In that context, localities that have begun to make a mark from sea tourism recently all have one thing in common: they not only exploit the sea, but build an ecosystem around the sea.
Like Da Nang, in recent years, it has focused on promoting sports tourism with a series of international events taking place almost year-round, thereby extending the length of stay and increasing tourist spending.
The unique stories of the sea also come from indigenous culture, from the way a locality recounts its history, cuisine, and life associated with the sea. A beautiful beach may attract tourists for the first time, but a cultural story deep enough will keep them coming back many more times.
This is how many beaches - destinations in the world have done very successfully, in which Bali of Indonesia is a typical example.
Unfortunately, in many places in Vietnam, this factor is still underestimated. Coastal space is concreted, services develop spontaneously, and local values are "blurred" in their own space, making the sea still beautiful, but the experience is somewhat faint.
Another issue that also needs to be recognized is development thinking. For a long time, many localities have chased after quantity with the mentality that the more customers, the better.
But modern tourism is not only measured by the number of people, but by the length of stay, spending, and return ability. To achieve that, we cannot only rely on natural resources, but must invest in products, services, and especially different experiences to sell the most unique thing instead of what we have.
To do this, a longer-term approach from localities is needed. First of all, planning the marine space in an open, friendly direction, creating conditions for cultural - sports - entertainment activities to develop.
Next, each locality chooses a direction suitable to its advantages to invest in unique products such as sports tourism, health care tourism, marine cultural tourism...
Vietnam is a country stretching in an S shape with sea advantages, but stories from the sea are lacking. And that is the gap that each locality needs to fill, if they want to go further on the tourism map.
