Coastal areas in the northern and central regions such as Ha Long, Cat Ba, Sam Son, Da Nang, Ly Son and Phu Quy are attracting a high numbers of travelers.

Visiting Sam Son Beach in Thanh Hoa on a hot weekend, Minh Duc, who lives and works on Phu Quoc Island, was surprised to see thousands of people on the beach and long rows of vehicles on the roads.

“I live in Phu Quoc and the island attracts many tourists, especially in summer. But the beaches there are not as crowded as Sam Son. It’s really a surprise,” Duc said. 

Duc said he has a relative living near the beach, so he left his car at the relative's house and walked to the beach. Other people had to park their cars several kilometers away and take a motorbike taxi to the beaches.

Thanh Nga in Bac Tu Liem district, who has returned from a trip to Ha Long (Quang Ninh), said she felt more exhausted traveling than working.

“From the highway, we could see a high number of vehicles. When we reached the central area of the city, we saw many congested roads. However, it was more terrible at famous restaurants and entertainment complexes,” she said.

“Coming to the restaurant at 11 am, we had to wait nearly one hour to be served. The next morning, we queued up to buy tickets for admission to the entertainment complex. Our children complained that they were too tired, so they only played some games and then returned to the hotel,” she recalled.

Thanh Hai in the Linh Dam residential quarter in Hanoi had a bad memory about his trip. It took Hai and his family members eight hours, including six hours of waiting for a ferry-boat, to reach Cat Ba.

“We got to the ferry at 9 am and saw hundreds of vehicles, big and small, queuing up in a row. At noon, my children drank milk and ate sweet cakes, while my wife and I just drank water,” he said.

“Only at 3 pm could we get into the ferry boat,” he said.

On some tourism forums, people have complained that they faced difficulties trying to book hotel rooms in Da Nang and Hoi An on weekends. In island districts such as Phu Quy (Binh Thuan province), Ly Son (Quang Ngai) and Co To and Quan Lan (Quang Ninh), travelers need to book hotel rooms 10-15 days in advance.

The image of Sam Son Beach full of people could be seen not only on scorching days but also on weekends in the last several months.

According to the Thanh Hoa Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in H1 2022, the province received 7.4 million travelers, including 4.4 million to Sam Son.

In June alone, Thanh Hoa received 2.5 million travelers, including 15,700 foreigners. The figure is expected to reach 1.6 million in July.

Meanwhile, Quang Ninh Tourism Department said the province received 5.5 million travelers in H1 and had revenue of VND12 trillion. 

On weekends, the hotel room occupancy rate at high-end resorts and luxury hotels is 90-100 percent. The boats that take guests to visit or spend the night on Ha Long Bay are always full.

On the weekend of July 16-17, tourism attractions in the province such as Ha Long, Co To and Van Don received more than 160,000 travelers. Ha Long alone received 45,000 travelers, and entertainment places at Bai Chay tourism area received 60,000.

“The number of travelers booking rooms for weekends has increased sharply. Our beachfront hotel in Bai Chay is 95 percent full for the weekends through July, while other hotels still have 20-25 percent availability,” a hotelier in Ha Long said.

Ly Son Island in Quang Ngai also has received a high number of travelers in July. According to Pham Thi Huong, chair of Ly Son district, in H1 2022, the district received 40,000 tourists, and in the first half of July, it served 33,000 tourists.

Other localities have reported sharp rises in the number of travelers. Khanh Hoa  received more than 1 million travelers in H1 (350,000 travelers in June, including 13,000 foreign travelers). Binh Dinh received 2.2 million travelers in H1, an increase of 92.5 percent over the same period last year, while Binh Thuan saw 2.39 million travelers.

Ngoc Ha