da Nang, unlike previous years, the tourist attractions at Linh Ung Pagoda (Son Tra Peninsula, Son Tra District) are quite sparse. Most of them are foreign tourists traveling in groups. Meanwhile, the Nui Than Tai Hot Spring Park tourist area (Hoa Vang District) welcomed nearly 5,000 visitors on the first day of the holiday.

Along the central coastal route towards Ha Tinh, the first two days of the holiday (April 27 and 28) witnessed thousands of tourists flocking to coastal tourist areas in the districts of Nghi Xuan, Cam Xuyen, Thach Ha, Loc Ha, Ky Anh (Ha Tinh) to cool off from early morning. According to preliminary statistics, the occupancy rate of accommodation at coastal tourist areas in Ha Tinh during the first days of the holiday reached about 80%, of which some hotels reached 90 - 100%.

If the coastal provinces of the Central region "open their eyes and see the sea", people can easily cool off near their homes, then in the big cities in the delta such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, many families are willing to drive hundreds of kilometers to the nearest beaches to escape the heat.

From the first day of the holiday, the coastal town of Cua Lo (Nghe An) welcomed tens of thousands of tourists to cool off before the peak heat. Roads leading to Cua Lo Town such as Binh Minh Street were constantly congested at many points. According to information from the Department of Culture and Information of Cua Lo Town, a few months before the tourist season, travel and tourism companies had booked all the rooms of high-quality hotels and motels in prime locations with beautiful views. The booking rate for this holiday at hotels and accommodation facilities reached more than 90%. In particular, 3-star hotels and above were fully booked. With the current occupancy rate, Cua Lo tourism industry expects to welcome about 200,000 visitors during the April 30 - May 1 holiday season alone, reaching 4.15 million visitors in the 2024 tourist season, "pocketing" 200 billion VND in tourism revenue, an increase of 18% compared to 2023.

Cool Ba Den Mountain becomes a "heat escape paradise" in the Southern region

The west of Nghe An is considered a "fire pan", but in return, nature has bestowed many waterfalls and cool streams. Therefore, not only Cua Lo beach but also wild mountains, natural streams, aquaculture dams or community tourism spots such as Khe Kem waterfall (Con Cuong), Sao Va waterfall on Nam Viec river (Que Phong), Nha Vang waterfall (Tuong Duong), Dragon waterfall (Ky Son), 7-storey waterfall complex (Que Phong), Rain waterfall (Thanh Chuong) ... are also chosen by thousands of tourists to experience during this holiday.

Nearby, Sam Son beach (Thanh Hoa) during the recent holidays was always crowded with people. Due to the large number of tourists coming to swim, the beach lifeguards had to be on duty regularly, reminding tourists to swim in the sea to ensure safety.

The "golden" time to start the summer peak

Thanh Nam, who runs a chain of accommodation services in Vung Tau and Nha Trang, said that a month before the holiday, all three condotels in Vung Tau and two homestays in Nha Trang were fully booked. Even on the day of the holiday, there were still customers calling to book rooms.

"With the current weather conditions, the tourism trend from now until summer will definitely be to avoid the heat. Coastal destinations with easy access such as Nha Trang, Vung Tau, Quy Nhon... or cool mountainous areas with lower temperatures such as Da Lat, Ba Den Mountain, Ba Na Hills will attract a lot of visitors from now until summer. The 5-day holiday is creating a very good momentum for the tourism industry to welcome the brilliant summer peak season," said Mr. Nam.

The representative of Vietravel Company also acknowledged that the Government's agreement to extend the April 30 - May 1 holiday period has helped the tourism industry gain important leverage in the context of a prolonged economic recession, with the tourism industry under great pressure from the increase in domestic airfare ceilings since the beginning of March. Notably, the weather factor also contributes to influencing the trend of choosing tours of tourists. Most customers when coming to Vietravel choose itineraries with sea destinations such as Ha Long Bay, Da Nang, Phu Quoc, Nha Trang; or tourist destinations with cool climates such as Da Lat, the West... For tourists from Ho Chi Minh City, nearby tourist destinations such as Phan Thiet, Vung Tau... are also registered by many customers.

"The success of the April 30 - May 1 holiday will be a premise for travel companies to grasp trends, build product sets suitable to tourists' needs and have more attractive programs for the upcoming summer peak season," a representative of Vietravel Company hopes.

Grasping the trend of heat-avoiding tourism that will dominate this summer, many localities have also focused on organizing beach tourism festivals right from the April 30 - May 1 holiday season to increase the attractiveness of attracting visitors for the upcoming summer months. Typical examples include the 2024 Cua Lo Tourism Festival with many unique cultural, artistic and sports activities, affirming the image of a coastal city developing and reaching out in the future; Ha Long Carnival with the theme "Lighting up with wonders"; Sa Pa organizes the 2024 Rose Festival at Sun World Fansipan Legend from April 27 to June 30...

Most recently, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also directed and requested localities to implement a domestic tourism stimulus program with the theme "Vietnamese people travel to Vietnam - Vietnam I love". Accordingly, the program will be implemented with specific content, new tourism programs, product packages with good service quality to increase tourists' experience, diversify products and improve service quality, strongly promote domestic tourism.

International visitors to Vietnam exceed 6.2 million

According to information from the Department of Tourism, in April, the number of international visitors to our country reached nearly 1.6 million, an increase of 58.2% over the same period last year.

In the first 4 months of the year, Vietnam welcomed 6.2 million international visitors. This number increased by 68.3% compared to the same period in 2023 and increased by 3.9% compared to the period before the Covid-19 pandemic. Revenue from accommodation and food services in the first 4 months of 2024 is estimated at VND 237,300 billion, up 15.3%; tourism revenue is estimated at VND 19,400 billion, up 49.3% over the same period in 2023. The leaders of the Department of Tourism assessed that Asia and Europe were the main drivers for the growth of international visitors in the first 4 months of the year. Of which, visitors from Asia increased by 77.2%, and Europe increased by 63.8%.

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