Over recent years, Da Nang’s Son Tra District has welcomed a large number of domestic and foreign visitors thanks to its variety of inviting places. As a result, the district has seen a boom in the number of accommodation establishments, restaurants and shops.

One of the business establishments in the district has been found to be violating the State regulations about advertising signboards

As the district has seen a growing the number of international tourists arrivals, especially from China and South Korea, many business establishments across the locality have added foreign language to their advertising signboards to catch customers’ attention.

However, the trend has spiraled out of control to the point that few to none Vietnamese letters are used in most of these signboards.

In particular, many hotels, restaurants, shops and service providers along such tourist-packed streets as Tran Hung Dao, Vo Van Kiet, and Vo Nguyen Giap have been found to be violating the State regulations about advertising signboards.

A shop on Pham Van Dong Street has its billboard in English language. Only the address of the shop is written in Vietnamese. As looking at the signboard without illustrative images, locals and visitors do not know what the shop is selling.

In an attempt to deal with this matter of concern, the Son Tra District authorities have asked functional bodies to pay inspection visits to some production and business establishments within the locality starting from early September.

As a result, a total of 43 business establishments in the district have been found to be in violation of having their billboards written entirely in South Korean, Chinese and Japanese languages without Vietnamese text. The inspectors have asked the owners of the violators to remove all the offending signboards.

To date, 38 out of the 43 violating establishments had their violating billboards removed.

Ms Vo Thi Phuong, the Head of Son Tra District Culture and Information Office, said her agency has been making every effort to widely promote the publicity of the Vietnamese Advertisement Law, especially the accurate presentation of Vietnamese and foreign languages on billboards and signboards, to all business establishments in the district.