The Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board is seeking opinions for the Draft Resolution of the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Council on amending and supplementing a number of contents on fees for visiting scenic spots in Quang Ninh province under the authority of the Provincial People's Council.
Accordingly, this unit proposed to adjust the rate of deduction left to the Ha Long and Bai Tu Long Bay entrance fee collection boards to 28%; the remaining fee source of 72% will be paid to the state budget according to regulations.
From 2017 to now, the percentage of deductions left from the revenue from selling Ha Long Bay sightseeing tickets to the Ha Long Bay Management Board (now the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board) is 11%; the remaining 89% is assigned to the old Ha Long City and then transferred to Quang Ninh province for management after no longer having district-level government.
The highest level of ticket sales for Ha Long Bay was 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.
According to the Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board, the adjustment to increase the rate of deduction left over from Ha Long Bay entrance fees in the current period is an objective and urgent requirement, stemming from changes in financial mechanisms, organizational structure, input costs and increasingly high requirements for conservation, management and promotion of heritage values.
In which, the number of employees of the Ha Long Bay Management Board at the time of applying the 11% deductible rate is 392 and currently is 507 people due to the merger with the Bai Tu Long National Park Management Board and the Heritage and Scenic Site Management Board, and the regional minimum wage has also increased.
This causes wage costs, regular operating expenses, maintenance, preservation and management expenses to increase much faster than the recovery rate of revenue.
In particular, from 2025, Yen Tu Scenic Landscape is recognized by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage, posing very high requirements for conservation, anti-degradation, heritage space management, control of tourists, protection of landscape and cultural - historical values. Meanwhile, according to the orientation, Yen Tu Relic Area will remove toll collection, which means that all costs for management, conservation, communication and operation of Yen Tu heritage will have to be compensated from the revenue of Ha Long Bay and other service activities.
According to the Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board, in the past time, regular expenditure tasks for maintenance, repair of infrastructure and assets in Ha Long Bay have not been allocated enough funds, leading to many items such as anchor buoys, warning signs, wharves, wharf waters, vehicles, machinery, equipment being damaged and degraded, affecting the work of ensuring safety and serving tourists, currently only a small part has been overcome.
In which, storm No. 3 (storm Yagi) in 2024 caused serious damage to many facilities and large tourist attractions with a total damage value of over 30 billion VND, but so far only about 3 billion VND has been allocated for remediation.
It is expected that if the Provincial People's Council approves the Draft Resolution on amending and supplementing a number of contents on sightseeing fees in Quang Ninh province, the Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board will retain 28% of the Ha Long Bay sightseeing fee revenue from February 1, 2026 to December 31, 2028.
