Quang Ninh - land of heritage and natural wonders

Hot spots on the tourist map

Recently, the world-famous travel guide publisher Rough Guides (UK) released a new book called "The Rough Guide to the 100 Best Places on Earth", Ha Long Bay is one of the 100 destinations mentioned in the book.

But this is just the latest praise in a series of "laurels" that Ha Long Bay has received in recent times such as: twice recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage, the title of New World Natural Wonder by the New Open World organization, Top 10 most beautiful heritages in the world according to the vote of the prestigious travel site CNTraveler, Top 25 most beautiful natural wonders in the world according to CNN's travel site...

However, not only Ha Long, coming to Quang Ninh, tourists can enjoy all the best things for all travel enthusiasts, from majestic mountains and forests, tropical islands to luxurious cities, long-standing cultural heritages and unique cuisine...

In terms of natural terrain, Quang Ninh can be divided into 3 regions: mountainous region, midland and coastal plain, sea and island region, from which scenic spots with typical characteristics of each terrain are formed. The mountainous region has destinations such as Binh Lieu, Yen Tu, Sa Vy cape, Yen Trung lake, Khe Van waterfall, Song Mooc waterfall, Son cave, milestone 1305...; the midland and coastal plain are famous for Long Vang cape, Pac Sui waterfall...; the sea and island region is especially unique with more than 2,000 islands (accounting for more than 2/3 of the total number of islands in the country) stretching along the coastline of more than 250 km divided into many layers. There are very large islands such as Van Don, Co To, Cai Bau, Ban Sen, and there are islands that are just like a miniature landscape. In Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay, there are thousands of limestone islands, originally karst terrain eroded by water, creating thousands of shapes on the outside and strange caves inside. In addition to alluvial flats, the coastal and island areas of Quang Ninh also have white sand beaches washed up by the waves, creating wonderful beaches such as Tra Co, Quan Lan, Minh Chau, Ngoc Vung...

Besides natural landscapes, Quang Ninh is also a land preserving more than 600 attractive historical, cultural and spiritual relics such as Truc Lam - Yen Tu, Tran Dynasty relic site in Dong Trieu, Bach Dang stake field in Quang Yen, Cua Ong temple in Cam Pha...

Thanks to this invaluable tourism resource, in recent years, the number of tourists coming to Quang Ninh has grown continuously and strongly, reaching a level 10 times larger than the province's population.

Impressive numbers

In 2018, Quang Ninh welcomed more than 12.2 million visitors, of which 5.2 million were international visitors, accounting for 1/3 of international visitors to Vietnam (15.5 million). Tourism growth reached 24% compared to 2017.

In the first 8 months of 2019, Quang Ninh province welcomed 10.5 million tourists, reaching 75% of the plan, up 14% (compared to the same period in 2018), of which international visitors reached 3.7 million.

Focus on sustainable development and green tourism

Implementing the strategy of turning tourism into a spearhead economic sector with the goal of reaching the heritage level, Quang Ninh is completing the planning system of 4 key tourism centers, including: Uong Bi, Dong Trieu, Quang Yen areas - main products are spiritual and cultural tourism; Ha Long city area and surrounding areas - main products are landscape, cultural, shopping and entertainment tourism; Van Don, Co To areas - main products are spiritual, island and entertainment tourism; Mong Cai area - sea tourism products, combined with border trade. In addition, Quang Ninh is simultaneously developing new tourism spaces in Hai Ha, Co To, Cam Pha, Hoanh Bo, Tien Yen, Binh Lieu... to create a diverse tourism product system to serve target markets such as Europe, Northeast Asia, North America, South Asia, Middle East...

Quang Ninh also determined to develop sustainable tourism associated with conservation work, implementing many flexible measures to strengthen management, conservation, restoration, embellishment of relics, and preservation of heritage. The province prioritizes enhancing the value of conservation areas through participating in ASEAN Heritage Park titles for Bai Tu Long National Park; Yen Tu relic and landscape complex submitted to UNESCO for consideration and recognition as a world heritage; newly establishing Co To and Tran island marine protected areas; promoting investigation, establishment of new nature reserves and recognition of RAMSAR sites as proposed by the provincial environmental planning in wetland areas in Quang Yen, Tien Yen, Mong Cai, etc.

At the same time, to avoid the consequences of tourism development on the environment, Quang Ninh focuses on investing resources to develop green tourism, implementing environmentally friendly solutions, and planning for environmental protection until 2020, with a vision to 2030. Projects must prepare environmental impact assessment reports and commit to environmental protection before being invested. Units in the province with large sources of waste discharge all apply advanced technology in wastewater treatment, collecting, transporting, and treating waste in urban areas, industrial parks, economic zones, production and business establishments, and vessels operating at sea...

In addition, the province also attracts foreign enterprises and capital support from international organizations to implement a series of environmental protection projects in Ha Long Bay such as the Green Bay project in collaboration with GreenHub to reduce plastic pollution at sea, waste management in Cat Ba archipelago and Ha Long city; tourism support project of JICA organization...

Target Mission

2020: welcome 15 - 16 million visitors, including 7 million international visitors.

2030: welcome 30 million visitors, including 15 million international visitors.

Promoting the potential of sea and border tourism

With the advantage of Ha Long International Passenger Port being able to receive passenger ships with a capacity of thousands of people, and being a province with both land and sea borders with China, Quang Ninh has a great advantage in attracting international visitors, focusing on the Northeast Asian market: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan; European markets, Australia, ASEAN...

In recent years, Quang Ninh province and Guangxi province (China) have developed comprehensive cooperation and exchange in many aspects, including tourism. According to the assessment of the Quang Ninh Department of Tourism, Chinese tourists account for an important market share (about 40%) of the total number of international tourists in Quang Ninh. The promotion of cooperation in tourism development is still actively promoted by both sea and road routes.

Quang Ninh also actively participates in international tourism fairs and events, such as KOFA Fair (Korea), ITF (Taiwan), JATA (Japan), MITT (Russia), WTM (UK)... to promote provincial tourism, and at the same time help tourism businesses in the province update information on services, introduce products, promote images, find partners... In particular, the operation of Ha Long International Passenger Port has opened up great opportunities to attract international tourists from the sea.

Ms. Huong Tran Kieu Dung, Vice Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and General Director of FLC Group

Built on old coal mining areas of Quang Ninh, FLC's infrastructure projects are considered to have turned barren, deserted areas into top destinations, contributing to increasing land value and promoting the development of the tourism industry.

As one of the strategic investors in Quang Ninh with a series of large-scale projects in many fields, FLC Group has determined the goal of creating a complete and synchronous ecosystem to serve the needs of the community and tourists, not only creating an impression for the business but also contributing to shaping the brand of Quang Ninh tourism, bringing this place towards the position of a regional and international tourism center.

Mr. Le Trong Thanh, Deputy General Director of Tung Lam Development Joint Stock Company

Quang Ninh is known for its great tourism potential. For Quang Ninh tourism to develop sustainably, we need to pay more attention to nature conservation and cultural value development, as well as further improve service quality, thereby building a strong and solid service industry.

We have spent a lot of brainpower, effort and time to invite leading experts and contractors in related fields to consult and implement the company's projects, such as the Yen Tu Cable Car Project or the Truc Lam Cultural Center Project. The company's projects all focus on promoting and developing the community, while ensuring the protection of the project's environmental landscape. In the coming time, we will focus on building a sustainable tourism development community, with the participation and contribution of local resources; continue to consolidate and develop current projects in both depth and breadth. In particular, the development and promotion of cultural values, the building of a local tourism community will be focused on investment to turn Yen Tu into an international destination in Quang Ninh and spread the good values ​​of nature - culture - history to tourists.

Quynh Le