As a big tourism center of the northern province of Quang Ninh, Ha Long city is aiming to make breakthroughs in services development, especially tourism.
Ha Long now has 595 tourist accommodations, including 100 one to five star hotels; 30 shopping centers and restaurants; 500 cruise ships, including 169 standardized overnight tour boats. Tourism services in the city have increased in both quantity and quality.
Thanks to its favorable location, Ha Long has attracted big groups and businesses in tourism with the most noteworthy projects being the Ha Long Ocean Park of Sun Group, the Vincom commercial center and the five-star resort in Reu islands, both of Vingroup, and the Times Garden complex of My Way Group, among others.
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Ha Long Bay |
These projects have created momentum for development, particularly tourism, in the city.
Multiple large cultural, sport and tourism events have been held in Ha Long such as the Cherry Blossom Festival and the Carnaval Ha Long.
However, Ha Long has failed to fully tap its potential to make tourism an economic spearhead.
Most tourists to the city vacation in Ha Long Bay, with very few visiting other local tourist destinations like museums, libraries and historical relic sites.
Ha Long has a long road ahead to build a strong tourism brand due to poor tourism products and lacking infrastructure.
Against this backdrop, Ha Long has issued a resolution on turning itself into a high-quality tourism center for 2016-2020.
At the same time, to improve tourism on Ha Long Bay, the city has focused on building regulations for 2016-2020.
The city has sent inspection teams to ensure security, order and safety, while moving illegal seafood business houseboats to the designated area at Cua Van.
It also directed the Ha Long Bay management board and the municipal center of communication and culture to popularize information on tourist attractions and ticket prices while monitoring cruise ships.
Recently, the municipal People’s Committee announced a 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 locals.
The city is expected to welcome 6 million holiday-makers in 2016, including 2.7 million foreign arrivals, earning VND 6 trillion (USD 264 million) from the sector and generating jobs for 27,000 laborers.
The locality is set to pocket VND 20 trillion (USD 880 million) from serving 8 million vacationers, including 3.5 foreigners, by 2020.
Source: VNA