DALAT 1897, Doctor Alexandre Yersin (Lịch Sử DALAT)
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Home > Da Lat City > Tourism1. PERIOD BEFORE 1945
1.1 Stage before 1914
In 1897, Doctor Alexandre Yersin proposed to the Governor-general Paul Doumer to choose Lang Biang Plateau as a place to establish a highland resort for the governmental institutions of French colony in Indochina. Governor-general Paul Doumer reported this suggestion and quickly decided to go to Lang Biang Plateau personally for a fact-finding trip and then decided to implement the original plan.
When still in Hanoi, Paul Doumer has established the first building investment for Dalat. According to this program, Da Lat would quickly become a resting place for civil servants, soldiers and other European nationals; a complete city with sufficient developed infrastructure, with architectural building used as administrative agencies, services, military barracks, ... However, in 1902, Paul Doumer was transferred back to the his country, so his program of Dalat development was unfinished because it was not continuously provided funding sources. Building projects were stopped.
By this time, there were only twenty poor, simple thatched cottages in Dalat and Da Lat residents were mostly indigenous people (Lach, Chil, Sre) and a small number of Europeans who are surveyors, hunters, people on an assignment or tourists; a small group of the Kinh road workers migrated to here. This forgotten time lasted more than 10 years; however, also in this stage, Governor Paul Beau still appointed many delegations for further research on Da Lat.
In 1901, Mr. Paul Champoudry was appointed to be the Mayor of Da Lat, he set up an overall map for the development of Da Lat. Also in this year, Indochina Defense Council met in Da Lat and decided to choose Lang Biang Plateau as a resting place.
On May 1903, a delegation led by Minister De Beylie went to Dalat. In the past, he was assigned to survey and explore many places to set up a military camp and a resting place for soldiers. He decided to choose Da Lat because this place had the best natural conditions to establish a military barrack for 3,500 to 4,000 European soldiers stationed there.
In 1907, an inn for visitors was built, this is the first hotel in Dalat. Originally, the hotel was called Sala, then it was renamed Hôtel Desanti and finally, when the Great Lakes was completed in 1919, it was changed the name to Hôtel du Lac (Lake Hotel) in the area of Aviation Hotel, on Ho Tung Mau Street today. At this stage, the Hôtel du Lac was an architectural ensemble including many small isolated guesthouses with wide eaves (to serve families coming for relaxation and tourism) which were scattered in a large flower park adjacent to the lake. A room at the Hôtel du Lac rent for 15 dong per day (not including wine) and rent for months were from 60 dong to 200 dong depending on the type of room. Travelling and stay expenses were approximately 130 dong per person and 240 dong per family with no small children for a vacation trip or a travel about 20 days in Dalat.
Hôtel du Lac (1946)
In 1911, Governor Albert Sarraut decided to accelerate the programs building roads to Dalat. In 1913, he let build up the road from Phan Thiet to Da Lat across Djiring and required this project to be completed in the late next year.
In 1914, the first World War broke out, so the French and some Europeans could not return to their native countries, they went to Da Lat for relaxing, especially in summer. In this year, the road from Djiring to Dalat was open to traffic and the first car from Phan Thiet arrived Dalat within a day. This was a record at that time and this event had a great significance for the development of Lam Vien Highland later.
Since 1915, many travelers have come to Dalat by cars and the car company Lang Bian (SACL) in the branch of Southern Railway Management Company organised to take visitors to Da Lat for relaxing, hunting, ... This is the first travel service in Da Lat.
1.2 Stage from 1915 to 1939
To meet the increasing relaxing demand of the European, in 1915, about fourty, fifty wooden houses were built urgently.
Langbian Palace Hotel was fully equipped with a large scale. This construction was started by Mr. Julien in 1916 and completed in 1922 (now it is the Sofitel Dalat Palace). The hotel had 30 luxurious rooms, the price of each twin room was from 13 copper to 22 copper / day (silver Indochina unit). Also in 1922, Hôtel du Parc (Hoa Vien Hotel, now the Novotel Dalat) was constructed.
A smaller private hotel was also built on a hill looking down at the Great Lakes - Hotel Henri IV (area of Hung Vuong Primary School now) owned by Mr. Daniel Courreges. He invested to build it in 1921.
On October 31st, 1920, the Governor Maurice Long signed the Decree to establish the Da Lat town, improve the Da Lat autonomous region into a second-class town directly under the government of Indochina with extensive regulations. The Lang Biang Department of Relaxation and South Central States Tourism were also established.
In 1921, the Governor Maurice Long let the architect Ernest Hebrard establish "General refurbishment Project" to manage the construction and development in Dalat. Under this scheme, Da Lat would be a high resort city and the capital of Indochina in the future. So, when the project was approved, an attached charter to manage the urban order was issued, including many laws on construction management, protecting urban landscape environment management in Da Lat with very strict and scientific rules.
Khách sạn Palace (1922)
In 1932, Thap Cham - Dalat Railway was completed. To meet the demand for transportation and development of this highland, the colonial government built Dalat station and the road from Saigon to Dalat passing Blao intersection, the number of tourists coming to Da Lat this year exceeded 10,000 people. Regarding aviation, after three years building with high speed, in 1933, Lien Khuong Airport was finished the first phase of building with 700 meters long runway. At that time, this airport only received aircrafts having a few tons of payload.
In 1935, due to the rising need to develop the resort on Lam Vien Plateau and to meet the requirements to promote tourist industry in Da Lat, Tourist Company was founded with more than 80 members. It published Dalat and surroundings brochures written in three languages: English, French and Dutch which was widespread in the Far East and Europe.
From 1937 to 1939, the Saint Benoit, Bellevue, Decoux (Cité des Pics) housing estates were constructed.
In 1938, the train station was inaugurated. At that time, it took only 48 hours to travel from Hanoi to Da Lat, so the number of visitors of all three regions of the country coming to Da Lat for vacation was increasingly crowded; the rooms had been booked by tourists for several months before.
1.3 Stage from 1939 to 1945
In 1939, the Second World War broke out, it was so difficult for the French to return home on leave. Therefore, they came to Dalat. The expansion of city has become urgent, requiring the government to readjust plans to build Da Lat City.
In the early 1940, the Governor Decoux entrusted Architect J. Lagisquet with the Research to build refurbishment and development project for Da Lat City. In 1943, the project was approved by the Governor Decoux and it was issued together with a local program with the functions of the city: "the central administrative center, highland resort station, resort city, center selected for youth, cultural and spiritual center. "
In a report on November 8th, 1942, Architect Lagisquet said: "No one can deny that Dalat occupies a favorable position in the Far East. Climate, scenic beauty, potential for development makes Da Lat become a place that no other places can compare with it. Dalat can become the largest resort in the Far East. "
Before 1945, in Da Lat, people could rent cars and horses easily, but walking was a great fun here as cool climate throughout the year. From the center of Da Lat, by walking, driving or riding on three 3 km, 7km and 11km long detours, visitors could go to Cam Ly Waterfall and across beautiful forests. Taking the 99 sightseeing loop (hunting loop, also called Lam Vien loop), visitors saw a lot of herds of Cà tông acquainted with cars. Also from Dalat, tourists went by car to the first place on the Da Lat – Dankia Road. From the early morning, guests used a horse or a sedan to go for about an hour and a half and continued to walk about 45 minutes (this road was short but very steep) to the first top in the five peaks of Lang Biang Mountains. From here, visitors could see beautiful scenery of the Dankia area and the first buttresses in Dak Lak. Continuing on the path connecting the peaks, visitors reached the highest peak in the range. 2 hours climbing was hard but having lunch on this mountain, breathing fresh and cool air made visitors forget the hardship recently. The best time of the year to climb Lang Biang Mount is from November to March because in other times, the weather is often rainy, wet and the peaks are often covered by clouds.
Travel by car following the route of Da Lat - Fimnom - Dran - Dalat took about 2 hours and 45 minutes. First of all, the car went down the Prenn Pass to Fimnom, then turned left and acrossed the coffee plantations (Bac Hoi area later) and walked along the fertile valley of the Nhim River (Thanh My area, Lac Xuan today). From Dran, car went up the pass to the Hanh Station. On this way, visitors could see the serrated rail running on the slope which was the only railway with serrated system in our country.
The route Da Lat - Phan Rang - Nha Trang was one of the most beautiful mountain roads in Indochina. On the 42 km long road from Ngoan Muc Pass across Hanh Station, it took about an hour to go by car. On the 20 km long Ngoan Muc Pass, visitors were interested in contemplating the Truong Son sights from the last buttress of Lang Biang Plateau to until the east coastal area. Particularly, at the beginning of the Ngoan Muc Pass, a house for scene contemplating has been built up to help visitors see the beautiful landscapes stretching from above.
We could go by car on Dalat - Buon Ma Thuot route in the dry season. After 148 km going, the car stopped on the side of green Lak Lake. Continuing to go and after a 45 km long road going through hunting areas, car arrived Buon Ma Thuot.
2. PERIOD 1945 - 1954
From 1945 to 1954, the political situation was more volatile. Since April 14th,1950 when Bao Dai decreed Edict number 6/QT/TG determining that Dalat belong to the Reigning Dynasty Land and restricting the immigration of Vietnamese people, moving the National School of Martial from Hue to Da Lat, establishing Interservice Martial School, ... During this time, Da Lat just focused on strengthening the facilities for administrative, military, so the resort activities had a slight decline and urban infrastructure for resort tourist developed negligibly.
Before 1954, Da Lat had these following tourist services:
- Da Lat has four cinemas: Eden, Langbian, Annam and Le Colibri; many discotheques such as Au Chat Botte, La Lune, La Croix du Sud, L'Ambiance, Le Cabaret, Night Club, ...
- Those who love sport could find more attractive services in Dalat such as horseback riding, hiking, swimming, sailing, football or playing golf, hunting, ... Da Lat had many tennis courts to satify the need of tourists or to hold competitions.
In addition to the popular restaurants serving local people and the labor, Da Lat had 11 luxurious restaurants satifying the needs of European travelers and Vietnamese rich people or Chinese: Au Chat Botte , Shanghai Chic, Dan Sanh, La Dauphinoise, La mascotte, Le cabaret, Le Mekong, Lila Dena, Au Sans Souci, La rotonde, La Savoisienne. Most of these restaurants were concentrated in Market Square (Peace Park today).
3. PERIOD 1954 - 1975
3.1 Stage from 1954 to 1963
From 1954 to 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem’s Government had a large-scale plan for Dalat’s development in which the construction of cultural – art facilities, urban embellishment and the public buildings were concerned significantly. Da Lat was invested to become a resort , an ideal educational center from primary school, high school to college and schools for religious training, the monasteries of religious order, a place of military training, the area producing vegetables, fruit specialties provided to the entire region.
With the investment to construct and develop Da Lat into a center of international tourism, many works of urban infrastructure were renovated and upgraded.
National Tourism Service has selected 1961 as "Year of Indochina visitation", Da Lat tourism industry was quite thoroughly prepared to welcome visitors, especially foreigners. National Tourism Service was located at 12 Yersin Street (Le Café de la Poste at 12 Tran Phu Street now).
In this time, Da Lat City Hall published Da Lat brochures written in English, edited by the Office of National Tourism Service - Dalat, an ideal vacation land of Vietnam.
Besides, to attract tourists to Da Lat, in these years, people invested to develop tourist cluster in the gateway to the city in Prenn Pass. This region was invested and embellished to become a landscape cluster of waterfalls, zoos with circus (elephants, tigers, bears, deer, monkeys, gibbons, ...)
As Hoai Nam has written in ‘The Brilliant South’, he introduced "Da Lat, sightseeing season":
"When the cold winds begins to blow on Da Lat, sky starts to become blue with white clouds like cotton, hovering on the top of the mountain, the sightseeing season begins.
Xuan Huong Lake flattened as a mirror are willing to welcome visitors on the boats and water bikes. Around the lake, brilliant and bright flowers look like blooming behind the heel of the visitors.
Every angular was all nice. Despite of ampling on the road around the lake, despite of sitting in the water pavilion looking out, or even standing on the terrace of the hotel, standing on the top of a hill ... visitors looked at the lake, always found it charming and splendid .
Charm and luxury, is not only in the scene but also in person. The foreign or domestic tourists coming here were all dressed in luxurious clothes of bright warm colors between the jubilantly dazzling flowers.
Everytime in Dalat during the sightseeing season was all festival at all.
While in the lowland provinces, it was scorching hot, in Dalat, there was cool wind lightening up people. So, in Dalat excursions, everyone gained weight, everyone was cheerful. The young was more beautiful up. The old regained powerful vitality of adult immemorial. The children, between the sight of high sky and cool wind, looked like birds singing peaceful songs.
On curving roads in slopes, as up as down, as turning left as turning right, visitors saw the vegetable gardens, the villas, the trees bearing fruits on their branches. Visitors could feel themselves more splendid between the extrem splendid landscape of Dalat garden, the unique province in the country which turned the famous mountainous city into a tourist center attracting people around the world. "
Vietnam Airlines and COSARA (Saigon Providing Products Company) took responsibility for carrying passengers from Saigon to Dalat and vice versa. On the weekdays, there was an average of two flights per day, a trip in the morning and a trip in the afternoon, particularly on Monday, there were three flights weekly.
Vietnam Airlines held three tours to:
- Gougah Fall, K'Long Villages, Thanh Binh Farm, Prenn Fall and zoos.
- Dalat Urban Center, Linh Son Pagoda, Parasitic Children Institute, Dalat University, Cu Hill, Xuan Huong Lake, Than Tho lake, Crafts - Fine Arts Exhibition.
- Cam Ly Waterfall, Nguyen Huu Hao Tomb, Gold Stream Lake.
3.2 Stage from 1964 to 1975
The project to develop Da Lat into the resort center was interrupted after just a short time conduction because Ngo Dinh Diem was overthrown on November 1st, 1963.
In 1964, the villa of Mrs. Tran Le Xuan - the wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu at 2 Yet Kieu Street became a sightseeing place for local people and visitors.
From 1964 to 1975, Dalat became the resting place for a part of officers and influential officials of the Saigon Government and the elite as well as some foreigners going to the south on an assignment or for tourism, production, business.
From 1965 until before the Paris Agreement was signed (January 27th, 1973), the war was more and more fierce, the number of tourists to Dalat also reduced significantly. Local tourism industry will no longer develop as the previous time, the spots in Dalat in particular and in the Lang Bian Plateau in general were more and more devasted due to lack of funds and lack of a real managing agency to organize the investment, renovation and operation.
Visitors to Da Lat annually were mainly Vietnamese and the proportion of foreign tourists were quite small. Foreign tourists to Da Lat in 1973 reached the highest rate of 15,844 people. During this time, the political situation in the South was not stable, the political forces overthrew each other constantly. Under the Nguyen Van Thieu Government,
the war happened more and more on a large scale. When the U.S. sent troops into combat in South Vietnam, the Saigon Government appointed the field-grade officers instead of civil authorities to the mayors, the governors. So, they focused on the facilities for military purposes; the development of infrastructure, urban infrastructure almost came to a standstill. The roads to Dalat were not safe so tourist arivals took a gradual dip, the tourist activities were no longer crowded as before.
Before 1975, Da Lat had more than 20 hotels and a community center, satisfying the needs of stay of visitors from luxury class to the commoners:
- Luxury hotels including: Dalat Palace, Duy Tan, and Ngoc Lan.
- Medium hotels including: Dalat (formerly Hôtel du Parc), Mong Beauty (Modern Hotel), Thuy Tien Anh Dao, Cam Do, Thanh The, Mimosa, Lam Son, Le Nguyen.
- Popular establishments including: Vinh Quang and Hoa Binh, South Vietnam, Phu Hoa, Saigon inn, retreat, Cao Nguyen, Thanh Ngoc, Union, Tan Tien, Tan Thanh.
- Community Center (Youth and Labor Inn).
In addition, the Hung Vuong Educational Center, Bo De High School, Linh Son Pagoda and a few public or private facilities are also allowed to welcome tourists and visitors when those above establishments could not satisfy the demand of stay of tourists in the peak days.
4. PERIOD 1975 TO DATE
4.1 Stage from 1975 to 1985
In the first years after the South was liberated and the country was unified, like many other localities coming out long years of war, the leading task was to meet the food needs of people. Therefore, resort activities of Dalat also suffered the same plight in a period of time. Tourists visiting Da Lat at this stage were very few, a few groups visited occasionally.
Tourism Company of Lam Dong Province was established in 1976, using the inherited facilities to serve tourists in the regulation of the trade union. Foreign visitors to Da Lat were mainly from the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries coming in the form of agreements between Vietnam and their countries. Sources of revenues were negligible, the tourist business facilities were not invested to upgrade, little attention was given to improve the professional skills for staff and employees; they also did not pay attention to tourist publicity and communication and promotion.
The situation of Da Lat tourism had certain changes in the early 1980s, sightseeing and resort tours of the union of the administrative and professional offices or business units to Da Lat increased, so it made Da Lat tourism industry begin to prosper. Tourists coming to Da Lat in this period were mainly state officials on annual vacation.
Besides, the government also built and upgraded a number of works for the purposes of production service and value in terms of landscape creation for the development of resort tourism of Dalat: fixing the third Da Thien Dam, damming to create Victorious Lake, building Dalat Martyrs Cemetery, inaugurating Yellow Springs Water Company, constructing Tuyen Lam Lake irrigational work, ...
4.2 Stage from 1986 to 1994
Implementing innovation policy of the Sixth National Party Congress, since 1986, the country has taken steps to change the perception of socioeconomic development in new situation. Da Lat started a development process of the socialist-oriented market economy with many components regulated by the Government, in which tourist services has been gradually concerned by all levels and departments. In the field of tourism development in the overall socio-economic development strategy and to contribute to the success of the industrialization and modernization of the country, Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party promulgated the Instruction No. 46/CT -TW on October 14th,1994 about leadership, innovation and touristm development in the new situation. And the Resolutions adopted by the Sixth Party Congress of Lam Dong Province identified "hasten tourism development and services, in which focus on investment in building tourism into a motive economic sector ... ". Resolution adopted by the Seventh Party Congress stated" tourism and services are key economic branches in the Dalat economic structure ".
From a desert city in the earlier stage, Dalat became lively and bustle, welcomed many tourists to visit, resort and travel from Ho Chi Minh City, the southern provinces, the Central coastal provinces and a not large amount of foreign guests. However, due to the impact of previous subsidized year, urban infrastructure and tourist service products of Da Lat in this period were scarce, did not meet the needs of visitors. On the other hand, tourists were predominantly domestic people converging on Dalat in the holidays, or Tet holidays as well as summer vacations, this also made the accommodation needs not fully met. This existence lead to the fact that in Dat Lat, house to house – person to person all worked in tourism (including a number of agencies in the political system working in accommodation service), this has affected the quality of services and tourist environment of Da Lat. Consumption of tourists were often average, so the revenue from tourist activities was not high which influenced on the investment in restoration of landscape and environment or upgrading the facilities or innovation of local tourist product quality.
4.3 In the period from 1994 to present
In 1994, the Prime Minister approved the Overall Plan for construction of Dalat and determined that Dalat was the resort center of the whole country and the world. In 1995, Prime Minister issued Decision No. 307/TTg about the approval of the overall development of Vietnam tourism in the period 1995-2000 which divided the travel territory of the country into three regions and Lam Dong belong to South and South Central regions. In addition, the Project VIE/89/003 of the World Tourism Organization about "Direction for Vietnam tourism development 1991-2005 Plan" identified that Dalat was the nuclear among one of four tourism regions of the country.
In 1996, Lam Dong tourism planning program was built and approved, in which tourism developed not only in Da Lat, but also in the districts. It divised tourism territory of Lam Dong Province into three clusters: Dalat and its surrounding tourism cluster, Bao Loc tourism cluster and Cat Tien tourism cluster with many tourist types which were identified to include tourist resorts, ecology, sightseeing, sports, entertainment, conferences, seminars,
Resolution adopted by the Sixth Party Congress of Lam Dong Province (1996 - 2000) identified "Tourism is the important economic of the province, it is necessary to invest to develop quickly this sector into a motive economic sector". Since then, the technical infrastructure and tourism infrastructure were invested to upgrade, the construction was managed more tightly, these landscapes were embellished, the face of the city became more spacious, Da Lat - Lam Dong tourism had a comprehensive change. However, the development of Lam Dong tourism in general and Da Lat toursim in particular in this period still had many shortcomings. It was not commensurate with the potential inherent and position. Development investment and the effect of the operation on this field was still quite modest compared to the potential, it did not really become the motive economic sector of the province.
Also in 1996, People's Committee of Lam Dong Province approved the Overall plan for tourism development in Lam Dong Province till 2010. On this basis, all levels and departments coordinated in the direction, administration and implementation of many measures aimed at the protection, restoration and development of scenic, historical and cultural monuments; upgrading of urban infrastructure (roads, electricity, water, communications ...), the appropriate mechanism to call for investment in the development of resort services (motels, hotels, meals, other services).
As of December, 1996, in the whole area, there were 19,646 households working in food and drink service, hotels - motels, other services (motorbike repair, carpentry, builders, iron doors, decoration , ...) and vegetable production. Among them, in the field of service, there were 10,825 households, accounting for 55.1%.
In order to gradually adjust and constantly improve the quality of tourist services in the locality, People's Committee of Lam Dong Province issued many legal strategic documents. For example, in late 1998, they issued Decision No. 10/QD -UB about the classification of accommodation establishments or the Instruction No. 16/2000/CT-UB about tightening security, preserving order and environmental sanitation at tourist attractions. In general, services and tourist activities of Dalat this time had many positive changes. Many establishments tried to increase investment in facilities and equipment so the quality of service facilities was more enhanced evidently than it had been in the previous period.
In this stage, the branches coordinated to survey and draw maps to determine the boundaries of the scenic, cultural and historical monuments in the city. People's Committee of the province decided to set the border line and entrusted the investors or locality with direct management and commercial exploitation. By 2001, they completed the files of 28 scenics and determined the boundary markers, assigned to 21 investors in Dalat City; besides, they set up administrative formalities to submit for Ministry of Culture’ inspection to rank 9 national historical – cultural vestiges.
For a sustainable and effective development worth its potential, the competent authorities studied the detailed planning of tourist areas and developed pre-feasibility projects. By the end of 2000, the foreign investment projects approved in the province reached a total capital of 770 million USD and they have implemented $ 52 million among them (7% of the total capital approved). Regarding investment projects with domestic capital, by 2000, People's Committee of the province and the central ministries, branches have approved 10 projects with total investment capital of 128,288 million dong and by early 2001, they have implemented 22,678 million dong (reaching 17.6% of the total investment capital approved).
Currently, in the area of Da Lat City, there are many economic sectors participating in business and accommodation activities. As of early 2001, Dalat had 369 hotels (including 4,334 rooms with 8,259 beds and capacity of 15,821 guests day and night). Among them, there were 20 1-5 stars standardized hotels, 57 A categorised hotels, 68 B categorised hotels and 224 C categorised hotels.
Besides, there were also 1,057 accommodation facilities for students, accommodations for rent monthly consisted of 6,104 rooms with 7,119 beds and a capacity of 13,483 people.
In addition, in the area of Da Lat, there were also some accommodation facilities (the guesthouse of the agencies or branches) built by other localities or property branches: Oil Vietsovpetro Hotel (Hung Vuong Street), Saigon Port Guesthouse (Huynh Thuc Khang Street), 198 nursing of the army (Lu Gia Street), Trade Union Hotel (Yersin Str), Minh Tam Gueshouse of Police Ministry (Khe Sanh Str), ...