Sustainable tourism, and the principles with which it is generally associated, has become a major concern not only at global and national but also at local levels as in the case of Nha Trang, an age-old sea-swimming destination in Vietnam. Regarded as one of the leading tourist centers of the country, Nha Trang is now facing with problems of tourism sustainability, particularly from a socio-cultural viewpoint: the exodus of islanders, the shortage of competent personnel in tourism, insufficient involvement of private sectors in the policies for tourism development in Nha Trang, overexploitation of Nha Trang Bay and the decrease in the amount of international tourists. With this awareness, the main question for us would be: Can we consider the actual tourism development in Nha Trang as sustainable from a viewpoint of socio-cultural indicators? In other words, is it possible to satisfy tourists, preserve local tourist resources, help the local community benefit from tourism and get all the factors to participate in the decision-making process? This research presents a double objective. First of all, it is important to analyze tourism in from a point of view based on socio-cultural indicators. At the conclusion of this research, proposals are forwarded so as to compromise two apparently contradictory dynamics: tourism development on the one hand and the preservation of local cultural heritage on the other. With an aim at performing this task well, 901 questionnaires have been handed out to the residents and tourists in Nha Trang, as well as 15 interviews that have been carried out with local authorities. The results of these surveys have been obtained through a research allowed to contact 137 tourist enterprises in Nha Trang. Thanks to this, the results obtained show in the first place that some principles associated to sustainable tourism from a socio-cultural viewpoint are not sufficiently observed in Nha Trang. Among these, the preservation of tourist and cultural resources particularly present lots of concern for the future. All the same, recruitment stability and equitable distribution of benefits arising from tourist operations constitute a basis for worries, similarly to the degree of participation of private sectors in tourism policies. In sum, despite tourists' relative satisfaction concerning the staff now working in tourism and the quality of services offered, the tourism sector demands further training. In order to make Nha Trang's tourism more sustainable from a socio-cultural viewpoint, our prerequisite proposal is to put into operation a plan of renovating Nha Trang’s tourism, by bringing about a well-balanced relationship between the land and the sea, which will hopefully pave the way for diversifying tourist practices, making advantage of inland tourist resources in tourism, assisting the residents to participate further in tourism projects. This performance is accompanied with an operational governance among residents, private factors and public figures involved in the tourism sphere. This solution would aim at increasing the participation of the private sector and promulgating tourism policies, virtually compromising tourism development and preservation of resources.