A 490-hectare safari park will be built in Lạc Dương District of Đà Lạt city by the Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park and Dalat Tourism.— Photo vietq.vn

HCM CITY — A 490-hectare safari park will be built in Lạc Dương District of Đà Lạt city by the Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park and Dalat Tourism.

Lê Văn Hương, director of the park, said the Highland Safari is expected to cost VNĐ1 trillion ($44.64 million), VNĐ350 billion ($15.63 million) of which would be provided by the Government.

Scheduled for completion in 2020, it would be located inside a protected forest and developed as a semi-wildlife park in which the animals would live in the forests but under the care of humans, he said.

The developers have hired consultants from Austria and Singapore to study the terrain and environment and the status of rare animals in Lâm Đồng Province, and obtain suggestions from major safaris around the world.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has agreed to finance the project.

Once opened, the Highland Safari is expected to get some 1.2 million visitors a year and earn VNĐ300 billion ($13.39 million) in revenues.

Đoàn Văn Việt, chairman of the Lâm Đồng People’s Committee, expressed support for the project at a meeting on Friday.

Safaris appeal to tourists in many places, and the Highland Safari would be appropriate for the local ecosystem, he said.

Lâm Đồng Province received 1.32 million tourists in the first quarter of this year, up 10.9 per cent from the same period last year.

Of them, 66,000 were foreign visitors, a year-on-year increase of 25 per cent. -- VNS