“I surfed the Internet to make an online booking but no rooms were available,” said Hoang Huy Giap, a visitor from Hanoi. “I had to ask my friend to go around to local hotels and luckily I was able to find one.”

June and July are peak tourist season months in the central coastal province of Quang Binh. In the months to June, the locality welcomed 1.8 million arrivals with 85,000 foreign visitors, representing year-on-year rises of over 16% and nearly 23%, respectively.

Despite the massive influx of visitors, there are only 300 accomodation facilities in the area, with a limited number of two- to five-star hotels which are in great demand.

According to Nguyen Van Ky, chairman of the Quang Binh Tourism Association, tourism in Quang Binh province is not busy year round, so building new hotels seems unreasonable but the sector has urged diversified services to meet visitors’ demand.

“Given the current overload in local hotels, we have worked with hotels to upgrade rooms as well as provide more choices for visitors, such as homestays or other options,” said Ky.

As activities to mark 15 years of Phong Nha Ke Bang heritage are about to take place, the province estimates the number of tourists flocking to the locality to increase exponentially. 

Quang Binh hopes to solve this complex problem of overloading in accommodation service.
The tourism association is planning to diversify the range of accommodation products, as well as pushing forward promotional activities that lower hotel prices on weekdays.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, director of the Thanh Phuc Hotel in Dong Hoi city, said his facility will carry out promotional programmes during weekdays and work with tourist agents to develop more tourism attractions on low-season days in order to reduce overload during weekends.
Quang Binh has a 116.04 km coastal line. It is home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park and the world’s largest cave Son Doong.