New tourism product silence

Kim Bong carpentry village, which opened its tour guide service on June 1, 2024, is one of the rare community destinations in the province with positive changes. Photo: QT

Struggling to find new products

Statistics for the first half of 2024 show that the number of visitors staying in Quang Nam reached about 4.6 million (an increase of about 27% over the same period), but domestic visitors only increased by 4%.

Tourism revenue also did not change much compared to the same period last year, while many localities with tourism strengths nationwide have made strong progress in this period.

Even with Quang Nam 's tourist center Hoi An, the number of domestic visitors in the first 6 months of the year only reached less than 40% of the yearly plan.

It can be seen that in addition to having a great advantage in attracting the international tourist market, Quang Nam tourism still does not have new products to "score points" with the domestic tourist market.

The “summer emotions” tourism stimulus program was launched simultaneously at the beginning of the second quarter but mainly focused on accommodation types. Sea festivals took place throughout some localities but new experiences for tourists were too rare.

Promotional tourism packages associated with new destinations such as Tra Doa (Thang Binh) or O O waterfall (Tien Phuoc) still find it difficult to convince tourists because the products are not really outstanding.

The lack of new and unique products is also an important reason why Quang Nam finds it difficult to increase the number of days tourists stay.

Hoi An tourism is still struggling with products that have long established their brand. Photo: QT

Mr. Nguyen Van Son - Chairman of Hoi An City People's Committee acknowledged: "Cu Lao Cham tourism once developed very strongly but has now stagnated.

Hoi An's products in recent times have been stuck at walking streets, shopping, swimming, Hoi An Memories show... and there haven't been many new products to attract customers.

Furthermore, green tourism is currently the development orientation of the province, but Hoi An has not really had any outstanding products from green tourism.

Ms. Pham Que Anh - Vice President of Quang Nam Tourism Association commented that Quang Nam's special products and new products will mostly focus on nature, craft villages, and communities - where visitors are scattered.

Therefore, it is very difficult to get a source of revenue to compensate for spending a lot of money to invest systematically in a few destinations. At this time, "keeping the fire burning" for the community destinations that are operating well is difficult, let alone investing in new ones.

When will it improve?

After many years of neglect, recently, relevant parties have made moves to “awaken” tourism on the Thu Bon River. The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has proposed that the localities of Hoi An - Dien Ban - Duy Xuyen should first form tourism products linking tourist destinations along the Thu Bon River, including promoting rural tourism to create more tourism products.

The tourism potential of Thu Bon River has remained untapped for many years. Photo: QT

In the middle of last week, 3 localities and businesses had a Famtrip around the Cam Kim - Tra Nhieu - Triem Tay axis to launch new joint products to revive destinations that were once very popular with tourists.

Mr. Van Ba ​​Son - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism informed that, besides calling for businesses to cooperate in exploiting the Thu Bon river tourism route, the department is also promoting how to bring tourists to Quang Nam by rail and integrate Quang Nam cultural and tourism products into rail tourism. Many businesses have also raised the issue of promoting new tourism products about the sea but are still waiting for clear legal procedures.

In addition to the efforts of management agencies, more movements from businesses are needed to innovate products to bring a "new breeze" to Quang Nam tourism.

For example, with Dong Giang Heaven Gate eco-tourism area, the cable car system and Ngoc Rong glass bridge have just been put into operation and are expected to be new highlights to attract more tourists to this tourist area in particular and the Western Quang Nam region in general.

However, Ms. Pham Que Anh commented that after COVID-19, there has been a big shift from tourists going on tours to traveling individually with different demands and needs.

This makes businesses invest a lot of money to promote finding customers but the effectiveness is still unclear when it is very difficult to control the increasing flow of individual customers.

Over time, when the number of customers is no longer stable, it will inevitably lead to many businesses having to consider carefully before investing heavily in launching new products.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/quang-lang-san-pham-du-lich-moi-3139711.html