Over recent years, Da Nang has seen a boom in luxury seaside resorts and hotels offering high-end services along Hoang Sa, Vo Nguyen Giap and Truong Sa streets.  These venues are the ideal choices for domestic and foreign vacationers who travel to the city for relaxing and rejuvenating holiday. 

A local beach is crowded with swimmers

However, it is common to realise that the increasing number of such venues has resulted in the blocking of public walkways to local beaches, especially in Ngu Hanh Son District, causing many difficulties for public access to beaches.

In reality, there are now no public swimming areas in use along an about 5km-long section of the beach alongside the Vo Nguyen Giap and Truong Sa routes in Ngu Hanh Son District due to there being many luxury holiday resorts.   Included are Premier Village, Pullman, Furama, Fusion Maia, Olalani, and the Hon Ngoc A Chau project. 

Some of these venues are now enclosed by tall concrete fences, metal sheeting or large-sized advertising panels.

A local senior citizen, 70-year-old Tran Van Luan, complained, “In the past, there was very easy access to local beaches for the general public.  However, since many seaside resorts and hotels were built along the coastal streets, walkways to the beach have been totally blocked”.

Mr Cheng-Li, a South Korean visitor, who recently stayed in a hotel on Vo Nguyen Giap, highlighted the need for the city authorities to promote public beach use for the general public by opening more footpaths so as to allow locals and visitors access to the beach.

Coastal resorts along Truong Sa Street fenced off with metal sheeting

Over recent years, a large number of residents in Ngu Hanh Son District have continuously urged the local authorities to open more footpaths so as to allow public access to beaches as soon as possible.  In particular, they proposed that a footpath should be created at the end of Ho Xuan Huong Street so that locals and visitors can find it easier to access beautiful beaches which are not vulnerable to coastal erosion.

According to Mr Vu Quang Hung, the Director of the Construction Department, by late this year, 10 billion VND from the city budget will have been spent on opening a between 31.5 and 40m-wide walkway between the Furama Resort Danang and the Ariyana Danang Tourism Complex. 

Furthermore, the municipal government has made plans for creating 3 other footpaths, namely 17m-wide one between the Silver Shore and the Hon Ngoc A Chau resorts, 10m-wide one on the northern side of the Song - Danang Beach Villas project, and the other, measuring 4m in width, on the southern side of the Future Property Invest tourism area project.

The municipal Management Board of Infrastructure and Urban Development Investment Projects will be in charge of managing the opening of footpaths mentioned above.

Especially, the city authorities are considering taking back unused land of the I.V.C company-developed coastal tourism project on order to expand the construction site of the Ngu Hanh Son Cultural and Historical Park in the district’s Hoa Hai Ward.  The intention is to create a cultural, historical, and spiritual tourism area in the district for locals and visitors, thereby helping to expand tourism and services in the district, and the city as a whole.

Addressing a meeting with the Ngu Hanh Son authorities in early month, municipal Party Committee Secretary Truong Quang Nghia emphasised the fact that the whole local community has the joint ownership of beaches, and local hotels and resorts are not allowed to privatise any sections of the beach.