It is very difficult to evaluate and choose. Apart from a few hotels such as Novotel, Plaza, Lotus…, the business prices of most other hotels are affected by competition or arbitrarily changed at different times.
The Ha Long hotel system is too concentrated in the central area of Bai Chay, where there are few services, so it is not attractive to tourists. This is also a reason why many tourists look for overnight boats in Ha Long Bay.
Regarding food and drink, Ha Long is very short of large-scale dining establishments. The largest restaurants only have the capacity to serve 1,000 - 1,200 guests and are usually located in hotels. A few large-scale private restaurants specialize in serving weddings according to Vietnamese customs.
The professionalism and distinctive brand of the restaurant system in Ha Long seem to have not been clearly oriented for development. The workforce in the restaurants is mostly unprofessional and changes frequently. Some floating restaurants along the shore of Ha Long Bay are one of the factors negatively affecting the marine environment of the World Natural Heritage.
Regarding resorts, Ha Long has Tuan Chau Island, a famous resort with beautiful scenery, complexes that can serve tourists comprehensively from entertainment, shopping centers, professional sports areas. Tourists can experience the entire ideal living space when staying here. However, this is an island belonging to the city and is being invested in upgrading, leading to the enjoyment of services of tourists being more or less affected.
Cultural - Spiritual Tourism: The most typical products of Ha Long tourism are Long Tien Pagoda and Tran Quoc Nghien Temple, which are prominent tourist destinations, demonstrating the attractiveness of cultural - spiritual tourism, but the rest is not yet clear.
Most of the tourists coming here are spontaneous, organized by groups of families, relatives or friends on the occasion of the annual Spring Festival. Travel companies have not yet exploited this type of tourism.
Other cultural tourism resources (tangible and intangible) are listed quite a lot such as the system of fishing villages on the Bay, the unique culture of the ancient Vietnamese people from thousands of years ago on Ha Long Bay. However, due to small scale and not being disseminated regularly, there are not enough conditions to promote.
Archaeological sites related to Ha Long Culture have not been invested in to attract cultural tourists.
Experiential ecotourism at Cua Van fishing village on Ha Long Bay is being exploited by Dong Duong Cruise Joint Stock Company. The initial scale is still small but it is professional and has good appeal to tourists.
In Quang Ninh, there are also a number of tourism businesses participating in organizing eco-tourism activities, but they are small-scale, operate individually, irregularly, unprofessionally and are not attractive.
3.3.2.3. Income and contribution rate to GDP of the city
Ha Long today has a thriving tourism industry and has set ambitious targets to achieve by 2020. Ha Long today attracts about 7 million visitors each year, with 4.5 million domestic visitors and 2.5 million international visitors, contributing about 205 million USD in tourist revenue to the province. However, Ha Long city tourism currently accounts for only about 7% of the province's gross domestic product (GDP) and Ha Long hopes to double the industry's contribution to the city's GDP, reaching 10% of the province's total GDP by 2020.
Table 3.13. Contribution of tourism industry to GDP of Ha Long city
Target
Unit | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |
1. GDP of the whole city | Billion VND | 12,000 | 12,650 | 14,300 | 15,787 | 15,920 | 17,037 |
2. GDP of tourism industry | Billion VND | 4,932 | 5,439 | 6.165 | 6,709 | 6,845 | 6,985 |
3. DL contribution ratio | (%) | 41.1 | 42.9 | 43.1 | 42.5 | 42.9 | 41 |
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General Introduction About Ha Long City - Quang Ninh
Source: IPA Quang Ninh
Table 3.13 shows that the tourism industry contributed VND6,985 billion to the city’s GDP (VND17,037 billion) in 2014, accounting for 41% of the city’s GDP. To achieve this target, the city needs to focus on attracting at least 10.5 million visitors by 2020, representing a steady growth rate over the years. Although very few markets can achieve this rate, these targets are realistic, given the city’s development trends.
To achieve the set targets, Ha Long will have to keep up with the growth rate of visitors from major source countries. Specifically, it is important to handle tourist sources by region, classify domestic tourists, Chinese tourists, other Asian countries and target long-haul tourists. In particular, it is expected that the increase in domestic and Chinese tourist markets will be the main source of growth for tourism in the Bay.
3.3.2.4. Have a plan to develop the tourism industry sustainably.
Tourism development planning in Ha Long Bay
According to Decision No. 3160/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee approving the Ha Long Tourism Development Plan for the period 2006-2015, with a vision to 2020. Aiming to effectively exploit the advantages of geographical location and tourism resources in the Bay, turning the city's tourism into a major economic sector.
spearhead economy with modern and sustainable scale. Accordingly, Ha Long tourism planning in specific directions includes: Ha Long Bay tourism center and Ha Long city vicinity, part of Hoanh Bo district, focusing on Ha Long Bay
– Bai Chay – Hung Thang – Tuan Chau and Ha Long city center become tourist cities, political, economic and cultural centers of the province, tourist centers of the Northeast Coast region, striving to become international quality sea tourism centers in the period 2010 – 2015. The planning has identified the main targets by 2015 as follows: Welcoming 4.7 million tourists (international visitors are 2.2 million), tourism revenue reaches 3,419 billion VND (215 million USD), striving to reach 14,200 hotel rooms (3,400 4-5 star rooms,
4,000 2-3 star rooms).
Planning assessment
Although the provincial and city leaders have also focused on investing and planning to develop Ha Long tourism so that Ha Long tourism becomes a key economic sector of the city and province. However, the current level of investment in tourism in Quang Ninh is not satisfactory to exploit all the tourism potential of the province, with most of it being domestic investment. In recent years, through capital support for investment in tourism infrastructure, the State has invested in Quang Ninh about more than 250 billion VND.
The province needs to position itself as attractive to foreign investors in order to attract enough investment capital and tourism expertise to develop the area into a top tourist destination.
Currently, the policy mechanism and support for foreign investors in the region are still unclear. Investors do not have a clear understanding of information about investment benefits, licensing procedures and tax incentives. Sometimes, there are policies that are not competitive compared to other tourist provinces in Vietnam such as Nha Trang, Da Nang and other countries in the region.
The province is calling for investment in many key projects on transport infrastructure, hotels, education, health and environment, through which these works will help improve many of the current shortcomings that the tourism industry is facing. Some typical projects include:
+ Upgrade Hon Gai Port to enhance tourism capacity;
+ Resort complex with casino and golf course in Van Don district and Ha Long city;
+ Supermarkets and shopping areas in Ha Long Bay.
+ International standard hospital in Ha Long with capacity of 200 - 500 beds;
+ International standard university in Ha Long city to provide high quality training for many fields including culture and education;
+ Solid waste treatment in Ha Long Bay.
For successful tourism development, it is important to have a solid foundation of tourism facilities, including a diverse portfolio of attractions and activities, a range of accommodation options and a quality and efficient transport infrastructure system.
About accommodation services
Accommodation is one of the most important factors in a successful tourism strategy, so it is necessary to build a synchronous system of accommodation that can meet the requirements of tourism development at the destinations. The assessment of accommodation is based on five main criteria:
+ Availability of accommodation services, branded hotels and star rated hotels.
+ Location of accommodation to major attractions and transport hubs.
+ Maintenance and quality of accommodation options.
+ Provide service and foreign language skills in communication with international tourists.
+ Marketing, communications and awareness raising about online booking options and capabilities.
About tourist transport
Tourist transportation is a factor that ensures tourists access to tourist destinations, including bringing tourists to Ha Long and transporting tourists from their accommodation to tourist attractions in the city. There are 6 main criteria to evaluate the quality of transportation services:
+ Location and transportation system facilitate travel for tourists, including airports, ports, bus stations and road, rail and waterway systems.
+ Infrastructure quality is sufficient to create a good experience for tourists.
+ Range of transportation methods includes coaches, buses, taxis, trains, boats, rental cars.
+ Transport quality includes vehicle and service quality.
+ Accessibility and communication of schedules, costs and adequate signage in areas.
+ Internationalization with foreign language signs and foreign language proficiency of service staff.
Poor transport infrastructure is one of the major challenges facing tourism in Quang Ninh. Currently, there are no direct flights to Quang Ninh, but there is a reasonable network of national highways, ports and bus stations. However, the quality of roads and public transport systems are still poor, making travel to Quang Ninh and moving within the province a challenge for tourists.
Of the three main national highways connecting Quang Ninh with other provinces, the Hanoi-Ha Long route has the highest traffic volume. Due to poor road quality, the average traffic speed is only 50km/h, making it take an average of 3 to 6 hours to travel to Quang Ninh. Traveling by car is also not comfortable for tourists, some buses do not have air conditioning, there are many bad roads and only a few good roads. Safety is another concern for many tourists because many vehicles overtake each other and encroach on the lane of vehicles traveling in the opposite direction because the national highway is not wide enough to allow vehicles to overtake in both directions. This discourages many foreign tourists because most of them come to Hanoi and do not want to take a 3-hour trip to Ha Long. The second largest national highway is the provincial expressway connecting Mong Cai and Ha Long, passing through many major cities in the province. This route is 170km long, with an average speed of 60km/h, and has similar traffic conditions to the Hanoi - Ha Long Highway. The third main highway is between Ha Long City and Hai Phong City (the third largest city in Vietnam). The distance is relatively short, about 60km, with lower traffic volume but poor road conditions. Regarding the public bus system, the province still lacks many bus stations, which is a challenge for solo travelers who do not travel on tours. Many bus stations are located in inconvenient locations, far from the coast or major tourist attractions, and are not suitable for international tourists due to the lack of schedules and tickets printed in foreign languages, signs, and foreign-language staff.
Important areas such as Bai Chay and Tuan Chau Island have a reasonable arrangement of tourist piers, but in other undeveloped areas there are no suitable ports. At Tuan Chau tourist port, the waiting area is of good quality, with comfortable indoor and outdoor seating and adequate facilities for
tourists, but there is a lack of signs to the boat and around the wharf area, the service staff is not trained in English skills to help tourists. Bai Chay tourist port is the port that receives the most tourists, has a very good waiting room, facilities and well-trained staff. The overall quality is good but there are still some things that need further improvement such as the arrangement of signs in English and the availability of different ticket options on the same day.
There are a number of infrastructure upgrades planned for the area in the coming years that will help remove transportation barriers in the province. The project to upgrade the highway from Hanoi and Hai Phong to Ha Long is expected to be completed in 2015 and will significantly reduce the travel time for tourists to Ha Long Bay. It is estimated that instead of taking 2 hours to travel from Ha Long to Hai Phong, it will now take only about 40 minutes and instead of taking 3 hours or more to reach Hanoi, the trip time will be reduced to about 2 hours.
3.3.2.5. Ensuring the quality of tourism services in the Bay
The quality of tourism services in Ha Long is in need of significant improvement. Tourism services provided in famous hotels, restaurants, cruise ships and tours are of lower quality than those in other competitive tourist areas such as Hoi An and Nha Trang. This is related to both the professionalism of tourism services and importantly, the current service staff lacks skills in using important foreign languages such as English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. While there are some tour operators with very good service quality such as Indochina Junk, which stands out with its professional service staff and fluent English skills, overall, the quality of tourism services in the whole province is poor.