Dubbed the "pearl of the Gulf of Tonkin", the expansion of the World Natural Heritage Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago not only increases the outstanding global value of Vietnam's heritage, but also brings prospects for tourism development in the direction of "green investment" as the theme of World Tourism Day (September 27) this year.
At the 45th Session of the World Heritage Committee, UNESCO officially recognized Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago (in Quang Ninh province and Hai Phong city) as a World Natural Heritage.
In particular, this is the first world heritage site in Vietnam spread across two localities.
Challenges of inter-provincial management model
It can be seen that the world heritages listed by UNESCO in Vietnam have been making important contributions to the local economic and social development, contributing to environmental protection, green and sustainable growth, and thereby promoting Vietnamese culture, country and people to the world and enriching the world's cultural treasure.
According to Associate Professor Dr. Le Thi Thu Hien, Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the most important thing is to develop a common management regulation for the two localities, to jointly manage, protect and promote the value of heritage and address major threats such as environmental pollution, poaching, exploitation of marine resources and forest products, overfishing, etc.
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| The beauty of Lan Ha Bay, part of Cat Ba Archipelago, Cat Hai District, Hai Phong. (Photo: Phuong Linh) |
It is known that Hai Phong city has signed a specific policy with Quang Ninh province on planning, protecting heritage, promoting and promoting the value of heritage to domestic and international friends.
However, Vice President of Hai Phong City Tourism Association Hoang Tuan Anh still believes that there is a difference between Cat Ba and Ha Long in both management and investment development.
Ha Long Bay has been twice listed as a World Natural Heritage and in fact, in recent times, Quang Ninh province has done quite well in promoting the image of the Bay as well as investing in building infrastructure to serve tourists.
Therefore, Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Archipelago need a suitable and synchronous management and exploitation mechanism, especially with more investment from Hai Phong.
According to statistics from the People's Committee of Cat Hai district (Cat Ba archipelago is located in Cat Hai district), from the beginning of the year until now, the number of tourists to Cat Ba is estimated at nearly 2.5 million; of which, international visitors are estimated at over 400,000.
Currently, the district is promoting tourism management and infrastructure investment, turning Cat Ba into an attractive “Four-Season Destination” for tourists. Many tourism businesses in Cat Ba are also taking advantage of the opportunity to promote, design and perfect tourism products to welcome tourists, especially international visitors in the near future.
Mr. Pham Tri Tuyen, Head of the Department of Culture, Information, Sports and Tourism of Cat Hai district, said that the locality has coordinated with units of the two provinces to advise relevant departments and branches to draft a Regulation on coordination in managing tourist attractions in Lan Ha Bay (Cat Ba archipelago) and Ha Long Bay.
Sustainable development
The good news is that Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago has been recognized as a World Natural Heritage, along with many tourism awards recently given to destinations by international tourism organizations. Vietnam's tourism industry hopes to create more attraction, helping the number of international visitors to grow strongly this year.
However, the new World Natural Heritage is also facing many challenges, typically environmental issues and waste from aquaculture households.
Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh said that the natural value of the World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago is enormous, but the environmental issue at sea is quite painful and needs protection measures from local authorities.
According to Mr. Vu The Binh, to make heritage attractive to the public, in addition to natural beauty, localities need to join hands to protect it, strictly prohibit destructive impacts and illegal exploitation, and at the same time pay attention to protecting the marine environment.
From the perspective of businesses exploiting cruise products on Ha Long and Lan Ha Bays, Chairman of Lux Group Pham Ha also proposed that, in addition to the urgent need to protect the environment on the bay, the localities of Quang Ninh and Hai Phong should have a coordination mechanism to exploit the heritage values between the two sides.
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| Foreign tourists explore Ha Long Bay. (Source: Vntrip) |
Mr. Pham Ha expressed: "I hope the two localities will have a joint policy on management mechanisms, regulations on ticket prices, exploitation methods... so that businesses can build attractive joint products, extending the length of stay of visitors."
Sharing about this issue, Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage Le Thi Thu Hien also affirmed that in the coming time, after being honored, the heritage will create great opportunities in implementing large projects for socio-economic development related to the heritage inside and outside the buffer zone of the two localities, especially for Hai Phong city.
Therefore, taking advantage of these opportunities must also pay attention to ensuring harmony between socio-economic development and heritage conservation according to UNESCO's sustainable development goals and the perspective of cultural heritage conservation.
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