Special tourism products in Quang Binh province have attracted high volumes of both domestic and foreign visitors. However, accommodation capacity cannot keep up with high demand from tourists, putting stress on the province’s tourism sector.
June and July are peak tourist season months in the central coastal province of Quang Binh. In June alone, the locality welcomed 1.8 million tourist arrivals with 85,000 foreign visitors, representing a year-on-year 16.3 percent and 22.8 percent rise, respectively.
Hoang Huy Giap, a visitor said: "I surfed the Internet to make an online booking but no rooms were available. I had to ask my friend to go around to local hotels and luckily I was able to find one."
"Promotional programmes have been carried out during weekdays. We have also worked with tourist agents to develop more tourism attraction on low-season days," said Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of Thanh Phuc Hotel, Dong Hoi City, Quang Binh province:
Despite the massive influx of visitors, there are still only 300 accomodation facilities in the area, with a limited number of two- to five-star hotels which are in great demand.
According to Nguyen Van Ky, Chairman of Quang Binh’s Tourism Association, tourism here is not busy year round, so building new hotels seems unreasonable. "However, given the current overload in local hotels, we have worked with hotels to upgrade rooms as well as provide more choices for visitors, such as homestays or other options," he added.
As activities to mark 15 years of Phong Nha Ke Bang heritage are about to take place, the province estimates the number of tourists flocking to the locality to increase exponentially. Quang Binh hopes to solve this complex problem of overloading in accommodation service. The tourism association is planning to diversify the range of accommodation products, as well as pushing forward promotional activities that lower hotel prices on weekdays.-VNA