International tourists visist the Museum of Cham Sculpture in central Da Nang City. The city has launched promotional programmes, with a 50 per cent discount for entrance ticket at destinations; a 40 per cent discount for rooms at hotels; and a 30 per cent discount for air tickets. — VNA/VNS Photo Tran Le Lam

DA NANG  (Biz Hub) — The central city has launched new direct air routes to Japan, Korea and Kuala Lumpur, promoting familiarisation (FAM) trips and road shows in Japanese, Russian and European markets.

The reason for the launch is to fill up the decline of Chinese tourists.

Deputy Director Tran Chi Cuong of the city's Culture, Sport and Tourism Department announced at a meeting on five-month report.

"The number of Chinese tourists, which is the highest among foreign tourists to the city, has sharply reduced 90 per cents since May 15. The decline is estimated to last until July," Cuong stated, adding that the number of tourists from Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States and France as well as Japan also saw a five or 10 per cent decrease.

"Among 19 international air routes, 13 direct chartered flights from the city to Chinese destinations including Hangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai and Beijing, as well as Kunming, Shenyang and Dalian, have been temporarily halted," he pointed out.

"As a result, Chinese visitors staying in 20 five-star hotels in Da Nang accounted to only around 10 per cent compared with 90 per cent in the previous months," the vice director added.

The city's People's Committee Vice Chairman Huynh Duc Tho stated that it needs a long-term strategy of tourism promotion and development.

"The city's tourism industry was partly influenced since China had illegally placed the Haiyang Shiyou-981 drilling rig in Viet Nam's exclusive economic zone and continental shelf on May 2," Tho noted.

"We have planned to open more new flights to potential markets such as Japan, Korea, Moscow and Malaysia as well as promote existing routes of Singapore, Siem Riep and Hong Kong," Tho added.

As scheduled, the central city and Vietnam Airlines will launch direct flight service from the Da Nang Airport to Narita, Japan, on July 16 with four flights a week; the Da Nang-Kuala Lumpur route in August with four flights a week; and Da Nang-Busan route with two flights a week.

Meanwhile, road shows were organised in Busan and Seoul, South Korea, and Japan as well as FAM trips were hosted for Japanese, Korean and Australian travel agencies and a promotional programme in Moscow, Russia, in August.

The city has launched promotional programmes, with a 50 per cent discount for entrance ticket at destinations; a 40 per cent discount for rooms at hotels; and a 30 per cent discount for air tickets.

In the first five months of this year, the city had hosted 1.3 million tourists, of whom 407,000 were foreigners. The tourism industry earned VND3.5 trillion (US$167 million), up 24 per cent over the same period last year. — VNS