The central city of Da Nang has kick-started its drive to boost tourismdemand during the off-peak season running from September to December.

A wide array of promotions is on offer, with discounts of 20-25 percent.

Luxury hotels like Furama, Green Plaza, Mercure, Sandy Beach andPhuong Dong are offering room rate reductions between 15 and 50 percent.Other draws like the Cham sculpture museum, Ngu Hanh Son MarbleMountain and Ba Na Hills mountain resort also cut their ticket prices by20-50 percent.

Travel agencies in the city, however, aresuffering from poor sales of package tours though the National Dayholiday is approaching.

A majority of them forecast that thenumber of holidaymakers will plummet by 30 percent from the same periodlast year, largely due to the short holiday and back-to-school seasonthis month.

Travel powerhouses like Vitours, Saigontourist andVietravel said the number of tourists travelling inbound in August wasdown 30-40 percent from July, adding that short-haul packages lasting1-5 days account for 70-75 percent of booked tours.

Theoutbound tourist market, by contrast, appears upbeat. Some 3-5 day tripsto regional countries like Hong Kong, China, Singapore, the Republic ofKorea (RoK), Cambodia and Thailand are preferred over those to Europe.

Thanks to the opening of the Da Nang – Seoul airroute on July 1, the RoK has become popular among vacationers, reflectedin a threefold rise in bookings over the same period last year.

A Saigontourist agency in Da Nang said prices of each Asian tour arereduced by 500,000–1 million VND (23–47 USD) while those to Europe aredown 3-5 million VND (142–238 USD).

Falling tourism demand isalso expected to push visits by train or coach down 30-40 percentyear-on-year. Currently, all transport firms at Da Nang station pledgenot to raise ticket prices during the holiday.-VNA