The Unique Tourism Potential of Khanh Hoa

As a coastal province of South Central Vietnam, Khanh Hoa has a 385km coastline with nearly 200 large and small islands along the coast and over 100 islands and reefs of the Spratly Islands. The faulted coastline creates the ideal tourist area as there are many beautiful beaches, white sand and clear blue water. Khanh Hoa has a tropical monsoon climate, divided into two seasons: rainy and sunny. The rain lasts only in October and November, and the rest of the year is 10 months in the sunshine, making the beautiful landscape more beautiful and attractive.

With such favourable conditions, Khanh Hoa has the advantage of developing diversified forms of tourism such as resorts, hunting tourism, diving tourism, mountaineering tourism, and business tourism with conferences, seminars, swimming tours, boat races, especially island tourism.

Island Tourism
Khanh Hoa Sea is the deepest sea in Vietnam, very close to the ocean as well as the international maritime routes. The seabed is of steep, rugged terrain with layers of coral reefs. Along the coast, there are lagoons, bays, tidal flats and fine sand beaches, convenient for seaport, aquaculture and tourism development.
Khanh Hoa has six lagoons and large bays, namely Dai Lanh, Van Phong Bay, Khoi Islet, Nha Phu Lagoon, Nha Trang Bay (Cu Huan) and Cam Ranh Bay. Each bay and lagoon has its own characteristics, that can be organized into routes, clusters and tourist attractions, resorts, swimming and diverse attractions. Typical tourist sites such as Dai Lanh, Dam Mon (Van Ninh); Vinh Long, Bai Tien, Tran Phu Beach, Bai Tru Beach, Nha Trang Beach, Thuy Trieu Beach, and Bai Dai Beach (Cam Ranh).

Van Phong Bay is the largest bay in Khanh Hoa province with a total area of 503 kilometers, the average depth is over 10m and the deepest is over 30 meters. Van Phong Bay, along with Dai Lanh Beach, Son Tap Mountain-Trai Thom and Doc Let Beach, is the largest marine-mountain-forest tourism complex in Khanh Hoa Province and the whole country. This place is a harmonious combination of sky, clouds, waves, islands, mountains and forests with white sand beaches.
These are the advantages to help Van Phong strongly develop ecological tourism. Vietnam National Administration of Tourism sorted Van Phong into the "key tourism development zones", in the long-term plan of the sector until 2020. Van Phong is also listed as the 4 most ideal beach destinations by the World Maritime Association.

Nha Trang Bay is the second largest bay after Van Phong Bay in Khanh Hoa Province, with an area of about 400 kilometers. The eastern and southern sides of the gulf are bounded by an arc of islands. The largest is Hon Tre Island (also known as Hon Lon) with an area of about 30 kilometers. On the island, there are famous tourist attractions such as Bai Tru, Bai Tre, Tri Nguyen Aquarium (Mieu Island) and Mun Island.

Hon Mun is home to the first marine protected area in Vietnam, with coral reefs and pristine sea populations, that is almost unique not only in Vietnam but also in Southeast Asia. The temporary boundary of Nha Trang Bay is the sea area, including Hon Tam, Hon Mieu, Hon Noc, Hon Ho, Hon Dun, Hon Mot, Hon Mun, and Hon Tre. These islands have beauty on the shore and under water, but also have brought a large source of income for Khanh Hoa Province due to birds' nests.

At the second festival of the world's most beautiful bays club held in Tadoussac (Quesbec, Canada) in May 2003, Nha Trang Bay was recognized as an official member of the club as a good chance to promote the tourism of Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa.

Cam Ranh Bay has an area of about 185 kilometers and the depth of 5 to 10 meters and 12 to 25 meters, out of the bay door approach to the "40 meter" line. Cam Ranh Bay is a relatively closed bay, inhabited mainly by aquaculture, fishing, and handicraft.

The Cam Ranh Bay is classified as one of the three best natural harbours in the world, surrounded by mountains that keep the waters always calm. Cam Ranh Bay is just one hour from the international shipping line (compared to Hai Phong at 18 hours).

There are also some active ports in the bay, such as sand exploitation port, Ba Ngoi Port, Da Bac fishing port and military port.

Nha Phu Lagoon, by Hon Heo Peninsula in Ninh Hoa town covers an area of 100 kilometers. Among the lagoons, the largest is Hon Thi. Hon Thi Island, Hon Lao and Hoa Lan stream tourist area (Hon Heo) make up the tourist islands north of Nha Trang.

Forest potential
Khanh Hoa is a province that has a plain district with both mountainous districts and island districts. In particular, Khanh Son mountainous district has a climate like Da Lat, with a cool atmosphere and fog hovering around the mountain as beautiful as a watercolor painting. Along with that is the attractive local culture, unique natural attractions such as Yangbay Waterfall, Ta Gok Waterfall, Doc Quy Waterfall, Doc Gao Archaeological Site, To Hao Revolutionary Base and especially, in 1979, it was discovered that there are sets of stone musical instruments, the most ancient instrument of humanity, in Khanh Son district.

Khanh Hoa has a relatively temperate climate due to the nature of the oceanic climate, along with the diversity of topography that has created a variety of nature, especially high forest biodiversity with many endemic species such as primary forest, lush forest, coniferous forest, ferns, and orchids. Not only that, Khanh Hoa still holds many rare plants and animals named in the Red Book such as bear.

Hon Ba Nature Reserve is also one of the tourist attractions for tourists in Khanh Hoa.

It is a primitive forest with a height of 1,578 meters, in the temperate zone, on the border between Khanh Phu Commune, Khanh Vinh District and Suoi Cat Commune, Cam Lam District, Khanh Hoa Province. This is the place where Dr. Alexandre Yersin discovered and worked in the early 20th century. Scientists have recorded that in Hon Ba, Khanh Hoa province, there are 41 species of plants and 59 species of rare animals listed in the Red Book. There are 559 species of tropical plants, including 401 genera, 120 families of higher plants and 4 classes of birds, 27 species of animals, and 88 families of 255 species.

Historical and cultural monuments
During the development of history, the Khanh Hoa generation has created unique architectural works, valuable historical-cultural relics such as communal houses, temples, pagodas, towers, shrines and old town walls that still exist today, such as Ponagar Tower (Nha Trang), Dien Khanh Citadel (Dien Khanh), Ninh Hoa Street (Ninh Hoa), Tran Quy Cap Temple (Dien Khanh), Trinh Phong Worship Temple (Dien Khanh), Dinh Phu Cang (Van Ninh); Vo Canh; Thanh Hoi, and Thac Shrine.

Along with the tangible cultural heritage is the intangible cultural heritage, having its own identity in the national culture that is typical of the legendary goddess Ponagar-mother of the country. The Am Lord Festival is the shadow dance as an offering to her.

Due to favourable natural conditions (long coastline, white sand, beautiful scenery, peaceful climate), many historical and cultural relics are preserved so Khanh Hoa attracts large numbers of domestic and foreign tourists annually to visit and relax. Therefore, Khanh Hoa has been identified by VNAT as one of the tourist centres of the nation.