Đà Nẵng has its sights set on Australia. More than 370,000 Aussies visited the central Vietnamese beach city in the first nine months of this year, putting Australia firmly in the city's top ten source markets. To build on that, the city's Tourism Department took a roadshow Down Under — the Đà Nẵng Tourism Showcase & Networking Destination — and sat down with Destination New South Wales, the Western Sydney Tourism Taskforce and the team behind Western Sydney International Airport to talk direct tourism connections.

The pitch to Australians is straightforward: Đà Nẵng sits at the centre of a cluster of world-class sites. Hội An's lantern-lit ancient town, the Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary and the Chàm Islands-Hội An biosphere reserve are all within easy reach, as are the Huế Monuments Complex and Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park with its vast cave systems. That concentration of heritage helped the city earn its tag as Asia's leading MICE destination, though the pitch here is squarely about high-end beach holidays and retreats — long coastline, natural scenery, culture and entertainment in one compact strip.

The numbers show a city in full swing. Đà Nẵng International Airport has handled 11,200 flights and 2.1 million passengers so far this year, and the city has stacked December and January with year-end entertainment, events and Christmas programming. In total, Đà Nẵng welcomed 15.86 million visitors over three quarters, 7.73 million of them international — a serious volume for a city of its size.

There's a sustainability angle too. Working with the Swiss-backed Tourism for Sustainable Development (ST4SD) project, the city has launched its own 'Đà Nẵng Green Stay Criteria', a set of standards meant to build a recognisable green tourism brand for accommodation. Lonely Planet, meanwhile, ranked the city second on its list of the nine best places in Asia for a summer trip.

For Australian travellers, the practical upshot is encouraging: direct-flight talks with Sydney's new Western Sydney airport could make central Vietnam easier to reach, and the city's event calendar makes the December–January window — peak Aussie holiday season — a natural time to go. Popular experiences include cycling through rural villages around Hội An, lazy days on the city's beaches, and day trips to Mỹ Sơn's Cham ruins or Huế's imperial citadel.

Story first reported by Vietnam News Life.