The decision was approved by the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Council in this afternoon's session (February 5), applicable until the end of December 31, 2028.
According to Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee, the free visit is to show gratitude to the people, monks, nuns, Buddhists and tourists who have contributed to the process of protecting, preserving and building heritage records. The policy also aims to stimulate tourism demand, increase the number of visitors to Quang Ninh, in the context that Yen Tu tourists tend to decrease (from more than one million visitors in 2018 to 567,000 in 2025).
Quang Ninh started collecting entrance fees to Yen Tu from January 1, 2018, with a ticket price of 40,000 VND/adult/turn and 20,000 VND/child/turn.
The amount of money collected from ticket sales in 2018 reached more than 40.1 billion VND; in 2019 reached more than 39.4 billion VND.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, revenue from Yen Tu entrance fees was quite low (in 2020 it reached over 9.3 billion VND; in 2021 it reached over 1.9 billion VND; in 2022 it collected over 9.1 billion VND; in 2023: over 26.9 billion VND; in 2024: over 22.4 billion VND and in 2025 it is 22.3 billion VND.
In the early years, the money collected from Yen Tu entrance fees was deducted to the Management Board of Yen Tu Relic and Scenic Area 40%, but then reduced to 20%; the remainder was transferred to the old Uong Bi City People's Committee.
The Management Board of Yen Tu Relic and Scenic Area has now been merged with a number of other boards and units to become the Management Board of Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Site, from November 1, 2025.
Also in this afternoon's session, the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Council passed a resolution allowing the Management Board of Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Site to retain 26% from the revenue from selling entrance tickets to Ha Long Bay, instead of 11% as before.
Ha Long Bay entrance ticket sales reached the highest level in 2019, with about 1,286 billion VND. In the years affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, revenue decreased sharply and only increased again from 2023, with more than 786 billion VND in 2023, more than 973 billion VND in 2024 and more than 1,014 billion VND in 2025.
