Ha Long Bay is a renowned tourism spot in Quang Ninh province. (Photo: VNA)
Quang Ninh – The northeastern province of Quang Ninh will
hold 64 cultural, sport, and tourism events towards the goal of attracting 3
million visitors in Quarter 4.
Director of the provincial Tourism Department Pham Ngoc Thuy said at a press
conference on October 20 that 30 events were scheduled for October, 20 for
November and 14 for December.
Notable programmes include Quang Ninh seafood week and One Commune, One Product
fair, Binh Lieu ripen rice season, Yen Tu – the Buddhist land in autumn, Quang
Ninh Ao dai festival, Ha Long national kite festival, among others.
Thuy stressed the province will sharpen focus on the domestic
market, with priority given to large tourist source markets like Ho Chi Minh
City, southern localities, central and central highlands provinces, and
northeastern provinces where industrial parks and big corporations are located.
The sector has paid heed to developing new tourism products as well as package
tours at competitive prices, while working to ensure good tourism service
quality.
According to the Tourism Department, the province welcomed 5.8 million visitors
during January-September, only half of the figure recorded in the same time
last year.
Earlier, the province launched a sight-seeing
fee discount programme for a range of local destinations between September 9
and December 31.
Accordingly, prices of entrance tickets for destinations
on Ha Long Bay, the Quang Ninh Museum and the Yen Tu relic and scenic complex
are reduced by 50 percent.
Notably, entry into destinations in the bay is free of
charge on Vietnamese Women’s Day (October 20), the mining sector’s traditional
day (November 12), Vietnamese Teachers’ Day (November 20), and the founding anniversary
of the People’s Army of Vietnam (December 22).
The programme
was part of the provincial People’s Council’s decision issued on September 8
for tourism promotion.
Earlier, the
council approved a tourism promotion incentive for 2020 worth about 200 billion
VND (nearly 8.6 million USD) during its meeting in May.
Under the
incentive, starting from May 15, all visitors, both Vietnamese and foreigners
were exempt from entrance fees to Ha Long Bay, Quang Ninh Museum and the
complex of Yen Tu monuments and landscapes until the end of the month and on
major holidays in 2020.
In addition,
passengers arriving at the Van Don International Airport receive free
round-trip bus rides to Ha Long and Uong Bi cities until the year’s end.
As a result,
tourist arrivals have been partly recovered, with the average number of
visitors to Ha Long Bay per day reached 7,000 in June. As of the end of August,
more than 868,000 people visited the bay in the daytime and over 4,000 stayed
here at night.
However, the
second wave of COVID-19 taking place at the end of July has led to a slowdown
in local tourism activites as the number of tourists fell significantly.
Hundreds of tourist ship owners registered for a temporary halt of their
operation until the end of September to avoid monthly business fees of between
7 and 10 million VND per ship.
Quang Ninh is
endowed with natural advantages for sea and island tourism. It has a coastline
of more than 250 kilometres and more than 2,000 islands and islets which
account for two-thirds of the total number in Vietnam.
It is home to
popular destinations such as Ha Long Bay, Bai Tu Long, Ha Long Bay National
Park and some islands.
In particular,
Ha Long Bay was twice recognised as a World Natural Heritage site by UNESCO in
1994 and 2000. The bay spans 1,553 square kilometres and includes 1,969 islands
of various sizes. It 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 site
welcomed 4.4 million holidaymakers throughout 2019, including 2.9 million
foreigners, and raked in 1.23 trillion VND from tourism./.
