How Sun Group has turned neglected hills into tourism hotspot

Sun Group recently celebrated 10th anniversary of Sun World Ba Na Hills' first cable car route, which had paved the way for the former French-built hill station of Ba Na in the northwest of Danang into a tourism hotspot.

Sun World Ba Na Hills managing director Nguyen Lam An shares his thought and view on this occasion.

Ten years after the first cable cars route was put into operation, how has Ba Na Hills changed?

Nguyen Lam An: Ba Na Hills is the first project marking the startup of Sun Group in Vietnam since 2007. At that time, Ba Na was just a fog-capped mountain with the ruins left by the French for many decades.

Without cable car route, tourists had to go to Ba Na by motorbike or 16-seat car and the road was difficult and dangerous.

Before the system was built, there were a few of visitors to Ba Na, of whom most were domestic, and the number reached a few tens of thousands of guests per year that is equal to the figure during five or six days now.

With the official operation of first Ba Na - Suoi Mo cable car route on March 25, 2009 by Sun Group after just over a year of construction, a new chapter in the history of the area was created.

After the first year of operation, tourist influx to Danang grew by 463 per cent while those to Ba Na also rocketed 160 times between 2009 and 2018.

After 10 years, Ba Na has also become more beautiful, modern and attractive day by day. The number of sites and unique destinations has increased, and each is a art work, always ensuring the criteria of quality, class and difference and adding more experiences for visitors.

Sun World Ba Na Hills has received Top Tourist Resort of Vietnam award by Vietnam National Administration of Tourism for four consecutive times.

There is a fascinating entertainment world in Ba Na, including 21,000 square metre - indoor game zone Fantasy Park, two cable car systems and a French Village.

Notably, the Golden Bridge, which was officially inaugurated in June 2018, attracted the attention of millions of domestic and international tourists, bringing the name of Danang beyond the borders of Vietnam.

Sum World Ba Na Hills is in the list of global top 23 entertainment areas having the largest number of tourists and is in the top 11 entertainment area list in Asia.

During the past ten years, Ba Na Hills has contributed significantly to not only the number of visitors and revenue but also a civilized way of doing tourism for Danang.

In your opinion, what is the difference and impression of Ba Na Hills?

Nguyen Lam An: There are many factors that create the difference and attractiveness of Sun World Ba Na Hills and all can be summarized at three points.

Firstly, the complex always upholds the quality, class and difference, which is in line with the orientation of Sun Group with its all projects.

Since the first cable car route set two world records, any site and unique destination in Ba Na added later meets this criterion and carries its own mark.

For example, the Fantasy Park is the Asia's largest indoor game zone and built at Ba Na peak with a height of over 1400 metres, giving visitors an extremely interesting experience with top-class games.

Golden Bridge with a unique design of golden silk through the middle of the sky shows strong attractiveness to domestic and international tourists since its launch.

Secondly, the complex always focuses on innovation, from appearance to products and services, to bring a new surprise and attraction to visitors.

There are a lot of big festivals in Ba Na that change based on season and year.

Last year, Ba Na Hills organized "Sun King Banquet" summer festival for the first time with the participant of many great artists from Europe and Brazil.

In early 2019, visitors were surprised by the biggest tulip festival with over one million tulips of all colors.

Thirdly, Sun World Ba Na Hills is the leading tourist complex in term of doing business in a civilized way. That is shown in the green, clean and beautiful environment, "Hello" culture and good services from staffs.

The friendly attitude in welcoming guests create difference and attractiveness for Ba Na Hills in the heart of tourists. The success that Sun World Ba Na Hills can achieve is not only the Top Tourist Resort of Vietnam award and many global - famous works but also the love of tourists, reflected in the increasing number of domestic and foreign visitors every day and many tourists come back many times.

What do you think about sustainable tourism? Is Ba Na Hills developing in this direction and if yes, how?

Nguyen Lam An: I think that sustainable tourism development is how to ensure the harmony between businesses' interests and the benefits of local communities, the balance of development and conservation and how to respect the values of nature and human.

Since returning to Vietnam in 2007, Sun Group has always strived towards sustainable tourism development, considering it as the survival of the business, which is shown clearly in the first steps of Sun World Ba Na Hills.

During the construction of the first cable car route, Sun Group had to change cable route and cable pillar position many times to minimize the impact on trees.

After each cable pillar was completed, we also plant a lot of trees to ensure the greening of all vacant areas. We also cleaned waste after each construction, not let waste affect the environment.

It can be seen that the spirit of environmental protection has always been promoted in Ba Na Hills, ensuring that the destination is always green and clean.

In the future, how does Ba Na Hills renew to make visitors come back here and Danang in general?

Nguyen Lam An: The innovation in appearance, product and service quality is one of the secrets Sun Na Ba Ba Hills's success over the past ten years. We will always keep going on to attract visitors.

In addition to unique products such as Golden Bridge, Ba Na Hills in the future will become more and more attractive with new projects such as castle and five-star standard Ba Na MGallery hotel which are expected to be put into operation in 2020. There is a number of other products and services under our plan.

In June this year, Ba Na Hills will launch a carnival show which is no less great compared to Disneyland's. It is expected to bring a tourist boom for Ba Na Hills in particular and for tourism entertainment in Vietnam in general.

The constant innovation of Ba Na Hills has been rewarded by the steady growth of visitors over the years. It is also the motivation for us to continue trying our best to bring Sun World Ba Na Hills into a must-see destination for domestic and world travelers.

Thank you!