15 years of beautifying lands of Sun Group

The "cocoon breaking out" of Ha Long tourism

In the summer of the 90s, a few years after Ha Long Bay was recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage, Ha Long tourism in the memory of tourists still included many hours sitting in the legendary orange-white PAZ car of the former Soviet Union heading towards the inner city roads covered with coal dust.

New Port Crossroads, Hon Gai Town in 1991. Photo: Do Phuong

With the number of hotels only counted on the fingers, and mainly guest rooms in agency guest houses, the construction of the 15-storey Saigon Ha Long Hotel became a "mega-project", a form of luxury accommodation at that time.

Swimming in the sea and visiting the bay on local wooden boats were the most popular experiences in Ha Long at that time. Even though they were traveling by sea, visitors to the bay always brought along sandwiches with ham for convenience. When a Korean company invested in a chain of jet skis, this became an unprecedented form of entertainment in the coastal city.

In 1996, Ha Long welcomed 236,000 visitors. The total entrance fee revenue recorded by the bay management board was 1.2 billion VND. That means they collected 5,000 VND for each visitor to the bay. That year, pho cost 2,500 or 3,000 VND per bowl.

Over the past two decades, the landscape of Ha Long City has changed rapidly. But it has not changed naturally, but through the determination of many stakeholders.

Ha Long International Passenger Port

This year, Premier Village Ha Long Bay Resort won the Asia's Leading Family Resort 2022 award by World Travel Awards Asia - Oceania 2022.

This is the third consecutive year the resort has been honored by the World Travel Awards. Two years ago, they won Asia's Leading New Resort and Vietnam's Leading Family Resort.

Where there were only a few old jet skis bought by “foreign investment”, there is now an international marina. Ha Long International Cruise Port has been awarded Asia’s Leading Cruise Port for three consecutive years. And it was built by a Vietnamese company,Sun Group .

Sun Wheel, Sun World Ha Long

From the 1.1 billion USD in entrance fees in 1996, Quang Ninh is approaching the 1 billion USD mark in total tourism revenue in 2022. In just the first 6 months of 2022, the total number of tourists to Quang Ninh reached 5 million.

Vietnam has some of the most spectacular natural landscapes – the World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay is just one example of the landscapes that humanity craves to see. “How can one enjoy them without having to carry bread and pork sausage?” That was the question that tormented Vietnamese entrepreneurs in the 2000s.

“We went to Cyprus. There was nothing to see. Their beaches didn’t even have sand, only pebbles. It couldn’t be compared to our home country Vietnam. But they charged us a lot of money,” Mr. Dang Minh Truong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sun Group, recalled.

It was 2001, and it was the first trip of the young Vietnamese man outside the former Soviet Union after nearly two decades of settling down. That feeling of disappointment urged the founders of Sun Group to return to Vietnam to invest in tourism. Or in other words, “beautify the lands” according to Sun Group’s manifesto.

According to statistics on the number of visitors to Sun World Ha Long compared to the total number of visitors to Quang Ninh in 2019, for every 5 people coming to Quang Ninh, one person will come to the tourist area, experience the Queen Cable Car, Japanese Garden, Water Park, Theme Park with adventure games.

Five-star accommodation, comfortable restaurants with multicultural menus, beachfront theme parks, adapting to a new standard of living and the desire to regenerate the workforce of an economy aiming to be in the global top 20.

Vietnam from another angle

Sun World Ba Na Hills

Just fifteen years ago, tour drivers who went to the top of Ba Na would occasionally be forced to turn back halfway. They feared the pass and the need to spend half a day on a journey to the top, with only a few rudimentary food services. No one dared to invest in this mountaintop, not only because of the number of visitors, the dangerous traffic, but also because of the harsh weather and the seasonal nature of the business.

The determination of Da Nang and Sun Group has created a new tourism icon for Vietnam on top of Ba Na. A park that even the World Association of Amusement Parks is amazed that Vietnamese people can do it.

Watching the white clouds on the Roof of Indochina, Fansipan peak, is no longer the privilege of healthy explorers but now also of wheelchair users, children, and even the elderly. Millions of people visit Fansipan peak every year without touching the Hoang Lien forest below, through the cable car system of Sun World Fansipan Legend.

Sunset Town (also known as Mediterranean Town), Phu Quoc

Just five years ago, the only way for tourists to see An Thoi Bay – one of Vietnam’s largest coral reefs, located south of Phu Quoc – was by a forty-five-minute wooden boat ride. There were no services on the islets. Today, they see the entire sea from a cable car and are treated to some of the country’s most pristine sands.

“Beautifying the lands” according to Sun Group’s concept is not only adding architectural complexes meticulously designed by leading architects to the landscape. It is also allowing people to access ecosystems, landscapes and other cultures. As the great writer Marcel Proust - La Prisonnière once said, “The only real journey is not to visit strange lands, but to have a different eye to look at the universe”.

Mr. Dang Minh Truong confided that, even after the Ba Na cable car had been in operation for a few months, he was still concerned about the project. But the first thing that made him realize that they had succeeded was an afternoon on the top of Ba Na, when he witnessed with his own eyes the “five-colored clouds” on the mountain top.

“Travel brings experiences. Experiences bring happiness.”, Mr. Truong briefly describes Sun Group’s mission, “In the end, everyone is looking for happiness.”