A LAND OF HERITAGE AND NATURAL WONDERS
Quang Ninh
CONTINUOSLY HONORED ON MANY TOP LISTS OF FAMOUS DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL TOURIST DESTINATIONS, QUANG NINH PROVES ITS STRONG ATTRACTION AS A PRIME DESTINATION IN INTERNATIONAL TOURISM, ESPECIALLY IN THE HI-END MARKET.
“HOT SPOT” ON THE TOURIST MAP
Recently, Rough Guides (UK), a world-renowned travel guide publisher, launched a new book entitled “The Rough Guide to the 100 Best Places on Earth”. Ha Long Bay is one of the 100 destinations mentioned by the book. But this is only the latest in a series of “laurels” that Ha Long Bay has received in recent years such as: twice recognized as a World Natural Heritage by UNESCO, awarded the New World Natural Wonder title by New Open World, listed among the “20 most beautiful UNESCO world heritage sites” by famous travel website Cntraveler and the “25 most beautiful places around the world” according to CNN Travel.
It isn’t only Ha Long Bay that deserves recognition. Quang Ninh itself offers wonderful things for every travel enthusiast from majestic mountains and tropical islands to the the bustling city and long-standing cultural heritage.
Quang Ninh can be divided into three distanct topographical areas: the mountains and hills, the midland and coastal plains, and the seas and islands.all thre form a beautiful whole. The mountainous areas have destinations such as Binh Lieu, Yen Tu, Sa Vi cape, Yen Trung lake, Khe Van waterfall, Song Mooc waterfall,
Son cave and 1305 milestone. The midland and coastal plains are famous for Long Vang cape, and Pac Sui waterfall. The seas and islands are particularly unique with more than 2,000 islands (accounting for more than two-thirds of Vietnam’s islands) stretching along a coastline of more than 250 km. There are very large islands such as Van Don, Co To, Cai Bau and Ban Sen islands, and there are islands as small as a protruding boulder. On Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay, there are thousands of limestone islands that are eroded by water, creating thousands shapes of the wonderful caves. Besides alluvial beaches, the coastal areas and islands of Quang Ninh also have white sandy beaches such as Tra Co, Quan Lan, Minh Chau, and Ngoc Vung.
In addition to natural landscapes, Quang Ninh is also a land of more than 600 fascinating historical, cultural and spiritual relics such as Truc Lam - Yen Tu, Tran relics in Dong Trieu, Bach Dang stake in Quang Yen, and Cua Ong temple in Cam Pha.
Thanks to the riches of the area, in recent years, the number of tourists coming to Quang Ninh has grown steadily, reaching 10 times the population of the province.
FOCUS ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ECOTOURISM
Turning tourism into a key economic sector is not the only goal in Quang Ninh. In addition to the focus on the cultural and natural heritage, Quang Ninh is working on a broad system of sustainable ecotourism. The planning includes the development of four key tourist centers including: Uong Bi, Dong Trieu and Quang Yen area whose main focus is on spiritual and cultural tourism; Ha Long city area and its vicinity with a focus on natural beauty, cultural tourism, shopping and entertainment; Van Don and Co To areas for spiritual and island tourism and entertainment; and Mong Cai area for coastal and marine tourism and border trade. Quang Ninh is also developing new tourist destinations in Hai Ha, Co To, Cam Pha, Hoanh Bo, Tien Yen and Binh Lieu in order to create a diverse tourism system to serve target markets around the globe.
Throughough this development, Quang Ninh is determined to create sustainable tourism as well as conservation, implementing flexible measures to enhance management, restoration and preservation. The province prioritizes raising the value of nature reserves by participating in the ASEAN Heritage Park for Bai Tu Long National Park. The region has also submitted Yen Tu relics and landscapes to be considered by UNESCO as a world heritage. Co To and Tran islands will be part of a special conservation zone and new nature reserves will be recognized as protected wetlands including Quang Yen, Tien Yen, and Mong Cai.
At the same time, to avoid the consequences of developing tourism on the environment, Quang Ninh will focus on investing in ecotourism development, implementing eco-friendly solutions, and making environmental protection planning by 2020, all with a vision to create sustainable tourism by 2030. The
region requires reports on environmental impact from all new projects. All industries with large emissions must implement advanced technology in waste treatment, collection and transfer.
In addition, the province also attracts foreign businesses and capital support from international organizations to implement a series of environmental protection projects in Ha Long Bay such as the Green Bay project in cooperation with Greenhub to reduce plastic pollution at sea, waste management in Cat Ba archipelago and Ha Long city and general tourism support project from JICA organization.
PROMOTING THE POTENTIAL OF SEA AND BORDER TOURISM
With Ha Long International Passenger Port, which can accommodate passenger ships with a tonnage of thousands of people, as well as land and sea borders with China, Quang Ninh has a great advantage in attracting international visitors with a focus on Northeast Asian markets such as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong (China), South Korea, Japan as well as Europe and Australia.
In recent years, Quang Ninh and Guangxi province (China) have started cooperation in many aspects, including tourism. According to the assessment of the Department of Tourism of Quang Ninh, Chinese tourists occupy an important market share (about 40%) of the total international tourists of Quang Ninh. Tourism cooperation is still actively promoted on both sea and land.
Quang Ninh also actively joins in international tourism fairs and events, such as KOFA Fair (Korea), ITF (Taiwan), JATA (Japan), MITT (Russia) and WTM (UK) to promote its tourism, and help tourism businesses in the province to update information on products and services while finding new partners and beginning exciting projects. Ha Long International Passenger Port coming into operation has opened up great opportunities to attract sea-borne international visitors.