Da Nang is in the top cities with the highest rate of returning visitors thanks to smart tourism.

Da Nang City is for the first time in the top 10 Asian cities with the highest rate of returning visitors.

With the goal of welcoming more than 17.3 million visitors in 2025, Da Nang is accelerating the implementation of solutions to attract tourists, in which digital transformation is considered a solution that brings many opportunities to promote destinations.

Digitization from museums to services, cuisine , entertainment

Da Nang is one of the pioneering localities in applying digital transformation to tourism to improve tourist experience and optimize management efficiency.

The city has invested in building an electronic tourism portal, developing the VR360 technology application "One touch to Da Nang", deploying 3D scanning at museums, and building a shared database system (Big Data) to share information between the government and businesses.

Da Nang Museum innovates its approach to visitors through the application of modern technology in exhibition activities and visitor services, digitizing documents and artifacts available at the museum, typically. These include 3D Mapping film technology; projector systems, screens showing 3D films, documentaries, image slides, touch screens for information search placed at the ticket counter and information area to help visitors easily look up and search for information about the museum's activities.

In addition, the museum also operates a Virtual Assistant (chatbot) that supports more than 10 languages, a multilingual automatic commentary application via Bluetooth and NFC check-in for visitors to easily share their experiences.

Mr. Nguyen Tan Hao, a tourist from Hanoi, said: "The interesting thing that my children and I enjoyed when visiting the Da Nang Museum was experiencing the 3D Mapping film technology about the history of Dien Hai Citadel, which was very easy to understand and vivid. Along with that is the automatic explanation system via Bluetooth, with just a phone and headphones, visitors of all ages can easily learn about artifacts and historical documents at the museum."

In parallel with serving visitors, Da Nang Museum also digitizes the records of artifacts and updates them on the Digital Resource Management Software of the Culture and Sports sector. Thanks to that, the management, search, and exploitation of information about artifacts are more convenient, scientific, and safe, contributing to improving preservation efficiency and limiting direct contact with original artifacts.

Documentary films, slides of artifacts and historical documents digitized at the Da Nang Museum's exhibition area. (Photo: My Ha/VNA)

Mr. Huynh Dinh Quoc Thien, Director of Da Nang Museum, said that the museum is gradually building a comprehensive digital database as a foundation for the synchronous deployment of technology systems in museums, exhibition houses and relic sites in the city.

Along with that, the museum is coordinating to build multilingual explanation software to meet the information access needs of domestic and foreign tourists.

In the coming time, the museum will add more languages to the automatic guide, accompanying not only visitors but also the tour guide team in enhancing the visitor experience when coming to the museum.

Digital transformation of tourism in Da Nang is taking place strongly in many services such as booking and online services.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Da Nang has used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support information and advice for tourists; applied chatbots to Zalo and Facebook platforms, helping to answer questions quickly.

Tourism e-commerce platforms and local businesses are encouraged to participate in the digital ecosystem to optimize operating costs and ensure more effective state management. Using technology applications in the tourism experience has helped Da Nang achieve online tourism growth of up to 25% in 2023.

Recently, the city announced for the first time 3 types of unique travel experience passports to tourists including culinary passport (Da Nang Food Tour), heritage passport (Da Nang Heritage Tour) and green travel passport (Da Nang Green Tour).

With the 3 types of online passports on TripC, visitors only need to register on the application, receive an electronic passport, check-in, download invoices to collect stamps and redeem gifts online. The integration of these utilities not only enhances the experience but also creates a seamless journey, contributing to making Da Nang a smart, friendly and modern destination.

Mr. Nguyen Nam Hai, CEO of TripC AI Joint Stock Company, said that the digital travel passport will select quality locations and partners that meet the city's tourism standards in terms of food safety, price, and service. These locations will be posted on the e-passport application, and visitors can view them in their passports and choose suitable locations, services, and destinations, thereby helping them have completely new experiences online on the digital travel passport. Visitors' data will also be updated to know their level of satisfaction when coming to Da Nang, helping management agencies improve service quality.

Increasing competitiveness for the "smokeless industry"

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Da Nang has completed the construction of a tourism database, published 6 open data sets, and digitized information of nearly 2,000 tourism businesses.

Da Nang is developing tourism in the direction of safe, friendly, and civilized digital tourism. Tourism businesses, especially in the accommodation sector, have shifted strongly to digital platforms. Most hotels have used platforms such as Agoda, Booking, Traveloka, etc. to help customers search and book rooms quickly.

Some large hotels and international hotel chains have also deployed digital systems such as ChatGPT integrated chatbot, hotel information management system and 360-degree travel experience with smart technology applications in automatic check-in at the counter via mobile applications.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Men, General Director of My My Tourism One Member Limited Liability Company, shared that through digital platforms, businesses can reach customers quickly. Previously, with traditional tours, the access time was very long, it could take more than a month; now, with just one click, customers can book a tour. Digital transformation is an effective solution for travel businesses, especially inbound units.

According to a 2023 Google Travel Insights report, more than 67% of international tourists use digital platforms to search for information, book rooms, and buy tickets before arriving at a tourist destination. A 2024 survey by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism showed that more than 72% of tourists tend to prioritize digital services such as e-ticketing, cashless payments, and using virtual tour guide applications. Therefore, promoting digital transformation not only helps optimize the tourist experience but also plays an important role in enhancing the competitiveness of tourist destinations.

Virtual assistant (Chatbot) supports more than 10 languages to help visitors search for information at Da Nang Museum. (Photo: My Ha/VNA)

The merger of Da Nang and Quang Nam has opened up a new space for Da Nang tourism development, increasing the experience, value, quantity and quality of services, and creating a new approach to tourists. The city possesses many rich, diverse, unique and outstanding tourism resources. This opens up many opportunities for the locality to increase the competitiveness of the "smokeless industry" on the basis of promoting digital transformation, applying technology to fundamentally change and reposition the destination's pillar products.

Mr. Cao Tri Dung, interim Chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association, shared that the city has formed a smart ecosystem, reaching out to tourists online right from the moment they search for information. The tourism industry has encrypted, digitized, gathered large databases, trained, and updated knowledge for the workforce as well as the management force in the industry. It can be said that the ability to access technology, destination information as well as digitize destinations of Da Nang and the business community is a bright spot to increase the competitiveness of Da Nang tourism.

Ms. Truong Thi Hong Hanh, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Da Nang, said that in addition to new products, the city's tourism industry also focuses on connecting with travel agencies, associations, and connecting with many large OTA platforms such as Klook, Traveloka, Agoda, etc. to promote the image and destinations of Da Nang. In addition to improving the experience of tourism products, the Department focuses on ensuring the quality of tourist services, building a more friendly, safe and intelligent tourism environment.

According to statistics, in the first 7 months of 2025, Da Nang welcomed 10.7 million overnight guests, including more than 4.2 million international visitors, with revenue from accommodation, food and beverage, and travel estimated at VND33,800 billion, up 18%, 21%, and 23% respectively over the same period last year./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/da-nang-lot-top-thanh-pho-co-ty-le-khach-quay-lai-cao-nhat-nho-du-lich-thong-minh-post1057812.vnp