According to an overnight cruise ship owner in Ha Long Bay, in the past, the company's ships often took tourists on route 3 (now renamed Ha Long Bay 3 Journey).
This journey includes the following locations: Ship Port - Cua Van Floating Cultural Center - Tien Ong Cave - Ba tunnel Lake - Ba Men Temple - Ang Du - Truc Forest.
However, recently, ships have temporarily abandoned this route because of poor and unattractive tourism products while tourists travel at least 2 days, 1 night.
Currently, on this journey, there is only kayaking and crab boat service in Cua Van fishing village, while Cua Van Floating Cultural Center has been degraded and devastated for many years but has not been repaired yet.
Similarly, previous overnight cruise ships often operate on Ha Long 4 Bay Journey, with the following itinerary: Ship Port - Co Cave (Thien Canh Son) - Thay Cave - Cap La Cave - Vung Vieng fishing village - Tung Ang ecological area - Cong Do Island - Hon Xep Park - also temporarily abandoning this itinerary for the same reason.
In particular, journeys 3 and 4 are the longest, serving long-distance visitors but without any beaches while along these journeys there are many beautiful sandbanks at the foot of the rocky mountains.
Notably, in the area of Thien Canh Son cave, part of Ha Long Bay 4 Journey, there is a beautiful, wide sand beach, but visitors can only go up to see it but not swim.
To get to the only beach in Ha Long Bay - Ti Top Beach, part of Journey 2, visitors must return to the shore and re-make the procedures, and buy tickets for the entire Journey 2.
According to the Quang Ninh Province Waterway and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection Port, the Quang Ninh Provincial Department of Construction, previously, every day, it issued orders for about 60 ships to stay overnight on Journey No. 4, but now there are more than 10 ships on the days when there are many, while on Journey No. 3, which already has few visitors, it is very gloomy.
According to the representative of the kayaking service operator at Cua Van fishing village, each day it only welcomes a few dozen foreign visitors.
Quitting Tour 3 and 4, the overnight trains have switched to Tour 1 and 2, which is both closer and has more services for tourists.
Journey 1 includes the following locations: Thien Cung Ship Port - Dau Go Cave - Hon Cho Da Cave - Ba Hang Cave - Hon Dinh Huong - Hon Trong Mai; while Journey 2 passes through the following locations: Port - Soi Sim Beach - Ti Top Island - Sung Soi Cave - Tung Sau Cave - Me Cung Cave - Bo Nau Cave - Luon Cave - Trong Cave - Trinh Nu Cave - Ho Dong Tien Cave.
Of which, most of the ships that abandoned Journey 3 and 4 have switched to Journey 2 because they have Ti Top beach.
However, this is continuing to put pressure on journeys 1 and 2, which have long been warned by UNESCO about being overloaded.
Not only are more ships moving to the core areas of Ha Long Bay, but the newly built ships are getting larger and larger, while the canals have not been dredged and cleared for many years, causing some points such as Ti Top, Thien Cung - Dau Go... to frequently be congested.
According to ship owners, to convince cruise ship owners to move ships to sparsely populated routes, in order to reduce the load on routes in the core area of Ha Long Bay, there must be new products and services, even more on core routes.
According to the Ha Long Bay Management Board, since the beginning of the year, Ha Long Bay has welcomed about 600,000 visitors, mainly foreign visitors, with a total revenue from ticket sales of about 200 billion VND.
