The Golden Bridge offers a check-in for tourists visiting the Sun World Ba Na Hills in Da Nang. The city has been designed as a liveable urban city. (Photo courtesy of Sun Group) Economist Vo Tri Thanh said at a seminar on how to develop Da Nangas a destination and a liveable city in Vietnam and region, emphasising thatthe central city had not yet approached the ‘liveable’ standard and itneeded much progress to reach the target.
Thanh said Da Nang had been known as a favourite destination in Vietnambut was not yet a ‘worth living’ location in terms of enjoyment, relaxation,and entertainment.
“A ‘liveable’ city requires maximising consumption, commodities,working places while promoting a ‘green’ environment, humanity, safe, smart andsustainable conditions. It means that everything is available to theneeds of the people,” Thanh said.
“The city should have a favourable business environment,hospitality, good working space condition, and accommodations incomparison to luxury areas such as Dubai and Singapore.”
Tran Dinh Thien, former Director of the Vietnam Institute ofEconomics, said Da Nang had a decade of economic development from 2010-2020.
He said the city increased the Gross Regional Domestic Product(GRDP) by eight times as much as in 2010 while making it in the top-ten groupin Provincial Competitive Index (PCI) Public Administration Performance Indexfrom 2006-2021 and hosting 8.7 million tourists in the successful year of 2019.
Thien said the city had formed an attractive urban city in centralVietnam by planning key deep-sea airports, high-tech parks, an innovationcentre, a logistics and multi-transport service centre, and a digital and smarturban city.
Luong Hoai Nam, a member of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Council,suggested that Da Nang should build a destination for the ‘super rich’ withluxurious services at the airport, and a yacht harbour with docking for longstays.
He said the COVID-19 was a chance for luxury service promotion as‘rich’ people sought a ‘safe’ location or hidden destination as a safe shelterfor their family members.
Nam said Da Nang Airport, which plans to upgrade new terminals anda cargo terminal could handle 40 million passengers if it expands to the eastwith available area.
He also said visa exemptions should be applied to potentialmarkets such as the European Union, India, Japan and others to boost thepost-COVID-19 tourism recovery.
Tran Nguyen, head of the business section of Sun Group, saidtourism was seen as one of the best income industries in Da Nang before the COVID-19pandemic broke out.
“We have been investing in unique entertainment projects andnight-time festivals in the mountainous Sun World Ba Na Hills, Asia Park, Sky36bar, beach musical fest, carnival, Electronic Dance Music (EDM) shows inoffering day and night service for visitors,” Nguyen said.
She said the 10,000-seat restaurant and vine tunnel in Ba Na Hills– 1,500m above sea level – would be the favourite choice for nighttimeentertainment during weekends and summer vacations.
Nguyen also said Sun Group debuted its airline, Sun Air, offeringprivate jets service for ‘super rich’ people visiting Da Nang and Vietnam.
She said the InterContinental Da Nang Sun Peninsula Resort –awarded the World’s Leading Luxury Resort in 2014-2016 – had been one ofthe most luxurious accommodations for wealthy tourists.
The resort hosted a three-day vacation for billionaire financierGeorge Soros in 2012.
Director of the city’s Department of Tourism Truong Thi Hong Hanhsaid the entertainment service of Sun Group attracted 60% of tourists visitingthe city.
The city’s tourism, which hosted 8.7 million tourists in 2019, wasdamaged by COVID-19 in 2010-2021, but it expects to recover soon with aplan of receiving 3.5 million tourists in 2022.
Tourism made 23.7% of the city’s GRDP in recent years.
Huynh Thi Lien Phuong, Director of the city’s Investment PromotionAgency (IPA), said Da Nang had been revving up preparations for pivotprojects such as an international finance centre, duty-free zone, nursinghome, and international school with a hope that visitors would choose DaNang as a second home, she said.
Da Nang has been planning to become a ‘smart city’ and thefirst in Vietnam to join the ASEAN ‘smart’ city network by 2030 inthe form of a world destination and a ‘liveable’ city.
The new Lien Chieu port will be constructed by the third quarterof 2022 for handling cargo ships with 100,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) andcontainer ships with loading capacities from 6,000 to 8,000 twenty-footequivalent units (TEUs), according to the city’s IPA.
The Da Nang International Airport will handle 28 millionpassengers and 200,000 tonnes of cargo by 2030.
The Republic of Korea’s LG Electronics began construction of itsR&D centre – the second in Vietnam – in Da Nang in 2021, while the citywill offer the most favourable conditions for Samsung to expand cooperation andinvestment in the city and central Vietnam.
A top resort and a residential project – Mikazuki Japanese Resort& Spa (168.16 million USD investment) and Fusion resort & villas DaNang (nearly 100 million USD) – were open for hosting visitors in thepost-COVID-19 era in the city.
Peter Meyer, General Director of Fusion resort & villas DaNang, said: "Fusion Resort & Villas Danang will meet the high demandfor lifestyle and relaxation as well as wellness in Vietnam."/.
VNA
