As tourism demand for Vietnam accelerates in India, Da Nang Tourism Department, along with low-cost carrier VietJet, holds its first roadshow in India in order to attract Indian tourists to the coastal resort town in central Vietnam.

Da Nang Tourism Department, in cooperation with low-cost airline VietJet, conducted the first Da Nang Tourism Roadshow in New Delhi today. The roadshow showcased Da Nang, a beautiful coastal resort city in central Vietnam and currently one of Asia’s top trending destinations. Da Nang has recently been connected with India with the launch of new direct routes connecting to major cities in India.

With an aim to boost tourism exchange between Da Nang and India, the roadshow had also highlighted the exciting events and festivals held in Da Nang to its Indian tourism partners

“It is golden time for us to enhance our mutual understanding and cooperation for tourism recovery and growth, considering the significant growth in trade and commerce exchange between Vietnam and India,” says Nguyen Thi Hoai An, Director of Da Nang Tourism Promotion Centre.

Hoai An says the event opened a new chapter for tourism cooperation between New Delhi and Da Nang. “Da Nang Tourism Roadshow in India 2022 is a great opportunity for the beautiful coastal city to promote itself as a top destination that offers diverse tourism products and services along with MICE and weddings to India,” he says.

Ambassador of Vietnam to India Pham Sanh Chau and Rajiv Mehra, chairman of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, were also present along with the other 90 guests, representing mainly Indian travel companies and wedding planners in the event.

Ambassador Sanh Chau emphasised on the remarkable increase of outbound tourism from India due to the pent-up demand for the last two years. “The average number of visas for Indians to enter Vietnam has surged after Covid-19, and has increased 24 times from 250 visas per day before Covid-19 to 6000 visas per day now. In this, the Vietnamese Embassy has received many requests for weddings or conferences in Vietnam,” says Sanh Chau.

VietJet Air to launch direct flights between India and Vietnam, including Da Nang

At the event, the Vietnam-based low-cost airline, VietJet, announced that it will launch two direct services linking Mumbai and New Delhi with Da Nang starting October 17 and 18, respectively. The airline will launch three more routes to Da Nang from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad on November 28, 29 and December 1 respectively, it added.

Outlining its ambitious plan to rapidly ramp up services to India, VietJet said that additional services from key Indian cities- New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad to Vietnam’s economic and tourism hubs Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang and Phu Quoc will also get operational starting September. Travellers can book promotional tickets from India to Vietnam with fares as low as INR 9 (excluding taxes and fees) on every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from now until August 26 for travel from August 15, to March 26, 2023 (excluding public holidays) through its website, the airline announced.

“With 17 direct services, VietJet will operate the largest flight network ever between India and Vietnam from September onwards,” says Jay L Lingeswara, Vietjet Commercial Director.

Lingeswara adds that travellers from five key Indian cities can now take direct flights to visit Da Nang, and then to surrounding tourism destinations including Hoi An ancient town, Hue Imperial city, My Son sanctuary and Son Doong, the world’s largest cave, and many more.

“It is also more and affordable for Indian travellers to visit not only Vietnam’s top destinations but also connect to other destinations in Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, and all over Asia Pacific thanks to VietJet’s expanding flight network. As the first airline flying directly between Vietnam and India, VietJet is confident of further strengthening both countries’ connection in the coming time to meet travellers’ evolving demands while being able to offer them the most affordable airfares and joyful flight experiences,” Lingeswara adds.

MoU for enhancing cooperation between Vietnam and India

A Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony for tourism cooperation and partnership was also held in the event in the presence of the Ambassador and tourism businesses.

Da Nang Tourism Promotion Center (DTPC), the agency under the Tourism Department specialising in destination marketing and promotion has established a partnership with Global Aviation Services to promote Da Nang in India. According to the MoU, the Da Nang agency pledged its support to Indian clients looking to learn more about the new destination.

Global Aviation Services has consulted DTPC in promoting activities to India since 2017, the company is also a coordinator for Da Nang Tourism Roadshow in India 2022, says the Indian company.

Prabodh Tipnis, Group Managing Director of Global Aviation Services believes the tie-up between the company and Da Nang Tourism Promotion Center, along with the enhanced air connectivity from various Indian city to Da Nang, will lead to a surge in tourism from different travel segments.

“Da Nang Tourism will now have a local address in India and can be reached through our offices pan-India. This will also assist in enhancing the knowledge of the Indian trade partners the city has to offer, apart from Dragon Bridge and Bana Hills. The ‘Team Da Nang’ in Global is confident in promoting the destination,” says Tipnis.

Da Nang Tourism Association has also signed an MoU with Network of India MICE Agent (NIMA) aimed at developing MICE segmentation. DTA will respond to its partners’ request for MICE products and services, meanwhile, attracting more MICE groups through the association with NIMA.

The partnership established in 2019 resulted in the series of webinars co-organised by DTA and NIMA in 2020 to provide destination knowledge to India travel agents. According to Jagdeep Bhagat, National Coordinator of NIMA, the organisation is keen to continue the relationship with the Da Nang Tourism and believes in everlasting, constructive and progressive partnership between two organisations for mutual benefit.

Business networking session

On the occasion of the roadshow, 17 tourism enterprises representing Da Nang, Central Vietnam tourism community including Furama Resort Da Nang, Vietnam Travel Mart, Vinpearl Group, Holan Express, Almanity Resort & Spa, Hoa Binh Events, Vedana Lagoon Resort & Spa participated in the event to connect and introduce their products and services to over 120 tourism and media partners in India.

According to a press release, the roadshow is expected to generate over 1000 business meetings and interactions. Sharing the appreciation of the public-private partnership, enterprise representatives said the organisers have held the event at the right time to capture the market attention, facilitating the connection between tourism businesses between New Delhi and India.

Emphasising the importance of Indian inbound market for tourism recovery to many Asian destinations, especially Da Nang, Nguyen Duc Quynh, General Director of Furama Da Nang Resort says the plan to pamper Indian tourists with the focus on family group, MICE and wedding, including the setup of a restaurant and wedding services catering to Indian travellers.

Luong Van Trang, Deputy Director of Vietnam Travel Mart, one of leading tour operators in Da Nang says that the company has its resources ready for India market and the event is one of the great opportunities for them to expand their connections to Indian travel agents and representative offices to attract India guests. In cooperation with VietJet Air, the company is also organising outbound and pilgrimage programmes from Vietnam to India.