There is a wide choice of luxury and five-star international and local brand hotels in the city and along a 60km stretch of beach.
DMCs report strong interest from Asia, especially Singapore, India and Malaysia. Korea and Taiwan are showing potential, but the China market has yet to recover. European incentives are also back. Group sizes range from 30 to 200.
“This year, Danang Department of Tourism is focusing more on MICE events. It engages in overseas marketing, especially in India, organises roadshows, hosts famil trips and attends trade fairs. It is also aiming for more direct flights. All MICE group participants to Danang receive a gift,” said Subhash Chandar, general manager of Asia DMC.
Although Australian arrivals are mostly FITs and couples, InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort has received six meeting and incentive requests in the IT and healthcare sectors; one booking is already confirmed for 2024.
The hotel’s business events program features a variety of meeting and function rooms, customised menus, spa and fitness options and outdoor CSR activities.
After the property helped to build natural bridges and rope ladders for critically endangered red-shanked douc langurs to move freely around the forest and access their feeding grounds, corporate groups may plant ‘feed trees’ and erect new ‘monkey bridges’ as a CSR activity.
“We have 2,100m2 of indoor venues – even a nightclub space for a great after-party – and outdoor spaces for teambuilding, games and alfresco receptions suited to small- to medium-sized incentives,” said general manager, Seif Hamdy.
Danang Marriott Resort & Spa has 1,055m2 of flexible function space. Outdoor group activities include a coconut harvesting show, cooking classes, beach games and group yoga and tài jí sessions.
Other hotels with event capabilities include Pullman, Furama, Crowne Plaza, Hyatt Regency, Vinpearl and the Sheraton Grand which has a convention centre. Stand-alone venues APEC Park and Ariyana Convention Centre also cater to various types of events.
Festivals and events run throughout the year, from culture, food, music and film to sports and wellness. Corporate hospitality events can be timed around the mid-year International Fireworks Festival and the joint golf tourism Festival – BRG Open Golf Championship Danang which this year included an exhibition and international conference on golf and golf tourism. Danang has six championship and well-rated golf courses.
Besides beautiful beaches, other popular attractions are Marble Mountains’ tunnels, caves and marble sculptured-arts village, and Sun World Ba Na Hills, accessed by cable car and offering a French village, unique bridge, amusement park and spiritual structures.
DMCs also recommend quaint and pretty Hoi An. It has ancestral homes, beautiful ceramics and silks, and is best enjoyed in the evening when colourful street lanterns glow. Some DMCs also arrange for dinner in a bamboo house amid rice fields or on a street closed off for a private event.
The journey via the winding Hai Van Pass to Hue, the former imperial capital, may be awe-inspiring but the reward is the array of monuments and architecture in the Citadel, emperors’ tombs and Buddhist pagodas and monasteries.
