Da Nang is naturally blessed with a long, wide coastline with many beautiful beaches. Promoting these advantages effectively, contributing to turning tourism into one of the city's key economic sectors, is always of deep concern to the municipal government.

Sports activities take place on Man Thai Beach. Photo: D.H.L

Recently, a number of Da Nang's beaches have been honoured by international magazines, helping many international tourists know the city. Encouragingly, the My Khe Beach was voted by the US Forbes magazine as one of the six most attractive beaches on the planet in 2005 and as one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in Asia in 2009 by Australia’s Sunday Herald Sun. In a similar vein, the Non Nuoc Beach was ranked 10th in the top 25 most beautiful beaches in Asia in 2017 as recognised by travel website TripAdvisor.

Many visitors to Da Nang always feel excited when immersing themselves in the water. The green and cool beaches of Xuan Thieu, Nam O, Son Tra, My Khe, Bac My An, Son Thuy and Non Nuoc. This poses a requirement for all levels and sectors to develop tourism services on these beaches. The beach is worthy of the potential and advantages that nature bestows. 

Build up safe and friendly beaches

According to Mr. Phan Minh Hai, the Deputy Head of the Management Board of the Son Tra Peninsula and Da Nang tourist beaches, Da Nang currently has about 17km of coastline with beautiful beaches. Since the Management Board of Son Tra Peninsula and Da Nang tourist beaches was established in 2006, many types of systematic tourism service businesses have appeared, especially after the formation of Hoang Sa - Vo Nguyen Giap - Truong Sa coastal route.

“Implementing the project on the management and full tapping of marine tourism services, the agency has re-organised small-sized family-run households into business groups with about 5-10 units, and at the same time proposed to build a mechanism to infrastructure to serve tourism such as public amenities including bathrooms, parks, landscape nodes, foot baths, exercise areas and children's play areas, thereby step by step operating services in order on the beach.”, Mr. Hai said.

At the same time, the agency has built a professional rescue team. Every year, the Royal Australian rescue team is invited to Da Nang to provide professional training for the city's rescue team and organize good rescue competitions to improve their skills. To ensure the safety of tourists, buoy lines are set up to warn of dangerous areas. Currently, Da Nang is one of the localities with the lowest beach service prices, especially parking costs.

In particular, an on-duty force has been set up to catch thieves on the beach. After a period of developing diverse types of services at sea, the Management Board aims to perfect product quality such as improving service and focusing on aesthetic decorations for beach-goers to take photos.

Besides, towards night-time on-beach business operations, there are lifeguards on duty until 10:00pm. Marine sports services are also encouraged for development such as jetskis, water motorbikes, canoes, paragliding and windsurfing so as to meet the increasing demand for adventure sports among young people. This really contributes to creating safe, civilised, attractive and friendly marine tourism products.

Man Thai Beach is a public beach but operates according to a multi-functional complex model. Besides the traditional functions of parking and fresh water bathing, Man Thai Beach also has new beach leisure services such as refreshment trading and relaxation on the beach around the clock.

The highlight is ‘Cho Ca Go’ (Wooden Fish Market) site, exactly near the Truong Dinh - Hoang Sa intersection, Son Tra District, featuring unique architecture is really worth a visit for check-in fans who are keen on looking for an ideal spot to take Instagram/Facebook-worthy photos. Visiting ‘Cho Ca Go’, you can comfortably sit in eye-catching colourful lazy chairs, immerse yourself in nature, breath the cool breeze from the sea, listening to relaxing whispering sea sounds and take cool sips of fresh coconut water, tasty coffee or delicious fruit juices and tea.

In recent years, Man Thai Beach has been the only place in Da Nang that focuses on developing marine sports and has become a favourite activity spot for the largest marine-related sports communities today such as Danang SUP Club, Danang Open Swimming, individuals joining windsurfing, kite-surfing, and powered paragliding.

In particular, this place also transformed the simple marine sports model for self-players to serve tourists with SUP activities. With the Sunrise SUP Programme, the beach welcomes several hundred visitors every day, especially on weekends, up to 1,000 visitors/day.

Towards a unique entertainment space

According to the Da Nang Department of Tourism, in the future, the city will organise nightly music events, especially night-time beach events on weekends. It focuses on cultural and artistic activities, outdoor music stages and other entertainment spaces such as displaying handicrafts, fine arts and specialties on two routes: Vo Nguyen Giap and Nguyen Tat Thanh.

Till date, night services at the My An Beach have connected with An Thuong tourist quarter to form a complex on the sea and underwater. This place forms an outdoor service cluster such as movie screenings and mobile fast food sales. Mr. Pham Tuan Anh, the owner of Paradise beach cinema facility, said: “Currently, the unit buys a number of movies from retail distributors to serve children and adults from 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. every night. Priority is given to animation and action movies with English subtitles to serve both domestic and foreign customers.

However, buying movie screening rights is at a fairly high cost, about VND 5 million/film. With the desire to change the way of doing things as well as focusing on experiential services for tourists, Ms. Dang Hoang Nhu Y, the owner of Co Tropical Food & Nail Spa, also boldly invested in a good foot, shoulder and nape massage model. Soaking your feet in herbs next to enjoying a glass of cool water right on the beach at night is ideal.

However, in order to exploit well the advantages of Da Nang's beautiful beaches and not lag behind other similar ones in central coast provinces and cities, Mr. Phan Minh Hai said the Management Board of the Son Tra Peninsula and Da Nang Tourist Beaches has advised the city to find a consulting unit to implement the upgrade of the landscape of two coastal routes Nguyen Tat Thanh and Hoang Sa - Vo Nguyen Giap - Truong Sa.

In particular, for the Nguyen Tat Thanh coastal road area, based on the planning orientation of Da Nang Bay subdivision and detailed planning, heed will be paid to building modern infrastructure with key projects.

“Till date, Japan-invested Mikazuki Hotel Group has invested in a tourist area including bathhouses, water parks, swimming pool services, beach games and a number of high-rise projects aiming to synchronously develop tourist services. In addition, France’s Huni will advise on architectural planning, typically marinas, seafood markets, squares, beach restaurants and check-in points, thereby making the appearance of Nguyen Tat Thanh sea route more modern with many highlights in landscape architecture for the entire route", Mr. Phan Minh Hai emphasised.

Diverse types of services on the beach To date, on Da Nang tourist beaches, there are 24 beverage service business groups; 20 buoy rental service points; six mobile fast food and beverage trucks; two massage therapy service business units; one outdoor event stage organiser; one beach movie screening service business unit; 10 food and souvenir stalls; five parking and parking service points; three surfboard business units; four marine sports and entertainment service units and 12 freshwater bathhouses.

Reporting by DOAN HAO LUONG -  Translating by A.THU