Danang International Fireworks Festival (DIFF) has returned this year with a few thought-provoking changes, most noticeable of which is the duration. Instead of holding contests intensively for two nights, this year the competition takes place on five nights scattered in two months from April to June.
This may be seen as an effort to balance the tourist flow which has oftentimes overcrowd the city and pressure its infrastructure. To accommodate the massive amount of incoming visitors, in recent years the city has seen an urgent need in increasing its capacity for accommodation. Currently, there are about 575 hotels offering a combined total of 21,324 rooms, and many more to be open, said Ms Truong Thi Hong Hanh, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Tourism.
One plausible criticism to the streched out showtime is that it may dilute the zeal, the hype and the excitement that sweep the city in two nights of fabulous colors. Admittedly, the festive vibe needs intensity over a short time span to sustain. However, the cost of overloaded infrastructure might probably outweigh the benefits of an instant tourist catch. In fact, allocating the fireworks competition into five nights over a period of two months actually proves strategic. It aims to, on the one hand, prolong tourists length of stay, allowing and encouraging them to explore and emerge in the city’s culture, experiencing a variety of tourism products. On the other hand, lower tourist concentration ensures the quality of service and infrastructure is not compromised by overcapacity. In short, the concern should not be about weakened festive hype, but about redirecting tourists’ interest into many other equally exciting activities, cultivating new touristic products.
Another change is that from 2017 onwards, the event shall be held annually, instead of biannually in the past. Speaking of this change, Dang Minh Truong – CEO of Sun Group (main sponsor of the event), claimed an intemittent recurrence of such prominent event would be disruptive to promoting Danang tourism (DIFF, 2017). Indeed, DIFF has been one of the most well-known trademark for the city’s tourism. In 2015, the festival attracted around 460,000 visitors, 13.9 per cent higher than that in 2013 (VnEconomic Times, 2016). This year, it expects to boost the figure to 2 million which sounds quite ambitious and radical to me. Anyway, although I’ve been reluctant to trust the authority’s competency in destination management strategy, I hope Danang DMO (or whoever the organizer) had better know what they are doing and be conscientious in doing their job. It’s high time Danang took its potentials for tourism and events more seriously and sustainably.
References
http://vneconomictimes.com/article/biz-traveler/fireworks-festival-in-danang-lasts-longer
http://www.diff.vn/en/blog/press_release/danang-international-fireworks-competition-2017-fireworks-lasted-for-2-weeks