Free diving tourism attracts tourists this summer

Female tourists prioritize choosing tourist destinations that can be combined with scuba diving. Photo: Le Minh Huyen

“The freediving experience fascinated me and made me want to stay underwater forever. I will prioritize traveling to places where I can combine scuba diving,” Le Minh Huyen (living in Hanoi) shared.

A challenging journey

To fully explore the beauty of both land and water of tourist destinations, many tourists choose to join tours that combine free diving and underwater photography at famous tourist destinations such as Phu Quy, Quy Nhon, Binh Hung, Hon Yen (Phu Yen)...

Freediving is an ancient adventure sport. To explore the ocean, divers do not use oxygen tanks but control the air in their lungs and use mental strength to overcome the burning sensation in their lungs, urging them to breathe.

For freediving, if not careful, players can suffer injuries to the ears, lungs, eyes or faint due to lack of oxygen. Therefore, this is not a suitable sport for everyone. Nam Anh, representative of Phu Quy Four Seasons, said that to ensure safety, 100% of participants must know how to swim, be 16 years of age or older, and not have underlying medical conditions.

“The biggest difficulty in the early stages and first levels of freediving is balancing the pressure difference in the ear when changing the depth underwater,” Nam Anh shared. Just diving one meter deep, people can feel the pressure in the ear. Therefore, tourists absolutely must learn how to balance the pressure in the ear well, do not practice at home if you do not have a firm grasp of the knowledge.

Freediving opens up a new perspective for tourists when visiting and traveling to sea and island areas. Photo: Ta Qui Xuan, Le Minh Huyen, Hon Kho Trip

Knowing about the freediving tour in Phu Quy through viral clips on social networks, Minh Huyen decided to take a summer trip to combine studying and freediving on this island. Already knowing how to swim the breaststroke, the female tourist took about 2 sessions to master the diving equipment and basic skills.

At first, Minh Huyen also encountered some difficulties such as balancing her ears, controlling her breathing underwater and fearing the deep ocean. “In an area where the water was not clear enough, I could not see the bottom clearly, which made me very scared, feeling like something under the sea would suddenly attack me,” she confided.

As someone who loves water, after two sessions of persistent training, the female tourist from Hanoi was able to overcome her fear and freely explore the beautiful underwater world. “During diving, for me, the most important thing is to have endurance and the ability to hold my breath underwater for a long time,” she said.

Like Minh Huyen, Ngoc Anh (a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City) also chose a tour that combined snorkeling. After hearing her friend’s review about the difficulty, the female tourist had to practice swimming and jogging to increase her physical strength and endurance before starting to learn to dive on the island. “I was mentally prepared and practiced in advance, but it still didn’t help me get rid of the pain after the underwater training session,” she said.

As a sport, freediving brings health benefits and increases lung capacity for players. “Not only that, freediving brings a completely different perspective of the ocean that almost everyone has never felt until participating. However, besides the different experience, visitors also receive dark skin, seasickness, colds, fatigue…”, Nam Anh said.

Explore the new world

Vietnam is blessed with thousands of kilometers of coastline, beautiful bays and islands, suitable for tourism combined with scuba diving.

As a diving enthusiast, Ta Qui Xuan started organizing freediving tours in Binh Hung in 2019. “Freediving helps people explore more of the underwater world. Coral reefs and diverse ecosystems with many types of fish and marine life bring a sense of excitement and freedom to visitors,” he said.

Not only limited to natural beauty, architectural works, and tourist attractions on land, freediving brings visitors different impressions and experiences. Hidden deep under the clear blue water is a rich marine ecosystem with colorful coral reefs, golden seaweed fields, diverse species of sea anemones, shrimp and fish that captivate visitors.

Swimming with marine life leaves visitors with unforgettable memories. Photo: Phu Quy Four Seasons.

“I was very moved when I was immersed in the cool water, watching the colorful coral reefs, swimming with schools of fish. The scene seemed like a dream, making all the fatigue from training suddenly disappear,” Ngoc Anh shared.

In addition, diving tours also attract customers with check-in photo and video recording services. After completing the diving lesson, visitors will be guided to freely experience and explore the ocean while the tour organizer's team will follow to record. "Beautiful photos and videos of swimming with colorful fish help me preserve a part of my youth and this unforgettable experience," Ngoc Anh said.

Each sea area has its own ecological and geological characteristics that many tourists enjoy exploring. Visitors can scuba dive, combine with fun activities such as squid fishing, SUP rowing, and enjoy local cuisine.

“The ocean is vast and I have only explored a small part of it, so I will continue to return to the places I have dived,” said Minh Huyen. The female tourist had planned to go diving in Ly Son at the end of July, before the storm season arrived.

Fun activities and photography included with the free diving tour help attract tourists. Photo: Ngo Tran Thu Ngan.

To ensure safety, visitors should always check weather conditions, understand the location where they will dive, the ocean currents and creatures there, and report their health status to the instructor to avoid unfortunate accidents that may occur.

“This is a real experience, not just acting to get a nice photo. Visitors should prepare themselves mentally and physically with sports such as swimming, cycling, yoga to have a good mental and physical state before trying freediving,” said a representative of Phu Quy Four Seasons.

During diving, visitors should avoid using sunscreens containing oxybenzone, octinoxate, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor or butylparaben, soaps, harmful chemicals when going to diving sites, avoid direct contact, breaking corals, and littering the sea.

Source: https://baonghean.vn/du-lich-ket-hop-lan-tu-do-hut-khach-mua-he-post272801.html