The ao dai “photo tour” attracts many visitors
Many hotels are full
As the holiday is getting closer, the number of bookings to Hue has increased significantly. In many three to five-star hotels, the reservation capacity for the whole holiday season is about 70 percent; particularly on the peak days of April 30 and May 1, it reaches 90 to 100 percent. The total number of visitors staying in Hue during this holiday season is forecasted to reach about 30,000.
Many hotels located in the center of Hue City are using policy to stimulate demand, with discount from 30 to 50 percent to attract guests together with presenting some services for free, including dinner buffet or health care services, and extending checkout time to the afternoon. In addition to the solutions attracting staying guests, many hotels are also carrying out the services such as dinner buffet, and afternoon tea to attract on-site guests.
Since the epidemic appeared, the resorts located separately, associated with the nature such as beaches, lagoons, and mountains, etc., have attracted the largest number of visitors. Vedana Lagoon resort (Phu Loc) has currently stopped accepting reservations. Visitors coming there are mainly from Da Nang City, and Hue City.
In a comparison to the previous holidays, the room prices during this holiday have increased by about 10 percent. In Laguna Lang Co, the number of bookings has also surged, and guests are mostly from the Central region, and Thua Thien Hue Province.
Mr. Nguyen Huu Binh, Chairman of the Provincial Accommodation Association, shared that as the epidemic was well contained domestically; after a long time being repressed, many visitors really wanted to have a trip. Currently, visitors are divided into two distinct groups, with about 50 percent of visitors traveling in tour groups, and the remaining is self-sufficient visitors.
Self-sufficient visitors are likely to keep booking rooms in the coming days; thus, hotels are active in terms of room inventory, and ensure price stability during the holiday. This is the beginning of the summer tourist season, and hopefully with the positive signs, Hue will maintain the number of visitors to visit, explore, and experience the services in the coming time.
Besides the resorts serving overnight stays, entertainment destinations and resorts providing day services, including Bach Ma Village (Phu Loc), Yes Hue Eco (Nam Dong), Alba Thanh Tan (Phong Dien), waterfall destinations, and beaches across the province are expected to attract a large number of visitors during the holiday season.
According to the leader of the Provincial Department of Tourism, in the recent time, Hue has attracted a considerable number of visitors travelling in tour groups, via the joint tours among Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, and Quang Binh, with specific tours such as the “Amazing Central Heritage”; or the tour bringing visitors from the Northern region to Hue by train – the "Discovering the Central Heritages", etc. Hue is the midpoint in the journey. Clearly, on the occasion of April 30 and May 1, hotels are full with visitors in tours.
Guaranteed safety
The representative of Vietravel Hue Branch said that long-haul destinations, where visitors had to travel by air, requiring high spending during this occasion; besides, these destinations also attracted a large number of visitors and, accordingly, their service prices also raised. Therefore, provincial holiday visitors tend to choose closer destinations such as Ly Son, Da Nang, Quang Binh and within the province, where they can travel by car and spend a reasonable amount.
Those are the signs showing the excitement of holiday travel. However, the current concern is that although the epidemic in the country is stable, some neighboring countries sharing the borders are facing large-scale outbreaks; the risk of resurgent outbreaks remains high.
The leader of the Provincial Department of Tourism analyzed that the requirement in the current time was to maintain attracting and serving visitors safely in a new normal state. The tourism sector is quite reassured about the epidemic prevention and control at the accommodation establishments. However, it is more challenging in the attractions of waterfall tourism, beach tourism, and community tourism.
Therefore, the Provincial Department of Tourism has sent document requiring the waterfall tourism attractions and the local leaders to have a coordination in strengthening the inspection, and synchronously implementating epidemic prevention solutions.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Tourism affirmed that the tourism sector had also required travel businesses, and transportation agencies to strictly comply with the anti-epidemic rules. The businesses must be responsible for reminding visitors and let them know about the epidemic prevention and control. Especially, tours to the border areas must comply with the current regulations.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc added that the tourism sector had just introduced the Code of civilized tourism behaviors in a new normal state. These are the regulations aimed at guiding the civilized actions, attitudes, habits, and behaviors of organizations and individuals when participating in tourism activities in Thua Thien Hue Province.
The tourism sector urges visitors to implement the Code of civilized tourism behaviors in a new normal state together, so as to enjoy a safe holiday, and have memorable experiences in Hue.
When coming to Hue, visitors have a wide range of choice in many new tours, with preferential prices, including the "Experiencing your mind and body with Hue" tour, the "Back to Hue from Hai Van Gate (Hai Van Quan)" tour; the "Living actively, discovering personal limits with Hue" tour; the "Imprinting the golden ancient capital" tour, the "Hue ao dai photo tour", the community tourism tours, and tours experiencing the traditional craft villages in Phuoc Tich ancient village, etc.
Story and photo: Duc Quang