Travelers had to wait too long to visit Luon Cave

A representative of a travel firm said in Lao Dong newspaper that western clients of the firm on November 28 had a poor experience as they had to wait too long to get into bamboo crafts to visit Luon Cave on Ha Long Bay. 

The problem was that there were too many Chinese zero-dong travelers on the site, who elbowed others out western travelers.

The western travelers who had to stand for hours in the ‘sea of people’ lost patience in waiting.

Pham Dinh Huynh, deputy head of the Ha Long Bay management board, confirmed that Luon and Ba Hang Caves are usually full of Chinese zero-dong travelers, especially at 9-10 am.

In general, travel firms don’t arrange excursions to the caves for travelers from Japan and South Korea at these hours because of the crowding. Meanwhile, the travelers staying overnight on the bay, mostly from Europe, the US and high-income travelers from Asia, usually meet Chinese because of their itineraries. 

In reply to the comment that Vietnam should not receive Chinese zero-dong travelers, the director of a Quang Ninh-based travel firm said firms like his have no choice.

“We don’t have the opportunities to serve travelers from Europe, because European travelers are picked up at the airports or welcomed by Hanoi’s travel firms,” he said.

In principle, the more travelers localities can attract, the bigger benefits local economies can expect. However, the director admitted that with bad management, Vietnam won’t be able to earn money, despite the high numbers of travelers.

According to the director, Vietnam should consider policies being applied by Thailand and South Korea to control zero-dong tours which impose heavy taxes on shopping centers that serve zero-dong travelers.

Ha Thanh Hai, former CEO of Lang Co Tourism, blamed the increase of zero-dong tours on the Vietnamese firms’ unprofessional way of doing business.

Some Vietnamese travel firms join Chinese firms to receive Chinese zero-dong travelers to get a part of hotel room and on-spot service fees. However, the revenue from the services is very modest.

The zero-dong travelers don’t use Vietnamese services and don’t pay money to Vietnamese. However, the failure to collect money from Chinese travelers is not the highest risk. Hai warned that once Chinese travelers flock to Vietnam, more western travelers may leave or not come. 

In Quang Ninh, Hoi An and Nha Trang, for example, there are many Chinese travelers, but the number of western travelers has decreased.

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