In order to connect tourism between Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba and Hai Phong archipelagos, Quang Ninh province has just put into operation a new tour, which is Ha Long Bay 6 Journey.
The itinerary of this tour includes: Ha Long or Tuan Chau - Hon Chan Voi - Ba Cua - Tung Lam - Hon Cau Bai (the end point of the journey adjacent to Gia Luan, Lan Ha Bay, Hai Phong) or vice versa.
Currently, whether tourist ships of Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay can open the route or not is still waiting for the decision of Quang Ninh and Hai Phong.
However, according to some cruise ship owners of both Lan Ha Bay and Ha Long Bay, this new route has many shortcomings.
Looking at the journey, tourists thought they would be able to visit many places, but in reality, those are only places where the train passes through, not to stop in, and even cannot board the train.
Thus, according to some ship owners in Lan Ha Bay, Suppose you take a tourist to Ha Long Bay, you will not be allowed to visit any tourist attractions.
The most unfortunate is the ticket price of Ha Long Bay Journey No. 6, announced at 150,000 VND/time/person/day.
According to cruise ship owners, this calculation will be a financial burden for accommodation ships and that burden will have to be included in tour prices for guests.
"For day tour boats (to go back and forth during the day), 150,000 VND/time/person/day is affordable, but for overnight boats, we will have to pay 300,000 VND/time/person. The reason: accommodation ships will not be able to return that day, and the next day, they will have to pay an additional 150,000 VND/person a cruise ship owner operating in Lan Ha Bay said Each customer must pay an additional 300,000 VND/tour without being allowed to visit any point in Ha Long Bay.
Speaking with Lao Dong, a representative of the Lan Ha Yacht Association said that the opening of the Ha Long 6 Bay Journey is also partly to help overnight ships in Lan Ha and Cat Ba Bay to directly go to the ports on the Ha Long Bay to pick up and drop off guests, instead of having to use high-speed ships as at present.
However, with the above calculation, owners of overnight cruise ships in Lan Ha Bay will still choose to use high-speed boats to pick up passengers from Tuan Chau Port to Lan Ha Bay because the price is much cheaper.
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.
The cost of hiring a high-speed ship to transport passengers from Tuan Chau to a tourist ship anchored in Lan Ha Bay and vice versa is about 180,000 VND - 200,000 VND/passenger.
