Khanh Hoa protests National Geographic magazine’s list

The authorities of Khanh Hoa province has protested the National Geographic magazine’s listing of the Nha Trang beach as the beach of unsustainable development.
At a press conference on November 23, Nguyen Anh Tuan, the representative of the Nha Trang city People’s Committee said that the city respected National Geographic magazine’s consideration of Nha Trang as one of 99 beautiful beaches in the world.
However, Tuan said, it is inappropriate to combine Khanh Hoa province’s Nha Trang with Binh Thuan province’s Mui Ne into one destination because the two beaches are more than 200km far from each others.
Tuan also said that the two provinces have different ways of managing their beaches, different economic, cultural, social and geographic conditions. The magazine used expert opinions which were not verified. Moreover, of the four opinions three were about Mui Ne and only one was about Nha Trang, but all were used as comments about Nha Trang.
Le Xuan Than, Khanh Hoa province vice chair questioned the picture used by the magazine. “What time was that picture taken and what proves that it is Nha Trang beach?”
Than said Khanh Hoa will send further information about Khanh Hoa to the National Geographic magazine to help it have a broader view about Nha Trang and the difference between Nha Trang and Mui Ne.
“However, from this case Khanh Hoa and relevant bodies have learned a lesson in managing and developing sustainable tourism,” Than said.
According to a recent ranking of world-wide beaches by National Geographic magazine, Nha Trang and Mui Ne reached 43 points, and according to the ranking system is a problematic level five. At the level 6 are the beaches of Mississippi and Lousiana that suffered from oil spill catastrophe.
Commenting about National Geographic’s rating, Khanh Hoa Department of Construction director said the beach is located inside Nha Trang city so urbanization will certainly “touch” nature.
The Khanh Hoa Department of Foreign Affairs said that National Geographic magazine published an article entitled “99 Coastal Destinations Rated”, which selected 99 beautiful beaches in the world by 340 independent experts, based on six standards.
The department said that it is inaccurate that Nha Trang was rated as the “worst beach destination”. The National Geographic didn’t choose the ten “worst” cities in 2010 but only “problematic” beaches.