The hundreds of meters long street stretched to the Lotus Hotel. True to its promise, to please the audience, the street carnival continued until the crowd was gone...
Ha Long Carnival has a different theme each year, conveying its own messages, applying many changes in content in a unified form of expression - a street festival. With the participation of local people and tourists, indigenous cultural elements are increasingly displayed more clearly in the festival. Along with the magnificent treasure of thousand-year-old stone islands floating on the sea, Ha Long has been praised by the world in all the most famous travel newspapers. In addition, Ha Long Carnival has become a "party", a meeting place for tourists who love the coastal city of Quang Ninh.
Some typical tours:
• Tour schedule : Hanoi-Yen Tu-Ha Long-Sung Sot Cave-Titop-Bai Dinh-Trang An.
-Time: 4 days
- Means of transport: Car
• Tour schedule: Hanoi-Lao Cai-Sapa-Yen Tu-Ha Long-Bai Dinh-Trang An
-Time: 6 days
- Means of transport: Experience the iGO highway
• Tour Schedule: North-Central Route: Nha Trang-Da Nang-Hue-Paradise Cave-Ba Na-Hoi An-Hanoi-Ha Long-Sapa-Bai Dinh-Trang An
-Time: 14 days
- Means of transport: Car
• Tour Schedule: North-Central Route: Nha Trang-Da Nang-Hue-Thien Duong Cave-Ba Na-Hoi An-Hanoi-Ha Long
-Time: 10 days
- Means of transport: Car
• Tour Schedule: North-Central Lien Route: Hanoi-Ha Long-Bai Dinh-Trang An- Hue-Thien Duong Cave-Da Nang-Ba Na-Hoi An
-Time: 9 days
- Means of transport: Car
• Tour Schedule: North-Central Lien Route: Hanoi-Ha Long-Sapa-Bai Dinh-Trang An-Da Nang-Hue-Thien Duong Cave-Ba Na-Hoi An
- Time: 11 days Means of transport: Car
Through the organization of Carnaval, it can be seen that with many meanings, rich in artistic colors, Ha Long Carnaval has left an unforgettable impression in the hearts of local people as well as friends, domestic and foreign tourists. Especially now, many travel companies have chosen Ha Long Carnaval tour products to offer to tourists. Thereby, attracting domestic and foreign tourists to admire and explore the World Natural Wonder of Ha Long Bay and the colorful cultural heritages in the province.
Thus, through the years, the Ha Long Carnival has been organized in the direction of focusing on honoring local cultural identity in harmony with regions and international cultural exchange, honoring the heritage of Ha Long Bay. Information and propaganda work, ensuring security and order, traffic, health, and environmental sanitation have been implemented promptly and effectively. Fundraising for the program has been well implemented, meeting requirements in the spirit of maximizing social resources. However, the Ha Long Carnival also has shortcomings and limitations in the organization of the Ha Long Carnival, such as: The new art performances are mainly concentrated in the stage area, not throughout the entire route; some performances by non-professional actors are not uniform, the connection between the performing groups still has gaps, the control of guests and tickets to watch the Carnival is still lacking, some model cars, props, and performance costumes are of unsatisfactory quality. The number of international visitors to Ha Long Carnival is not much, mainly domestic visitors. Moreover, the capacity of Ha Long Carnival is still small, so there are cases of crowding, pushing, pickpocketing, and robbery when tourists participate in the festival...
2.2.2.4. Culinary activities
Hong Gai has Bai Tho mountain
There is Dau Go cave, there is Long Tien pagoda
Cam Pha Station has vast mountains and rivers, Hoanh Bo District has immense sand dunes. When we go, we miss our homeland.
Remembering Ma Kich wine, remembering Tien Yen hill chicken
It can be said that Quang Ninh has an extremely rich, diverse and unique cuisine that fascinates tourists from all over the world to enjoy the cuisine of the coastal folk culture, the Ha Long culture. People have found hundreds of traditional dishes from ancient times in the Quang Ninh coastal area. Famous specialties include: Ha Long hand-pounded squid rolls, Ha Long dried shrimp, Ha Long fried vermicelli with antlers, Ha Long, Ha Long sea cucumber, Quang Yen sam, Ha Quang Yen soup, Nem chua, Nem Chao Quang Yen, So Huyet - Ha Long, Squid steamed with guava - Ha Long, Con Sa Sung - Ha Long. Con Be Man - Ha Long, Con Cu Ky - Ha Long... And of course, traditional dishes are often simple, easy to find, easy to make, easy to eat.
The culinary culture in the coastal area of Quang Ninh has the characteristic of the same dish but has its own unique features, typical of the region. For example, the island districts of Van Don, Co To, Quang Yen all have squid, mussels, and clams... But squid in Co To is the most delicious type of squid, the more you chew, the sweeter it is; while mussels are only delicious in Quang Yen; similarly, dishes made from clams are available in Quang Yen, Van Don, Ha Long, Hoanh Bo, Hai Ha, Dam Ha, Mong Cai, etc., but their origin is from Quang Yen. The people of Van Hai (Van Don) did not know how to catch clams before, but later found out that the people of Quang Yen came to catch them, some stayed to get married, settled down here, and then passed them on to...
In addition, in Quang Yen there is also a special food, which is nem chua, banh gio, nem chao, rau agar (also known as seaweed). In Ha Long there is banh cuon with shrimp, eaten with squid sausage, the most famous is in Hang Noi street (Hon Gai ward). Especially here there is an unforgettable drink, which is ruou gan, when drinking it we find it fragrant, cool, nutritious, increases health for the elderly, and strengthens men. This type of drink is currently quite popular in Ha Long city, Cam Pha city, and the town.
Cai Rong town (Van Don district), Quang Yen, Hai Ha district, Tien Yen town (Tien Yen district), Tra Co ward and some restaurants in Mong Cai city...
In Van Don, Ha Long, there is also a grilled rice paper dish made from rice flour. Van Don district has Tra Ban tea village, later when Van Hai commune was divided into 4 communes, Tra Ban tea village had a new name, Ban Sen tea. In Van village, there is a type of tea called Van tea, the tea trees in Van village have existed for thousands of years, since before people came to live here... This is a type of tea on the island, a precious specialty.
On July 5, 2014, the Ha Long Night Food Street was just opened on Ben Doan Street, Hong Gai Ward, Ha Long City, promising to become a unique tourism product, promoting and elevating the Ha Long culinary brand. The Ha Long Night Food Street has an area of over 11,000 m2 running along the coastal road of the city, on the shore of the poetic Ha Long Bay. Of the 87 stalls operating in the street, 27 stalls have fixed roofs selling from 5am - 12am, 60 outdoor stalls will open from 4:30pm - 12am. "In the food street, we prioritize stalls selling typical foods of Quang Ninh to promote and introduce local specialties to tourists. Specialties with the Quang Ninh brand such as sticky rice with squid, rice rolls with squid, Co To squid... are all displayed and introduced at the night food street".
Through practical investigation, we see Quang Ninh, a land rich in humanity with strong Vietnamese culture. In recent years, culinary tours are being interested in and enthusiastically responded by many diners, including foreign visitors. However, in Ha Long, restaurants that teach dishes are usually not available. With Ha Long, cuisine is one of the strengths of sea tourism. However, people have only realized that point but there are still not many regular events organized on a large scale to attract tourists, thereby promoting cuisine and the image of Ha Long. Quang Ninh tourism has not yet brought sea culinary culture into tourism because of its hesitation and lack of determination.
Through a survey of tour programs for visitors to Ha Long Bay, we can see that most travel companies, when offering tours, only emphasize tourist attractions and tour schedules, but hardly introduce them.
Ha Long seafood dishes. Promoting Ha Long seafood dishes in an organized manner is still an open issue.
For tourists, exploring the cuisine of the place they visit is a hobby of most people. Tourists come not only to enjoy but also want to learn and bring the culinary style of Ha Long to their homeland.
Besides visiting the world natural heritage, tourists can also explore the intangible values of the locality that have been preserved over time – culinary culture. When mentioning “Ha Long squid rolls”, “Ruou Ngan”…, tourists are very interested and love it. Coming to Ha Long, you must enjoy it.
Therefore, it is necessary to build tours combined with culinary tourism for tourists. This is not only a new issue of Quang Ninh tourism but it has become a concern of the entire Vietnamese tourism industry. When building tours combined with culinary tourism, it helps tourists feel more secure and comfortable, and have the opportunity to enjoy Ha Long specialties.
Thus, through the current status of cultural tourism products in our province, we see that tourism products still rely heavily on resources. Tourism products are still small-scale, scattered, spontaneous development, uneven services, lack of connectivity; Many cultural elements have not been exploited to put into products. Types of cultural tourism products in Quang Ninh have not been planned, professionally oriented for development, organization and management have not kept up with the speed of market development, investment attraction efficiency is not high, high-quality human resources are scarce, business activities still have some uncivilized, impolite behaviors, and do not show hospitality. Right in the tourist center of Ha Long, sometimes there are still situations of unhealthy competition, deception, coercion of customers, uncultured behavior....
The above problems are the causes of reducing the value of cultural tourism products and tourism services, reducing the quality of tourism programs, reducing the length of stay of tourists, and negatively affecting the feelings of tourists.
domestically and internationally, reducing the reputation of Ha Long - Quang Ninh tourism and the World Heritage brand.
2.2.3. Technical facilities
Investment in tourism infrastructure and facilities has been strengthened and promoted effectively. Attracting investment to develop the industry's infrastructure system has had positive changes, especially in the tourism sector, contributing to improving the quality of services, creating new and attractive tourism products, attracting tourists.
2.2.3.1. Accommodation
There are two types of accommodation in Quang Ninh: hotels on the mainland and overnight boats on the bay.
Hotels on land : In the whole province, for hotels on land, Quang Ninh currently has an excess supply of mid-range to low-end hotels but very limited luxury hotels. Hotels are generally located in key areas such as Ha Long Bay and Mong Cai, but there is still a shortage of high-end hotels in some tourist attractions such as Yen Tu. The room occupancy rate of hotels is quite stable but still low at 58% in 2011, lower than the average of 68% in Southeast Asia despite the large number of visitors. Currently, there are only 11 4-star hotels and 2 5-star hotels out of 86 hotels in the whole province. Most of the hotels are only 1-star and 2-star hotels serving the needs of domestic tourists. Many accommodation facilities are unrated motels, with quality below star rating standards.
According to statistics from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, up to now, the province has about 1,000 accommodation establishments, of which 145 are 1-5 star hotels. The system of 2-4 star hotels is mostly concentrated in Ha Long city, the tourist center of the province. Up to now, Ha Long city has about 60 hotels ranked from 2-4 stars. If more than ten years ago, mini hotels were a highly effective business model, then now with increasingly developing economic conditions, tourists have higher service needs, the system
Mini hotels are no longer able to meet the requirements of facilities and service quality for high-class groups. In fact, in recent years, Quang Ninh tourism has changed in quality towards increasing the proportion of high-class tourism service establishments, the number of luxury guests is increasing, followed by investment in hotel accommodation systems to serve this source of guests. Most recently, at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, Ha Long city added 2 more high-class hotels to serve tourists; namely: Royal Ha Long Hotel and Muong Thanh Quang Ninh Hotel. Of which, Muong Thanh Quang Ninh Hotel was just inaugurated and put into operation at the end of December 2013. The hotel was invested with a total capital of up to 500 billion VND, with 34 floors, 508 rooms. The hotel has a system of conference and seminar rooms with a capacity of up to 1,200 people and luxurious European and Asian restaurants, creating a new highlight for Quang Ninh tourism.
In terms of service and maintenance, the quality of the hotel deteriorated after the first few years of operation. The interior decoration in many hotels became very outdated and the service was provided by poorly trained staff, leading to poor service quality.
Regarding accommodation facilities on the bay: the supply of overnight cruise ships is very large. In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in the number of overnight cruise ships, but a limited supply of high-class ships. Similar to the supply on land, the supply of luxury accommodation is very scarce, with only 3 out of 189 ships in 2013 in the luxury category, so the market for luxury overnight cruise ships in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay still has potential for development.
However, it must be admitted that high-end hotels are still mainly concentrated in Ha Long, other tourist centers in the province such as Van Don, Uong Bi, Mong Cai still lack 2-4 star hotels. In addition, there is still taking advantage of the peak tourist season and festivals to increase room rates in some hotels and motels, going against the orientations and policies of the tourism industry in attracting more and more tourists, especially international tourists...
However, the quality of the bay’s landscape is currently being affected by the large number of ships operating in the bay. Tourists can easily access information about accommodation facilities thanks to many large hotels now having online booking services through major websites such as expedia.com, booking.com, agoda.com and Trip Advisor which has information about the top accommodation rankings. Quang Ninh province still needs to support small and medium-sized hotels to have an online presence and reach international tourists.
2.2.3.2. Food Service Business Establishments
Regarding food and beverage establishments in the province, there are quite a lot of them. Restaurants specializing in serving European and Asian food... Restaurants from luxury to popular are constantly increasing in quantity and quality to best serve the dining needs of tourists in the province.
Table 2.1. Current statistics on hotel establishments by star rating
Ha Long City | Mong Cai | Van Don | Uong Bi | |
5-star | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
4-star | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3-star | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2-star | 27 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
1- star | 14 | 10 | 0 | 1 |
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(Source: Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism)
However, quality restaurants are mainly concentrated in Ha Long city, Bai Chay area... Meanwhile, tourist clusters and tourist areas are very lacking in quality restaurants to serve the needs of tourists such as Quang Yen Town tourist area, Uong Bi City... Quang Ninh is very lacking in large-scale dining establishments. The largest restaurants only have the capacity to serve 1000 - 1200 diners and are often located in hotels. A few large-scale private restaurants only specialize in serving weddings according to Vietnamese customs. The professionalism and typical brand of the restaurant system in Quang Ninh seem to have not been clearly oriented for development. Labor force