International awards boost Vietnam’s tourism brand

Vietnam’s tourism sector has made strides in more than the last 10 years to turn the country into one of the world’s famous destinations for resort tourism, with various prestigious international awards.

The Golden Bridge in Da Nang

 Recently, three famous cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Quoc made themselves onto the list of the world’s 100 greatest places to explore on Earth in 2021 as voted by US-based Time Magazine.

Despite the complications of the pandemic, the Golden Bridge in the central city of Da Nang came first in a list of fresh wonders of the world compiled by the UK’s daily newspaper Daily Mail.

Dubbed among new symbols of the city, the bridge has bagged plenty of awards from foreign news agencies and organisations, becoming a major draw for tourists.

Vietnam’s tourism sector has been hardest-hit by COVID-19 as the number of foreign tourists in the first six months of 2021 saw a year-on-year plunge of 97.6 percent with only 88,200. Tourism revenues only reached 4.5 trillion VND (197.64 million USD), down 51.8 percent.

Some 95 percent of travel companies have to cease operations or switch to other sectors.

In 2014, the InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort was named Asia's Leading Luxury Resort by the World Travel Awards (WTA), which was nicknamed by The Wall Street Journal as the Oscars of the travel industry.

This was the first time that a resort in Vietnam has won such a grand title.

In 2015, one year after the recognition for the InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, tourist arrivals to Da Nang surged 20.5 percent to hit 4.6 million. The city earned 12.7 trillion VND from tourism in the year, up 28.7 percent.

The resort was chosen to be the venue of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in November 2017.

Afterward, another resort located on Da Nang’s Son Tra peninsula owned by Sun Group received the Asia's Leading Luxury Resort award for three years in a row. Such an achievement had never been seen before, said Graham Cooke, WTA Founder and President.

The resort also has won hundreds of accolades by other international organisations worldwide.

The recognition fuels hope that Vietnam’s tourism will soon recover once the pandemic is brought under control./.

VNA