QUANG NAM – The number of tourists to Hoi An is increasing sharply, especially on weekends, many old streets are full of people, and in some places, step by step.
In the last days of July, visitors to Hoi An skyrocketed. Nearly 10,000 people were recorded at the weekend, about 5,000 people on the remaining days. A month ago, when the summer vacation was new, the average number of visitors on weekends was 5,000 people, the rest of the days 3,000 people. The reason visitors grow are students, students who have completed exams, many families, groups of friends traveling.
Visitors to Hoi An have two forms, those who want to enter the attractions are forced to buy tickets, in addition, many tourists just walk around the old town, unable to make statistics. However, the Center for Culture, Sports and Broadcasting of Hoi An City, said that this number is still not as high as it was before the 2019 epidemic.
In the morning, Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, a favorite photo spot for tourists, is quite deserted. Currently, Hoi An is hot, so tourists often choose a cool afternoon to visit.
After 16:00, tourists begin to flock to the center of the old town, the streets are crowded. Tourists race to take pictures. Among these are many guests who do not stay, stay in Da Nang and go sightseeing in this.
Tourists walking on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street are dense. At this time, visitors to Hoi An are mainly domestic, following their families, groups of friends and colleagues.
Along the two sides of Hoai River, guests come to rent boats to see the old town by waterway.
Thousands of tourists crowded around the area of Cau Pagoda – a famous place of Hoi An.
Doan Ha Anh, a girl from Hanoi, took a 20,000 dong bill and took a photo in front of the Cau Pagoda. “I know that Cau Pagoda has been printed on the banknote for a long time, now coming to Hoi An for the first time, I should take a photo as a souvenir,” she said and said that with the company more than 100 people went to the Central region to travel. Visiting Hoi An from afternoon to night, leave for Da Nang. After four hours of walking, Ha Anh commented that Hoi An was beautiful, “moving people’s hearts”.
Crowds of people crowded An Hoi bridge. This is a bridge located in the center of the old town connecting the two banks of the Hoai River.
In addition to domestic visitors, this time the number of foreign visitors to Hoi An has increased, but it is still less than before the epidemic.
A group of Korean tourists tour the spectrum by cyclo.
According to the Quang Nam Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in the first six months of the year, the locality welcomed about 2.3 million visitors. In which, international visitors are about 91 thousand, up 6 times over the same period in 2021 but quite low compared to 2019. The local tourism industry expects that in the near future and 2023 will be the period to welcome many delegations from Europe.
Despite the crowds, some shops are not open yet. According to many shop owners, the amount of goods sold is not much, because international customers, who usually spend more, are few.
Quang Nam Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said the locality has 842 tourist accommodation establishments with nearly 17,000 rooms. During the peak summer months of this year (June and July), the occupancy rate is estimated at 65%, the average length of stay is 2 days. In June, the number of international arrivals has not been able to recover to the old level, however, the number of domestic visitors is estimated at 250,000 arrivals, up 3 times over the same period in 2019.