The northern province of Quang Ninh is moving to develop the quality of tourism services on Ha Long Bay – a natural world heritage site.
Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
The Ha Long Bay management board has launched several routes to explore 28 locations on the bay.
Visitors can experience various kinds of entertainment such as kayaking and taking a basket boat to popular destinations as well as admire the beauty of the bay.
Statistics showed that Ha Long Bay has 533 cruise ships.
To meet increasing demand of visitors, transport companies have invested in heavy-load, luxurious and safe cruise liners.
Foreign tourists are particularly interested in seeing how local farmers raise oysters for pearls to create pearl jewelry.
To improve tourism on the bay, Ha Long city has focused on building regulations and management plans for 2016-2020.
The city sent inspection teams to ensure security, order and safety, while removing illegal seafood business houseboats to the designated area at Cua Van.
It also directed the Ha Long Bay management board and the municipal centre of communication and culture to popularise information on tourist attractions and ticket prices while monitoring cruise ships.
As a result, the tourism environment on Ha Long Bay has improved. Violations in the first ten months of this year reduced by 25 percent compared to the same period of 2015.
Furthermore, local authorities called on businesses to invest in developing services.
A number of enterprises are asking for permission to invest in the field based on the principle of cultural heritage value preservation as stipulated under the Law on Cultural Heritage.
Recently, the municipal People’s Committee announced a detailed plan on sight-seeing sites, service facilities, rest areas and shops for visitors at Cap Tao bay in Ha Long, which will create more tourism products and services and generate jobs for local residents.
The city also issued a temporary regulation on the management of tickets to the bay, which allows visitors to buy tickets only one time to see all destinations.
Tickets are now only available at Tuan Chau International Port and Hon Gai Vinashin Port.
Deputy head of the board Pham Dinh Huynh said the city will move to use e-tickets in the future.
Ha Long Bay, literally “descending dragon bay”, spans 1,553 square kilometres and includes 1,969 islands of various sizes. It was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 and 2000.
The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and islets in various shapes and sizes.
The limestone in the bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The geo-diversity of the environment has created biodiversity, including a tropical evergreen biosystem, oceanic and sea biosystem. Ha Long Bay is home to 14 endemic floral species and 60 endemic faunal species.
More than 2.58 million tourists visited Ha Long Bay in the first 10 months of 2016, a year-on-year increase of 21 percent, including 930,000 domestic travelers (up 17 percent) and over 1.65 million foreign ones (up 24 percent), according to statistics of the bay management board.
The bay is expected to greet nearly 2.9 million holidaymakers for the whole year./.