Renowned Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh province.
(Photo: VNA)
Quang Ninh (VNA) – Bestowed with beautiful landscapes and abundant
historic and cultural relic sites, the northeastern province of Quang Ninh is
working to promote sustainable tourism development.
In a bid to make tourism a spearhead economic sector with large contribution to
local gross domestic products (GDP), the province is working to improve
business climate, develop tourism infrastructure, build new tourism products
and better service quality.
Besides cultural tours of heritages, festivals and eco-tourism areas, the
province is calling for investment in large-scale and high-quality tourism
projects.
Since the end of 2013, Quang Ninh has attracted more than 100 projects with total
investment capital of more than 5.5 billion USD, nearly half of which was
poured into Ha Long city, mainly the tourism sector.
Besides Vietnamese investors like Tuan Chau, Vingroup, Sun Group and FLC, Quang
Ninh also saw the presence of billion-dollar projects of giants from the US,
China, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
The province has a coastline of more than 250 kilometres and some 2,000 islets
which account for two-thirds of the total in Vietnam.
The spectacular
stretch of coast connects the UNESCO-recognised World Heritage Site of Ha Long
Bay with majestic natural scenery, Bai Tu Long Bay, Van Don and Co To islands
and Tra Co beach with Cat Ba National Park in the northern port city of Hai
Phong.
Along with the
renowned Ha Long Bay, Quan Lan, Minh Chau, Ngoc Vung, Dai beaches in Van Don
island district and Tra Co and Vinh Thuc in Mong Cai city have been
increasingly attractive to tourists thanks to their breathtaking seas and coral
reefs.
The locality also boasts huge potential for developing spiritual-cultural
tourism as it houses over 600 historic and cultural relic sites.
Four tourism hubs have been formed, including Ha Long (landscapes, culture and
entertainment), Mong Cai-Tra Co (marine tourism integrated with trade
activities), Van Don- Co To (spiritual, coastal and entertainment tourism) and
Uong Bi-Dong Trieu –Quang Yen (spiritual-cultural tourism).
Meanwhile, Binh Lieu, Hai Ha and Cam Pha are also alluring both domestic and
foreign tourists.
Quang Ninh has directed departments and investors to open air routes from/to Van
Don international airport, which is expected to be put into operation in April
2018.
The construction of the airport began in 2015 under the build-operate-transfer
form with total investment of nearly 7.5 trillion VND (330 million USD) by Sun
Group. The province also invested 700 billion VND (30.8 million USD) in land
clearance.
Quang Ninh set a target of welcoming 15 million tourists, comprising 7 million
foreigners, and earning 30 trillion -40 trillion VND (1.3 billion -1.76 billion
USD) in tourism revenue by 2020 while tourism activities are expected to
contribute 10-15 percent of local budget income. The sector will provide jobs
for some 130,000 local labourers.
In 2016, the province received 8.3 million tourist arrivals, a year-on-year
increase of seven percent, raking in over 13 trillion VND (571 million USD) in
revenue, up 23 percent, according to the provincial Department of Tourism. -VNA