You need a ‘beach spanass’ to swim in this Vietnam resort town

Tourists staying at hotels along a street in Duong Dong Town on Phu Quoc Island now have to present a pass to be able to enjoy the white sands and blue waters of the famed holiday destination off southern Vietnam.

Entrance to the beach along Tran Hung Dao Street is blocked by a series of seaside hotels, and those staying at lodging facilities on the other side of the road must walk a long way to get there.

“We and four other hotels thus have to ‘lease’ the entrance to the beach from such hotels to help our customers,” Nguyen Van Hai, deputy director of Bien Xanh Hotel, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Bien Xanh has to pay Moon Resort, located on the seaside, VND40 million (US$1,837) a year as the "entrance leasing fee," Hai said.

“Our guests are given a ‘beach pass,’ which they are supposed to show to the Moon Resort guards to be allowed onto the beach,” he elaborated.

Guests of the Mai Phuong Binh Bungalow must present this pass to get onto the beach through Moon Resort. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Phu Quoc Island is a district administered by Kien Giang province.

Other hotels such as Mai Phuong Binh, Galaxy, Dong Xuan Hong and Boulevard have to do the same with Moon Resort and other facilities located on the seaside to help their guests, they told Tuoi Tre.

“There is only one public entrance to the beach but it is too far from our hotel,” said Dau Thi Dong Dong, a manager of Galaxy Hotel.

“We have no choice but to pay the opposite hotel dozens of millions of dong a year to satisfy our guests.”

Even so, holidaymakers still find this highly inconvenient.

“We come to Phu Quoc to enjoy the beach but it is tiresome to get there,” said Tran Thi Mai, a tourist from the southern Vietnamese province of An Giang.

Without the ‘beach pass,’ Mai and other vacationers have to walk hundreds of meters in their swimsuit to go to the beach, she said.

Even local residents have to suffer the same problem.

“We have to travel almost a kilometer to find a public entrance to the beach,” said Dang Quoc Binh, a Duong Dong townsman.

“We have not been to the beach for the last three years, since hotels and resorts have been built and block the way there.”

Binh said local residents have repeatedly called on authorities to open new beach entrances but nothing has changed.

Hai, the manager from Bien Xanh Hotel, said lodging facilities that are not located along the seaside have also urged the Phu Quoc administration to set up six public entrances to the beach along Tran Hung Dao Street.

“But only one among the five have been built as the other four faced problems with site clearance and compensation,” he said.

Huynh Quang Hung, deputy chairman of Phu Quoc District, said the district will open 13 small roads leading to the beach from now to 2016.

“We understand that the beach along Tran Hung Dao Street must serve tourists and locals, so the issue that they have difficulty going to the beach must be solved,” he said.

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You need a ‘beach spanass’ to swim in this Vietnam resort town

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