NhaTrang raft ban remains

KHANH HOA The People’s Committee of NhaTrang City of south central Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, reaffirmed its ban on floating restaurants in NhaTrang Bay.

Local media reported that earlier in the month, the provincial People’s Committee had ordered floating restaurants across the bay to shut down.

However, some households proposed to local authorities that they should be allowed to continue their business in order to pay back loans used to build the rafts.

The city’s People’s Committee rejected their proposal, the report said.

According to the committee, Khanh Hoa province has yet to issue regulations to control floating restaurant management and monitor their safety.

The province’s Tourism Department director, Tran Viet Trung, was quoted saying that local tourism agencies have agreed not to book their tour groups for a meal on the rafts.

“Now the restaurants have been attached to fishing rafts so tourists can take a look and buy fish, but they are not acting as restaurants anymore.”

The dangers of floating restaurants were exposed after one of them collapsed with 300 guests on board. Two visitors were killed in that accident last July.

Officials point out that rafts were adapted from those used for fishing and were not constructed to carry so many people at one time.

According to the provincial transport department, 50 floating restaurants were told to shut down.

The majority of the restaurants were built using wooden planks, and plastic barrels and buoys for floatation. But they can easily become dislodged, or fail under weight stress or a change in sea conditions.

Khanh Hoa targets to receive 5.5 million tourist arrivals this year, up 17% from 2016, including 1.7 million foreigners.

In the first three months of this year, the province welcomed over 1.1 million tourists, up 26% from the same period last year and earned USD175.95 million in tourism revenue.

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