Quang Ninh has planned to launch 38 new tourism products this year in a bid to diversify the locality’s tourism services and products.
The list included the reopening of Bai Tho Mountain tourist site in Ha Long City, tours to Bai Tu Long Bay, scuba diving activities at Thanh Lan Island and spiritual and culture tours to Ba Che District and Quang Yen township’s Ha Nam Island.
However, according to the provincial Department of Tourism, to date, only around 20 products in the list have been launched. However the remainder are still struggling with difficulties related to procedures, facing the risk of being unable to enter operation this year.
Ha Long Bay viewed from the top of Bai Tho Mountain (Photo by Nguyen Hung)
For instance, Ha Long decided to upgrade roads to Bai Tho Mountain tourist site. But this is a national heritage site, so any investment needs to be approved by the Quang Ninh People’s Committee.
Bai Tho tourist site, including Long Dien Pagoda and Tran Quoc Nghien Temple have deteriorated. Roads to the site are in the same situation. Visitors have been banned from visiting Bai Tho Mountain since 2017 to ensure safety, but many have ignored this.
Although a fence has been set up around the mountain to enforce the ban, visitors have broken the fence to climb there.
Tours to Bai Tu Long Bay may be also infeasible to be put into use this year.
Trinh Dang Thanh, deputy director of the Quang Ninh Tourism Department, said that procedures to hand over forest and water area to carry out new tourism products has remained quite slow. All the products need to be put forward for opinions from concerned agencies.