The northern coastal province of Quang Ninh is focusing resources on improving its tourism infrastructure, targeting to welcome 12 million visitors, including 5 million foreigners, this year.

A corner of Quang Ninh

The locality has invested in building and upgrading many roads to shorten the travel time of tourists to Quang Ninh.

In late April, the final segments of the Bach Dang bridge connecting the northern port city of Hai Phong and Quang Ninh were joined.

The bridge, once operational, is expected to help shorten the distance from Hanoi to Quang Ninh from 175 kilometres to 125 kilometres as well as cut travelling time between the two localities by half.

“Along with the Ha Long-Hai Phong highway, the Van Don international airport project, which is about to complete, will open up a new opportunity for the development of Quang Ninh’s tourism sector,” said Vice Chairwoman of the provincial People’s Committee Vu Thi Thu Thuy.

The province has lured a lot of projects into the sector.

Since 2013, it has attracted more than 100 projects with a total registered capital of 121 trillion VND (5.33 billion USD), mainly in the tourism field.

The Tuan Chau Group has pumped a total investment of nearly 50 trillion VND in a modern golf field, Vietnam’s longest four-star hotel and villa complex, and others, contributing to changing the face of the locality’s tourism sector.

Every day, the Tuan Chau tourism complex welcomes around 10,000  domestic and foreign visitors.

Along with Tuan Chau Group, Sun Group, Vingroup and FLC  are giant investors in the province’s tourism.

Their Sun World Ha Long, Vincom Centre Ha Long, and five-star FLC Ha Long Bay Resort have become favoured destinations there.

Director of the provincial Tourism Department Pham Ngoc Thuy said that the province is calling for investment in five projects in Van Don: Phuong Hoang island eco-tourism site with an investment of 5.5 trillion VND, Dat Nat island with a capital of over 3.1 trillion VND, Chin isle site with an investment of 2.5 trillion VND, Soi Nhu isle project valued at 640 billion VND, and an eco-tourist site totalling 3.5 trillion VND.

“With open policy and favourable legal framework, Quang Ninh expects to attract more domestic and foreign investors in order to turn the locality into the country’s leading destination of tourists,” Thuy added.

In the first five months of the year, the province served more than 7 million visitors, including 2.5 million foreigners. It expects to welcome 12 million holidaymakers by the end of this year, 5 million of them are foreigners. 

Quang Ninh is endowed with natural advantages for sea and island tourism. 

The province has a coastline of more than 250 kilometres and some 2,000 islets, two-thirds of the total in Vietnam. The spectacular stretch of coast connects the UNESCO-recognised World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay with majestic natural scenery, Bai Tu Long Bay, Van Don and Co To islands and Tra Co beach with Cat Ba National Park in the northern port city of Hai Phong.

In 2017, a total of 9.87 million tourists visited the province, including 4.28 million foreigners. More than 70 percent of the tourists came via sea and island tours. 

Quang Ninh is expanding the space for sea and island tourism farther from Ha Long Bay towards islands such as Co To, Van Don and Hai Ha.-VNA