Hanoi (VNA) - By August end, any activity related toimplementation of the Son Tra National Tourism Site Development Plan orconstruction on the Son Tra Peninsula in the central city of Da Nang must besuspended.

This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam at a recent meeting withlocal leaders and representatives from relevant ministries in Hanoi.

The move is aimed at making time for relevant parties, experts and scientiststo review the plan and discuss a recommendation by the Da Nang City TourismAssociation which states that the Son Tra Peninsula should be kept unchangedwith the current accommodation of 300 rooms, and no other hotels should belocated in the area.

Under a Government plan outlined in May 2013 and approved in November 2016, theSon Tra Mountain on the Son Tra Peninsula has been planned as a nationaltourism site and a top luxury eco-tour resort complex in 2030, to accommodate300,000 tourists staying in 1,600 luxury hotel rooms.

Before May 2013, the Da Nang People’s Committee had already approved 18 tourismprojects on the peninsula, including 11 housing projects expected to providesome 5,000 new rooms. Since then, it has not approved any project to bedeveloped on the peninsula, which has the Son Tra Nature Reserve, 600m abovesea level and well-known for its rich biodiversity, with 287 animalspecies and 985 plant species.

As soon as the tourism development plan was publicised on February, 15, 2017,the city’s Tourism Association strongly opposed the plan, suggesting no morehotels and resorts be built or any construction work be carried out on thepeninsula to avoid possible threats to the local biodiversity and environment.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had earlier asked all relevantparties to review the Son Tra tourism development master plan andreport to him by the end of this month.

“A key point that needs further discussing is whether Da Nang should reduce thenumber of rooms to be built on the peninsula and how many additional rooms areacceptable,” Deputy PM Dam said at yesterday’s meeting, adding that therewas obviously no option for building more than 1,600 rooms.

As the city had to discuss the issue with investors of approved projects on thepeninsula, it was asked to give the final answer on the scale of tourismprojects on Son Tra Peninsula to the Prime Minister by August 30

Da Nang city, ministries of tourism, information and communication and relevantagencies, meanwhile, will organise consultation workshops in the future tocollect opinions.

As the Vietnam News reported earlier, the chairman of the city’stourism association, Huynh Tan Vinh, who supports conservation of the Son TraNature Reserve for sustainable tourism development, said the city has built 600hotels and resorts with a total of 22,000 rooms to host 15 million touristseach year.

He said, however, only 50 percent of the room capacity was used, with the cityonly hosting 5.6 million tourists last year, even as two and three-star hotelswere still being constructed in the city.

Vinh sent petitions to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asking for an adjustmentof the Son Tra master plan.

Experts warn that rapid development of hotels and resorts on the peninsulacould turn Da Nang’s natural habitat into a desert and the world’s largepopulation of red-shanked douc langurs could face extinction.

The Son Tra Nature Reserve is the most preferred site for tourists to see thered-shanked douc langur from close range.-VNA