Tourism industry doing Ha Long Bay no good

Last Updated: Thursday, July 26, 2012 02:10:00

Vendors on boats wait for a chance to introduce their goods to visitors on tourism boats at Ha Long Bay. Conflicts between service providers in the bay are spoiling the charm of the World Heritage site.

Since Ha Long Bay was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, tourism services have failed to improve and have actually worsened, officials said at a conference Tuesday.

The conference, held at Ha Long Town in Quang Ninh Province, gathered local and foreign participants to discuss new ways to preserve and develop the site, a Tuoi Tre said.

Many officials said hospitality practices on the bay needd to change.
Nguyen Van Tuan, head of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said tourism activities in Ha Long are nothing better than what was offered 15 years ago, and there were no new products.
“There’s still just the boring journey: welcome aboard, visit the bay, visit the caves, aboard again, and done.”
It takes ten four-star hotels in the town to earn what one hotel in Hanoi, the Metropole, takes in, which is around VND680 billion (US$32.6 million) a year, Tuan said in news website Dan Tri report.
“Tourism units have been ineffective,” Tuan said.
Moon Koyoo Kim, a tourism expert from South Korea, said Ha Long tourism products have not managed to promote any of the local cultural traits. He said there are many spots around the town that can be connected to the bay and keep tourists in the area for several days, instead the usual day and a half.
Katherine Muller Marin, chief representative of UNESCO in Vietnam, said her biggest concern was water pollution.
She said visitors at present can only enjoy waters of the bay after sailing several kilometers offshore.
Many tourists during their visit want to plunge into the water, but are discouraged by garbage and the dirty color, Marin said in the Dan Tri report.

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Trang An grotto system nominated as world natural heritage

August 23, 2011 about Uncategorized

LookAtVietnam - The system of grottos named Trang An in Ninh Binh province was introduced to a delegation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on August 21, as a nominee for the world natural heritage recognition.
The UNESCO’s 300-member delegation spent a whole day to discover the grotto system. This is a chance for the UNESCO Vietnam Union to advertise the site to UNESCO’s experts.
The Trang An grotto system is evaluated to meet two criteria on global outstanding values of world heritage in terms of aesthetics and geology-geomorphology.
Called the on-land Ha Long Bay, Trang An covers 2,168 hectares. It is surrounded by limestone mountains and lagoons, which are connected by 48 caves. Besides grottos, this site covers the ancient Hoa Lu Capital and Bai Dinh pagoda, the largest pagoda in Southeast Asia.
Trang An is the home to many pre-historic relics and the relics of old dynasties. Kasrt caves there were formed 4,000 years ago.
Trang An – Bai Dinh was selected as the destination for 300 delegates from over 100 countries of the 8th UNESCO World Congress, which took place in Hanoi from August 18 to 22.
Trang An’s landscapes: