Da Nang (VNA) - Tourism construction on Son TraPeninsula could come to a dramatic halt, after the Da Nang People’s Committeemet on August 28 with the city’s tourism association to discuss the Son TraTourism Area Development Master Plan.

At the meeting, officials proposed cancelling all projects thatare located in “sensitive” areas and likely influence security and nationaldefence on Son Tra Peninsula. The city also proposed restricting constructionto areas on the peninsula below 100m above sea level; under the status quo,construction may occur up to 200m above sea level.

The outcome of the meeting represents a serious turn away fromearlier plans for major tourism construction on the peninsula.

Under a plan outlined in May 2013 and approved in November 2016, SonTra Mountain on the Son Tra Peninsula was set to become a national tourism siteand luxury eco-tourism resort complex by 2030, able to accommodate 300,000tourists with 1,600 luxury hotel rooms.

As soon as the plan was publicised in February this year, thecity’s Tourism Association strongly opposed it, saying that hotels andbuildings on the peninsula would threaten its biodiversity as well as socialstability and national defence there.

Three months ago, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam asked the cityto halt all constructions on the peninsula for further review and to allow timeto collect public opinions in order to submit a final proposal for changes tothe tourism development plan.

After the August 28 meeting, the People’s Committee is sendingtheir proposals to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. If he accepts the newrestrictions, the massive eco-tourism resort complex will not be built.

At the meeting, deputy chief of office of the municipal People’sCommittee Nguyen Thanh Tien said that before the plan was approved, the citygranted licences to ten investors to develop 18 tourism projects providingabout 5,000 rooms on the peninsula.

Tien said that after reviewing, the city decided to cancel projectslocated on the eastern and northeastern parts of the peninsula – considered“sensitive military areas”.

Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, vice chairman of the municipal People’sCommittee, said that buildings were only allowed below the elevation of 100m ofthe peninsula. Most of them are to the west and southwest of the city so thatthey would better connect with the city’s centre as it expands in the future.

Tuan also said that the city did not plan to develop a tourismarea in the eastern and northeastern parts of the peninsula because they arethe home of endangered langurs and valuable herbals.

Head of the city’s tourism association Huynh Tan Vinh said thatthe association wanted no tourist accommodations to be built on Son TraPeninsula. 

“Over 15,000 people have signed a petition on preserving thepeninsula,” he said. Earlier, the association sent the Prime Minister itsrecommendation that no further tourist accommodations should be built beyondthe 300 rooms currently on the peninsula.

The 4,400-ha Son Tra Peninsula, about 10km away from the northeast of Da Nang city’s centre, is regarded as a harmonious ecosystem betweenthe forest and sea in Vietnam.

According to the latest report from the centre for biodiversityresearch and conservation (GreenViet), more than 237 herds of red-shanked douclangurs, comprising over 1,300 individuals, are living in the Son Tra Nature Reserveon the peninsula.-VNA