The central city's tourism industry hosts 4.6 million tourists, of which 1.25 million foreign tourists, this year, a 25 per cent increase in comparison to last year, earning VND12.7 trillion (US$605 million). — Photo dulichdanang.vn

Vice-Chairman of the city's people's committee Dang Viet Dung said this at a meeting of the city's People's Council.

He said the city also gained 75 tourism sector projects that have invested $8.7 billion, of which $1.7 billion were from 15 foreign direct investment projects.

"The tourism industry had a significant development this year. Twenty routes connected Da Nang and other countries across the world," Dung said.

"The city has developed 475 hotels, of which 80 are three and five-star hotels, providing 17,000 rooms," he said, adding tourists stayed there 2.2 days on average.

"The city's ports also hosted 400 cruises this year for 444,000 foreign tourists, and with 6.5 million tonnes of cargo."

On Monday, the Superstar Libra cruise carried 1,000 Chinese tourists who are visiting the city and other destinations in the central region, while the Azamara Quest cruise brought 500 tourists from France, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States to the city.

According to the latest report, Da Nang granted investment licences to 83 FDI projects, worth $154 million, in 2015.

The city has 372 FDI projects, with a total capital of $3.5 billion, of which $1.98 billion have been disbursed, accounting for 56.7 per cent of the total registered investment capital.

The city plans to upgrade two key ports of Tien Sa and Lien Chieu as national integrated ports by 2020, to handle eight million tonnes of cargo by 2018, as well as establish a 20ha logistics centre in Hoa Vang District.

As scheduled, the central city plans to launch direct flights from Da Nang Airport to Osaka in Japan and Seoul in Korea to attract investment from those two nations. — VNS