DIFF 2025 A boost for tourism and the Da Nang night-time economy
During the fireworks festival (from May 31 to July 12), the coastal city of the Central region witnessed a spectacular bounce in the number of visitors and tourism revenue. It is estimated that accommodation establishments have served more than 1.88 million visitors, a sharp increase of 26% compared to the DIFF 2024 season.
Notably, during the 6 days of the official competition nights of DIFF 2025, the number of guests also increased significantly, reaching about 504,000, an increase of 39% compared to the DIFF period last year. International visitors during the fireworks nights alone reached more than 202,000, an impressive increase of 46% and domestic visitors reached about 302,000, an increase of 36%.
Total revenue from accommodation, food and beverage services and travel during the festival is estimated at VND 5,600 billion, nearly double the same period in 2024.
These figures confirm that DIFF is a real lever for economic development, especially the "night-time economy" of Da Nang, a factor that many big cities such as Shanghai, Dubai or Seoul have taken advantage of to generate tens of billions of USD in revenue each year.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Thi - Vice Chairman of Da Nang People's Committee, said: "In the next 5 years, DIFF will continue to play an important role as a driving force to strongly promote the development of Da Nang's cultural and tourism industry".
Urban strategy from the light of fireworks
Behind the light shows is a longer problem. Da Nang does not stop at attracting customers, but is implementing a comprehensive integration strategy, where DIFF is a link to create momentum for movement.
One of the city's strategic steps is the project to establish the Da Nang Free Trade Zone, inspired by successful models in the world such as Shanghai, Dubai or Singapore. This is an institutional lever for the city to attract FDI capital, technology companies, logistics, e-commerce and the high-end service industry. And to achieve the goal, the city needs to "push up" the symbol DIFF to attract investors and global citizens.
Looking back at more than a decade of the festival's development, we can see the city's development strategy. From an event without an official grandstand in 2008, DIFF has entered a completely new stage of development since 2017, when with the sponsorship and co-organization of Sun Group - the group that created iconic works for the city such as Sun World Ba Na Hills with the famous Golden Bridge or InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, the most luxurious in the world.
With an increasingly professional scale, the festival invests in a grandstand with a capacity of more than 10,200 seats per night, a stage of more than 1,600m2. Not only upgrading infrastructure, DIFF continuously expands the number of participating teams as well as accompanying art activities, becoming a truly international event.
Da Nang City has recently approved a land auction plan to implement the International Fireworks Festival Complex project, with a total estimated investment of up to VND10,750 billion. In the future, when the international fireworks complex and free trade zone are formed, the role of large investors such as Sun Group will become even more important, in ensuring sustainable development and leading trends.
From a resort tourism center, Da Nang is striving to become a multi-purpose city, competing at the regional level and the fireworks displays from DIFF are a signal that the city is ready for a new era.
