This morning (January 13), representatives of 10 tourist boat owners who violated regulations to allow street vendor boats to dock to board boats to sell goods to tourists worked with the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board.
According to the Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board, in two days, January 8 and 9, 2026, patrol, supervision, safety, rescue, and relief forces under the Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board discovered 10 tourist boats with the act of letting other vehicles cling to and tie to their vehicles while on their journey to sell goods and services to tourists.
The above actions risk disrupting security and order, and inland waterway traffic safety in Ha Long Bay; affecting the tourism business environment and tourism image of Ha Long Bay World Heritage Site.
This also violates the regulations under the contract signed between ship owners and the Ha Long Bay Management Board (now the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board) and may be temporarily suspended from the contract, meaning the ship must temporarily suspend operations.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, representatives of Ha Long Tourist Ship Association and some ship owners said that there may be a situation where some ship owners and captains link up with street vendor boats, but there are also many ship owners and captains who resolutely do not allow street vendor boats to dock.
However, the functional forces of the Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board only filmed and photographed remotely and concluded that all tourist boats violated the same regulations.
We are often threatened and scolded for not allowing street vendors to dock on boats. If we only look at photos and video clips filmed from afar for handling, it is not right. Moreover, why were the functional forces of the Management Board not in to support and handle but only stood far away taking photos and videos at that time," a tourist boat owner angrily said.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong - Deputy Head of Ha Long Bay Tourist Vessel Association - said that handling the situation of street vendors in Ha Long Bay needs the involvement of all relevant parties, especially functional forces, with sufficient authority and means to suppress.
According to tourist boat owners, handling street vendor boats in Ha Long Bay is not difficult because those boats all operate publicly in broad daylight; and at the same time, they can check whether those boats have full papers or not.
Representatives of the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board said that the unit does not have the function or authority to sanction ships and boats that violate security and order, traffic safety... but can only temporarily suspend contracts with ship owners.
However, images and minutes related to violations will be transferred to functional agencies for consideration and handling.
The Ha Long - Yen Tu Bay World Heritage Management Board has also proposed that functional agencies of Quang Ninh province jointly intervene to handle the situation of street vending on Ha Long Bay.
The situation of street vendors in Ha Long Bay once had a rather painful period, with boats installing speed cameras, approaching tourist boats to invite tourists to buy goods. There were also cases of tourist boat staff colluding with street vendors to "rip off" tourists, but there were also captains and crew members who were beaten and scolded for not allowing street vendor boats to dock on the side.
The above situation decreased sharply after the Ha Long Bay Management Board was transferred to the Ha Long City People's Committee, in which the Chairman of the Ha Long City People's Committee concurrently held the position of Head of the Ha Long Bay Management Board. Ha Long Bay at that time was also basically within the administrative boundaries of Ha Long City, and is currently located on the administrative boundaries of the wards: Ha Long, Hong Gai, Bai Chay, Tuan Chau.
With sufficient forces in hand and sufficient authority and means at that time, Ha Long City at that time handled very strongly the situation of street vendor boats in Ha Long Bay, with many street vendor boats being seized, even destroyed because most of these boats were not registered, inspected and no one came to claim them.
