For a long time, tourists staying overnight on tourist boats on Lan Ha Bay, Cat Ba archipelago, Hai Phong mostly depart from Tuan Chau International Tourist Port, Ha Long City, Quang Ninh Province. Accordingly, from Tuan Chau, tourists are picked up by high-speed trains and taken to overnight tourist boats waiting in Lan Ha Bay, Cat Ba.
Mr. Nguyen Duy Phu - Chairman of Lan Ha cruise ship Association, an association of more than 60 overnight ships on Lan Ha Bay - said that to facilitate tourists as well as connect tours between Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay, Lan Ha cruise ship Association has proposed that tour ships travel directly from Lan Ha Bay to Tuan Chau welcome guests and are ready to return tickets to visit the bay.
According to Mr. Phu, the current cost of hiring a high-speed boat to transport passengers from Tuan Chau to a tourist boat anchored in Lan Ha Bay and vice versa is about 180,000 VND - 200,000 VND/passenger.
We are willing to pay 150,000 VND/guest if tourist boats from Lan Ha Bay are directly dropped off and dropped off at Tuan Chau Port, considered a ticket to visit Ha Long Bay. If you visit a location in Ha Long Bay bordering Lan Ha Bay, such as Cua Van fishing village or Tien Ong cave, you are willing to pay about 200,000 VND/guest. This fee is equivalent to a ticket to route 3 and 4 of Ha Long Bay" - Mr. Phu said.
According to the Inland Waterways Port Authority of Quang Ninh province, each year there are about 500,000 tourists, mostly international tourists, transported by high-speed ship from Tuan Chau Port to the overnight cruise ship anchored in Lan Ha Bay.
According to Mr. Phu, with the above number of visitors, if the Lan Ha Bay tourist ship is allowed to go to Tuan Chau to pick up and drop off visitors, each year the Ha Long Bay Management Board can earn from 75 billion VND to 100 billion VND.
Meanwhile, with the use of high-speed ships to transport passengers, ship owners still have to pay that amount of money, but Quang Ninh only collects a part of the port fee.
In addition, using high-speed boats to increase the number of tourists from Tuan Chau Port to tourist boats anchored in Lan Ha Bay and vice versa is very inconvenient for tourists. Especially in the afternoon, from Lan Ha Bay to Tuan Chau Port, visitors must quickly have lunch from 9am and then board a high-speed boat from 10am so that the boat company can prepare to welcome the next wave of visitors waiting in Tuan Chau.
Meanwhile, if the Lan Ha Bay tourist boat is allowed to go directly to Tuan Chau, visitors can leisurely eat, drink, and sightsee to join the boat to dock at Tuan Chau Port at 11am.
In Lan Ha Bay, Cat Ba has about 66 overnight ships with about 1,400 bedrooms and most of them belong to Quang Ninh ship owners. Because Quang Ninh did not allow the development of the number of ships, many owners of Ha Long Bay tourist ships had previously switched to building new ships operating in Lan Ha Bay.
