ĐÀ NẴNG — The Sơn Trà Mountain will become a national tourism site that will host a luxury eco-tour resort complex by 2030, it was announced at a press conference yesterday.

Hà Văn Siêu, deputy head of Việt Nam National Tourism Administration, said at the press meet that the mountain, 600m above sea level and 10km from downtown Đà Nẵng, will become a key destination along with world heritage sites in Hội An Town and the provinces of Thừa Thiên-Huế, Quảng Bình, Bình Định and Phú Yên.

“The mountain has been a lung for Đà Nẵng with its rich biodiversity and the Nature Reserve. That’s why the Government has decided to add it to the National Tourism plan, with the aim of hosting 4.6 million tourists in 2030,” Siêu said.

“Sơn Trà and Đà Nẵng will be at the crossroads of Việt Nam’s road and sea tourism as the city is situated in central Việt Nam and links with the national highway and railway systems as well as deep sea ports,” he said.

Siêu said Sơn Trà alone is designed to accommodate 300,000 tourists in 1,600 luxury hotel rooms.

By 2030, the mountain is expected to earn tourism revenues of VNĐ4.3 trillion (US$190.3 million) and create 2,800 jobs, he added.

As planned, the Sơn Trà Mountain, which covers an area of 4.439ha, will have 1,056ha earmarked for development as a national eco-tourism and luxury resort in central Việt Nam.  

The Đà Nẵng’s tourism department has said that it will introduce the Sơn Trà Sunset Tour later this year as the newest tourism service.

The tour will allow visitors to enjoy a breathtaking sunset panorama and a bird’s eye view of Sơn Trà peninsula  as well as a corner of the city from 600m above sea level, the department said.

The Sơn Trà Mountain is already a popular tourist destination, with 10,000 tourists visiting every month.

The  mountain shelters nearly 300 red-shanked douc langurs, which were declared endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2013.

The city has approved a long-term plan (until 2030) to protect biodiversity in the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve.

The Sơn Trà Peninsula Strategic Vision Plan, which was designed by the US’s Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), has been awarded an excellence prize by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the city’s construction department announced yesterday.

According to the government’s 2020-30 masterplan for the tourism development in the central region, Đà Nẵng, Sơn Trà and favourite tourism destinations like Hội An, the Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary, the Huế Monument Complex will welcome six million foreign tourists and eight million domestic visitors, earning tourism revenues of US$2.1 billion by 2020 and creating 80,000 jobs in the process.

Đà Nẵng, which is situated in the East-West Economic Corridor, will help boost caravan tours and links with Mawlamyine and Dawei in Myanmar; Khon Kaen and Bangkok in Thailand; Savanakhet in Laos; Siam Reap in Cambodia; and the localities of Huế, Hội An and Bình Định. — VNS