VietNamNet Bridge – Quang Ninh province has been famous for the Ha Long Bay, one of the world’s natural wonders. However, over the last two years, the thing that attracts tourists to the locality is the spiritual tourism.
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A report showed that the number of tourists to Quang Ninh in the first three
moths of the year increased by 1.2 times more than the number of tourists to the
Ha Long Bay. The figure can show the attractiveness of the spiritual tourism,
though the product is still in the first stage of development.
Together with Ha Long Bay which is always chosen as a stay in the itineraries of
cruise tourists, the pagodas of Long Tien or Yen Tu have become better known to
foreign travelers.
Travel firms, which well understand that cruise tourists want to discover the
local culture through their daily activities, history, religion and
superstitions, usually arrange the trips to Long Tien and Yen Tu pagodas for
cruise tourists.
At first, spiritual tours were offered only to Vietnamese travelers who have the
habit of visiting temples to pray for good luck. However, the success of
spiritual tours have prompted travel firms to design the tours for foreign
travelers as well.
Besides the Yen Tu Buddhist relics, which has become too popular to travelers,
travel firms have also begun organizing tours to other sites which witness the
historical events of the nation.
These include the historical relics of the Tran dynasty in Dong Trieu district,
the Bach Dang River area, the place where a historic battle took place in 938.
The Vietnamese forces led by Ngo Quyen defeated the invading forces of the
Southern Han state of China, putting and end to the centuries-long Chinese
imperial domination in Vietnam.
Tourists can also be led to the Cua Ong Temple in Cam Pha district, Tra Co
communal house in Mong Cai, Cai Bau Temple in Van Don. The time of tourists
staying at the tourist sites tends to be prolonged. Travelers tend to spend as
much time on visiting the spiritual relics as the time on relaxing on the Ha
Long Bay.
The visits to the tourist sites have been offered in the tours Hanoi – Ninh Binh
– Ha Long Bay – Yen Tu pagoda designed by One Travel, the Ha Long Bay – Tra Co
of Vietravel, Yen Tu – Cua Ong – Con Son –Kiep Bac of Nam Chau Travel, the Hanoi
– Yen Tu – Cua Ong of Railtour.
A senior executive of One Travel said that in the newly designed tour, travelers
would stay at Yen Tu more time, while the time on the Ha Long Bay has been
shortened, affirming that the new design has pleased the travelers.
He said that tourists nowadays tend to travel more to have more discoveries.
This really has much significance especially to the people from other religious
cultures. The visitors to the religious centers are mostly the ones from Europe,
the US and Japan.
The above said executive also said that it would be boring if the tours focus on
the activities at the Ha Long Bay.
“Spending a night at the Ha Long Bay proves to be the most interesting activity
of the tours. However, it would be very boring to stay there for many days, if
travel firms cannot design attractive activities ashore,” he explained.
To Quoc