Improving the quality of tourist fleet in Ha Long Bay

Cruise ships are expanded in scale, room capacity, number of passengers, and need to meet standards, technical safety conditions and environmental protection as well as high service quality... This is the orientation that Quang Ninh has put forward in the draft Plan to develop and improve the quality of the cruise ship fleet operating in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay until 2030, which is currently being widely consulted.

"Death" of wooden hull ships

From the end of 2023 to the first half of this year, the two twin Grand Pioneers cruise ships of Viet Thuan Transport Company Limited with more than 100 luxury rooms, has come into commercial operation on Ha Long Bay. Mr. Luong The Tuyen, Deputy Director of the Company said, this pair of yachts The investment not only meets the criteria of class, modernity, environmental protection and the safest in the Bay, but is also the first overnight accommodation yacht fleet in Vietnam that meets the technical standards of VR-SB, operating in all coastal waters of Vietnam, with a running speed of up to 13 nautical miles/hour, and operating time of up to thousands of continuous hours...

Grand Pioneers yacht is invested to meet VR-SB technical standards.

With these standards applied to the draft Plan for development and improvement of the quality of the tourist fleet operating in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay by 2030, the Grand Pioneers ships all meet a high level of standards, technical safety and environmental protection conditions as well as service quality for accommodation ships. Accordingly, the standards for accommodation ships in terms of technical level must reach at least VR-SI level, ships with a capacity of 20 bedrooms or more are encouraged to reach VR-SB level. Steel hull material or equivalent material. Minimum design speed of 8 nautical miles/hour; continuous operating time of 72 hours; general arrangement on board to ensure sufficient areas for accommodation. Meet 3-star standards or higher according to TCVN 9372:2012 tourist accommodation ships...

The above draft plan aims 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. Encourage newly built tourist ships with a capacity of 200 passengers or more, double-bottomed accommodation ships, and improve standards, technical safety conditions and environmental protection, with high service quality. Through research, it can be seen that not only the high-end fleet of Viet Thuan, in recent years, ship owners when building new or replacing tourist ships have tended to switch to building ships with steel hulls and equivalent materials.

Many luxury yachts have been invested in by businesses to operate on Ha Long Bay in recent years.

Mr. Tran Van Hong, Chairman of the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association, said: The remaining wooden-hulled boats are all old boats, and in the past, the boat owners have not made any major repairs to these boats. In early September, during Typhoon Yagi, 26/28 of the sunken tourist boats were wooden-hulled sightseeing boats, of which about 50% are being repaired to operate temporarily, the rest are being rebuilt to replace them with steel-hulled boats. Some boat owners have also transferred their boat names to focus on building new boats to replace old ones, while the boat owners are focusing on replacing them with steel-hulled boats, boats with a capacity of 200 passengers or more according to the draft plan mentioned above.

Increase in size and capacity

According to the draft plan for building and replacing tourist ships, the scale and room capacity of the ships are encouraged to increase compared to the existing ships. Specifically, for sightseeing ships, it is encouraged to replace them to meet the standards of restaurant ships; replace an operating ship with a ship with a capacity of up to 100 passengers. Replace 2 or more operating ships with 1 ship with a maximum capacity equal to the total capacity of the number of operating ships plus a maximum of 100 passengers. For accommodation ships: Replace 1 operating ship with 1 ship; the number of rooms on the replacement ship is increased by a maximum of 10 rooms compared to the number of rooms on the operating ship. Replace multiple operating ships with 1 ship, the number of rooms on the replacement ship must not exceed the total number of rooms on the operating ships plus 10 rooms/replaced ship...

Sharing about the draft objectives of this Plan, Mr. Hong affirmed: Our Association fully supports the permission to build new ships, replacing them with ships with a capacity of 200 passengers or more. However, the Association also suggests that it is necessary to clarify the number of ships operating in Ha Long Bay in accordance with UNESCO's recommendation to reduce the number of ships. When converting materials, it is recommended that the Department of Transport provide clear guidance to business owners on investment and development, to avoid investing but not being able to operate. Of course, ship owners must meet and fully comply with the standards on white paint color and technical specifications. However, when converting, it is necessary to clarify how many sightseeing ships must be converted to get a 200-seat ship. For accommodation ships when carrying tourists, how is the number of passengers allowed to be carried regulated? It is necessary to clarify the business areas of each type, to avoid creating conflicts in customer sources between types of tourist ships...

Thus, with the province's orientation in developing increasingly modern tourist fleets on Ha Long Bay, with higher quality services, it will create no small competition between businesses and ship owners in terms of economic potential in ship investment. Commenting on this trend, Mr. Hong said that this is an inevitable rule, and also a driving force to encourage ship owners to join together to build high-class, modern ships, meeting the requirements of safety as well as the needs of tourists when visiting Ha Long Bay.

Ha Long Bay maintains 520 ships during the time when tourism capacity has not been announced.

He said that recently, cruise ship owners on Ha Long Bay have gradually built new and replaced cruise ships that meet technical standards according to current regulations of the Ministry of Transport. These ships have all been approved by the Vietnam Register for design and regulations on safety and environmental protection. This is completely in line with the current development trend of tourism. Sightseeing ships, restaurant ships, and accommodation ships according to the draft plan will be equipped with brown sails. Brown sails are a characteristic of boats on Ha Long Bay, equipping sails is to beautify the vehicle and the heritage, this is also within the reach of businesses, he said that it should be encouraged...

Requires synchronized infrastructure

The increasingly larger and heavier cruise ships also pose the problem of developing and expanding suitable ports and wharves when currently during peak hours and peak days, many ports and wharves at many tourist attractions have fallen into a state of local congestion, such as at Sung Sot Cave, Ti Top Cave, Luon Cave, etc., causing difficulties for ships to enter and exit to pick up and drop off passengers. Therefore, the above draft plan also sets out the requirement to develop the number of cruise ships operating in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay in sync with the investment and development of inland waterway transport infrastructure and tourism capacity in the bay, etc.

Tourist boats dock close together in the Thien Cung - Dau Go cave area on Ha Long Bay during peak days.

Regarding the scale and number of tourist ships, there are also specific norms to ensure the tourism capacity in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay for each period. Accordingly, during the period when the tourism capacity has not been announced, the annual addition of tourist ships to Ha Long Bay will not exceed 520 ships (excluding discovery cruise ships); the number of tourist ships will be adjusted in accordance with the tourism capacity when announced. In the period up to 2025, a total of 10 restaurant ships will be maintained, 20 discovery cruise ships will be added on a pilot basis, and a maximum of 178 accommodation ships will be maintained according to the current reception capacity of the announced accommodation locations...

For Bai Tu Long Bay area (Cam Pha city, Van Don district): Encourage steel-hulled tourist boats operating in Ha Long Bay to register and transfer their operations to Bai Tu Long Bay. By 2025, based on the existing inland waterway infrastructure, add 100 tourist boats; develop the number of accommodation boats suitable to the capacity of the invested overnight anchorage area (Ban Sen - Nha Tro cave, Phat Co cave, Mang Ha).

In the period of 2026-2030, the number of tourist ships in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay will be annually reviewed and announced to ensure that the total number of ships does not exceed the tourist capacity announced by competent authorities or the ability to receive the number of vehicles at ports, passenger wharves, anchorage areas and is suitable for the waterway traffic infrastructure (ports, wharves, anchorage areas, inland waterways, tourist itineraries)...

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