After severe flooding battered central Vietnam, the historic riverside town of Hoi An is beginning to recover as tourists cautiously make their return and local residents roll up their sleeves to clear the mud and debris left behind. The town, known for its lantern-lit streets and centuries-old wooden houses, was submerged last week during the region’s worst floods, which have claimed at least 35 lives and wreaked havoc on homes, infrastructure and commerce.
As of the weekend, both international and domestic travellers were seen walking along the restored riverfront and visiting heritage landmarks in the newly reopened portions of Hoi An, even as many hotels, lantern workshops and restaurants scrambled to clean up and prepare for the peak travel season. Tourism and service industries — including lodging, dining and ticketed attractions — form the backbone of the town’s economy; last year Hoi An welcomed more than 4.4 million visitors (including 3.6 million foreign tourists). Business owners described losses in the hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong — equivalent to thousands of US dollars — although no official damage estimate has yet been released.
Beyond Hoi An, neighbouring provincial areas such as Thua Thien Hue have also felt the impact. In that region, heavy rains inundated over 16,000 houses and flooded more than 5,300 hectares (13,100 acres) of crops, while roughly 75,000 people continued to face power outages, and five people remained missing according to the government’s disaster agency. Officials have warned river levels may rise again, with prolonged rainfall expected in the coming days — a stark reminder that Vietnam remains vulnerable to severe storms and flooding during its storm season, which typically spans June to October.
For Hoi An residents and business owners, the immediate challenge is restoring normalcy while welcoming visitors back. Lantern-shops and restaurants are busily clearing silt, sanitising interiors and repairing water-damage. Meanwhile, tourists returning as the skies clear are providing much‐needed economic relief for a town heavily reliant on travel and hospitality. The fact that visitors are already walking through restored streets suggests a measure of confidence returning, but the wider region’s infrastructural damage and weather risks remain a concern.
In sum, Hoi An stands at a critical juncture: balancing recovery with resilience. Its reopening signals a hopeful restart for its tourism‐dependent economy, yet the lingering threat of rain and remaining damage underline that full restoration will take time and concerted effort.
