Ba Na Hills – growth from a cable car system

The cable car system was a great addition to Ba Na Hills

Cable car prolongs desires

On March 25, 2009, the Ba Na-Suoi Mo cable car route came into operation after one year of construction, creating a breakthrough for Ba Na Hills by drawing in millions of tourists each year. According to the statistics published by the Danang Department of Tourism, in 2001, the coastal city welcomed 490,000 local and international tourists and the figure increased to 1.3 million in 2009 and has continued to increase year by year.

Duong Thi Tho, former director of Ba Na Hills, said, “At the time, Ba Na Hills was overloaded thanks to this cable car and the managing board of this tourism area proposed to build more cable car routes, while simultaneously completing the infrastructures and services for Ba Na Hills.”

As a result, in March 2013, the Toc Tien Waterfall-Indochine cable car line with four Guiness World Records in the Ba Na Hills Mountain Resort officially became operational. The line has broken the records for the longest one-line car cable in the world (5,801m), the largest difference in height between departure and destination (1,368m), the longest cable (11,587m), and the heaviest cable (141.24 tonnes).

It consists of 86 cabins with a capacity of 10 passengers each, and is able to carry 1,500 people an hour. It takes visitors only 17 minutes to reach the top of the mountain.

Since then, by 2017 the 5,880m Hoi An-Marseille line and the 800m Bordeaux-Louvre line were launched with the total capacity of 6,500 passengers per hour.

In addition to the development of the cable car system, Ba Na Hills also saw the development of tourism infrastructures, including the French village with its old palaces and Le Jardin d’Amour with its colourful flowers. Besides, Ba Na Hills has seen the opening of the Fantasy Park amusement area covering an area of 21,000 square metres and Debay ancient wine cellar, as well as “the most romantic hotel” Mercure Danang French Village Ba Na Hills, along with restaurants and carnival festivals. Thus, Ba Na Hills was turned into Disneyland in Vietnam.

Especially, the launch of Golden Bridge in June 2018 contributed to making Danang one of the global must-visit destinations in 2018 and 2019. Besides, TIME Magazine recognised the bridge as one of “The world’s 100 greatest palaces of 2018”.

Ba Na Hills is home to a great many carnivals

Lever for the growth of Danang’s tourism sector

During the past ten years, Sun World Ba Na Hills was honoured for four consecutive times as the leading tourism destination of Vietnam by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. Besides, Danang saw a true breakthrough in tourist arrivals.

Notably, in the first quarter alone, there were 27 international and nine domestic flight routes to Danang, adding four international routes in three years. At the same time, flight frequency on the Thailand-Danang routesreached 56 flights per week.

In general, in the first quarter of this year, total tourist arrivals to Danang reached 1.8 million, up 16.4 per cent compared to the same period last year, including 876,500 foreign tourists, up 31.2 on-year.

Especially, in April, more than 3,000 Indonesian tourists visited Vietnam, the highest figure from the market so far. The destination they selected for the longest stay was Danang with Ba Na Hills and Golden Bridge.

According to Huynh Thi Huong Lan, deputy director of the Danang Tourism Promotion Centre, Thailand overcame Japan to rank as the third-largest international market of tourists visiting Danang.

“The soar in Thai visitors to Danang is thanks to the attraction of Golden Bridge in Ba Na Hills. There are numerous 5 days-4 nights tours built to visit this bridge and stay at Mercure Danang French Village Bana Hills for one night, and then at 3-4 start hotels in Danang for the remaining nights,” said Lan.

Le Trung Chinh, vice chairman of the Danang People’s Committee, said, “Ba Na Hills is an outstanding example showing the role of private business in the development of Danang’s tourism sector as well as the economic growth of the city.”

“Standing at the same level with tourism paradises like Puerto Rico, Panama, and Munich shows the position of Danang as well as the attraction of this city in the eye of both local and foreign tourists,” said Chinh.