Ha Long Bay is a world natural heritage site that attracts the most tourists in the world. After Typhoon Yagi, this destination quickly recovered from the damage and soon brought basic tourist reception activities back to normal. To attract tourists this fall and winter, many new products are expected to be put into operation to diversify the experiences as well as the choices of tourists from all over the world, especially for international visitors.
Exploiting new sandbanks and caves
Since August, the Ha Long Bay Management Board has conducted surveys in caves and small sandbanks along the foothills of offshore mountains, which have not been exploited for a long time in Ha Long Bay, in order to develop more tourism products here.
Mr. Vu Kien Cuong, Head of Ha Long Bay Management Board, said: Ha Long Bay has about 70 caves and 170 sandbanks, of which about 20 sandbanks and 20 caves can be developed into tourism products. However, the unit will have to focus on carefully assessing all possible impacts on the exploitation of these destinations to ensure the preservation of the wild beauty and minimize human impacts on the natural landscape of the world heritage Ha Long Bay. The exploitation of the beach system is prioritized first, followed by caves, and also consider areas with the best conditions to exploit experience services for visitors, such as organizing music, dance, entertainment activities, etc.
Through our experience, these sandbanks are often located in offshore areas. Although small, the sandbanks are smooth, clean, and beautiful, with clear water and relatively quiet surrounding landscapes, and many unique features. Therefore, the exploitation of these island areas and sandbanks is considered by many to be more suitable for high-end customers who like to experience and explore in private areas instead of serving the needs of the majority. Bringing guests to experience here with tourism businesses is not necessarily about swimming, but can exploit other special services such as light parties, fashion, music, etc.
Convergence of necessary and sufficient conditions
In fact, these are also the types of services that some pioneering enterprises have put into experimental exploitation many years ago in Ha Long Bay. Now, the re-exploitation promises to open up new potentials in attracting high-end visitors, especially foreign visitors in the last months of the year. Recently, the province has announced the opening of new sightseeing routes in Ha Long Bay, including a route for discovery cruises, which can take visitors to all the attractions in the bay. In recent years, tourist ships and discovery cruises in the bay have also been invested in by enterprises to improve the quality, so bringing visitors to offshore areas is relatively suitable, less affected by wind and waves, convenient for exploiting these destinations.
Continuing to promote this content, at the meeting of the Provincial People's Committee on October 10 to discuss solutions to promote, advertise and boost tourism in the last months of 2024, the provincial leaders requested to urgently put into operation three beaches Soi Sim, Hang Co, Trinh Nu on Ha Long Bay and develop a plan to organize art performances combined with light parties in some qualified caves on the bay.
The last months of the year are the season for cruise ships, attracting more high-end international visitors to Ha Long than ever before. Another development is that early next year, Ha Long Bay has been chosen to host the Arts for Climate Festival thanks to its special, highly symbolic location. This place not only has spectacular scenery but also an ecosystem that is threatened by climate change and human pressure.
The event, which takes place from January 13-19, 2025, is expected to attract more than 80,000 people, including 200 European billionaires who are expected to cruise to Ha Long Bay. Thus, the successful exploitation of new destinations on the pristine sandbanks and caves in the bay will create more options for this type of tourist, not only contributing to the target of international visitors but also promising to increase revenue for Quang Ninh tourism in general.
Improve the quality of tourist fleet
Along with expanding the exploitation of new tourism products in Ha Long Bay, Quang Ninh also introduced a new direction to continue improving the quality of the tourist fleet here and reducing procedures, creating conditions for the fleets to operate more smoothly.
Specifically, according to the draft Plan "Developing and improving the quality of the tourist fleet operating in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay by 2030", Quang Ninh sets a goal of striving to achieve 100% of the number of tourist ships operating in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay to be newly built/replaced with steel hulls or equivalent materials by 2030. This is a step demonstrating the effort and determination in "killing" wooden-hulled ships which are less durable, safe and have lower wind and wave resistance than steel-hulled ships. At the same time, for the construction of new tourist ships, the province also encourages the construction of ships with a capacity of 200 passengers or more and double-bottomed accommodation ships and improves standards, technical safety conditions, environmental protection, and high service quality.
On October 8, with Decision 43/2024/QD-UBND, the Provincial People's Committee issued Regulations on measures to manage the operation of inland waterway vehicles serving tourists in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay. Accordingly, the activities of the Tourist Boat Classification Council, which was established at the end of 2015, were no longer mentioned, but their activities overlapped with the inspection of tourist boats in Ha Long Bay with other specialized units. Therefore, in recent years, the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association, boat owners, and the Provincial Tourism Association have regularly recommended that the province consider eliminating this Council. The above decision has contributed to removing procedural inadequacies and creating favorable conditions for tourist boat fleets in Ha Long Bay.
Extended tour time frame
In addition, this Regulation also has a new point, which is that tourists have more options for visiting Ha Long Bay, because the ships can depart earlier and return to port later than before. Specifically, from October 20, for daytime sightseeing ships, in the summer (from April 1 to October 31), they can depart from 5:00 a.m. and return to port no later than 8:00 p.m. (previously, they can depart at 6:00 a.m. and must return to port before 7:00 p.m.). Similarly, in the winter (from November 1 to March 31 of the following year), daytime sightseeing ships can depart from 5:30 a.m. and must return to port no later than 7:00 p.m. (previously, they can depart at 6:30 a.m. and return to port before 6:30 p.m.).
For restaurant boats operating along the shore of Ha Long Bay, they must return to port by 11pm at the latest, 1 hour later than before. For overnight boats, they must enter the overnight accommodation area on the bay by 6:30pm in winter and 7pm in summer. The operating hours of water-based entertainment facilities on the bay are from 5:30am to 6:30pm…
In fact, in recent years, tourists visiting Ha Long Bay rarely register for sightseeing time slots too early, but often concentrate on a certain time. This also creates congested time slots at tourist ports, causing frustration for many tourists and boat owners in waiting to register for sightseeing tickets and accompanying procedures. Extending the sightseeing time slots longer will create conditions for tourists to have more choices, and at the same time, it is also the basis for travel companies to research and open new tourism products for tourists, such as watching the sunrise or sunset on the bay, which previously if tourists only took sightseeing boats, they would hardly have the opportunity to experience...
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