Entry to Ha Long Bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh will be free to all visitors from Apr. 28 to May 1, as a way of saying thank you to visitors for voting the Bay as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World.

The free visits to the UNESCO-organised World Heritage site are being offered during Ha Long Tourism Week and the national holiday on the anniversary of the liberation of the south (April 30) and May Day, which always see a huge number of tourists.

Visitors to Ha Long Bay this year will also have the chance to enjoy a number of new changes at the site and improved services.

In the first three months of 2012, the newly-recognised Seven Wonders of the World site attracted almost 420,000 visitors, of which 70 percent were overseas tourists, up by 19 percent over the same period last year.

During the peak of the 2011 Ha Long Tourism Week, Bai Chay Port handled 16,000 visitors to the Bay on May 1 alone.

Source: VNA