Ticket brokers selling high priced tickets to tourist and boats leaving in no order or on particular routes are placing tourist at risk in Halong Bay.
Tourists pose for pictures against weak railings
Most of the ships carry tourists often have two storeys with the second deck used for sightseeing. However, despite the huge number of tourists preferring to go up on deck to take pictures, the railings of these ships are low and unsafe.
The ships are also have life jackets but the jackets are often too few and kept only in places the crew know.
An anonymous helmsman of a ship said that high density waterways like Halong Bay posed risks to boats even when running at just 8-10km/h. He added that if boats came within 30 metres, it would make an accident nearly unavoidable.
He said, "In theory, we have lanes but in reality, the helmsmen are the ones who decide how to steer the ships."
Only when the ships near the docks do the ship crew and ground workers run out to signal and bargain prices with each other to decide the order of the ships. Especially on busy days, when dozens of ships arrive at the same time, collisions are inevitable.
The ships often travel at slow speeds, but the tenders prefer higher speed to get the customers. This is one of the reasons for a regrettable collision between a ship and a tender which recently killed five Taiwanese tourists.
Trinh Dang Thanh, Deputy Head of Quang Ninh Province Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism said the foremost responsibility lay with the ship crew in relation to the accident and then with the management agencies.
He said the local authorities have issued 11 directives on tightening the management of activities in Halong Bay, in an effort to try to put an end to various problems besetting the World Heritage Site.
Ships only have two gears
Ship crews giving signals
Ships dock in no order
A collision between ships broke windows
Tourists tired by the chaos
