Struggling to manage cruise ships
As Lao Dong Newspaper has reported, for many months now, cruise ship owners in Ha Long Bay have sent official dispatches to relevant agencies regarding the situation of different types of cruise ships, including overnight cruise ships in the bay, daytime cruise ships, and restaurant ships encroaching on each other.
This situation has only recently emerged, but before that, each type of ship operated in its own segment. This encroachment on each other is partly due to the low number of passengers compared to the huge capacity of the Ha Long Bay cruise fleet, leading to more than 500 ships operating at only about 30-40% capacity.
It started with a collective complaint from day tour boat owners about the situation where some overnight boats also switched to picking up daytime passengers, running on the same tour route, leading to local congestion at tourist attractions.
Next, restaurant ship owners sent official letters "accusing" overnight ships and sightseeing ships of encroaching on the "yard" of restaurant ships.
In the official dispatch sent to the Provincial Party Committee, the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province and departments, branches and sectors, the group of restaurant ship owners operating in Ha Long Bay proposed that the Provincial Party Committee and the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province direct departments, branches and sectors to take measures to manage the operations of inland waterway vehicles serving passengers in the direction that ships operating in which field should exploit that field.
Representatives of the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association and day tour boat owners also said that if the current encroachment is not handled, the situation could become even more chaotic, because many boat owners are willing to change their form of operation and many new, large boats will be put into operation in the near future.
From a business perspective, according to representatives of some authorities, the fact that ships operate multiple functions, such as accommodation ships that pick up guests during the day, also aims to maximize the efficiency of the ship and is also within regulations.
However, which route to operate at what time needs to be discussed, to avoid traffic conflicts and unhealthy competition.
Policy needs stability
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, some owners of restaurant and day tour boats said that the approved ship should be built and operated as it is. If they change it arbitrarily or are allowed to change by the authorities, it will affect their businesses and no one will dare to invest in building ships anymore.
“The development, business and operation strategies of the fleet must be stable, long-term and professional, so that businesses and people can feel secure,” a ship owner shared. “The government and relevant agencies need to support, plan and orient to improve product quality and human resources to contribute to enhancing the position of the destination. Unhealthy competition will destroy the service quality of the destination.”
Not to mention, the encroachment of different types of tourist boats is concentrated on routes 1 and 2 - the busiest and most crowded routes in Ha Long Bay and has been warned by UNESCO about overloading for many years and requires solutions to reduce the load.
Not only that, the channels on these routes are small and shallow because they have not been dredged for many years, while newly built ships are getting bigger and bigger, making it very difficult to get in and out. Most large ships have to park outside and transfer passengers by small boats.
According to regulations, tenders must be used to transport passengers to ensure traffic safety regulations in the port area. However, with many large ships, high-speed boats must be used because they can carry more and run faster to ensure the time to pick up and drop off passengers.
"If ships want to operate outside their main areas, why don't they plan routes 3-4 or open new routes, instead of having to go to routes that have been warned to be overloaded?" - a cruise ship owner asked.
Previously, after many cruise ships in Ha Long Bay continued to "encroach" on the land of the cruise ships, causing traffic problems and affecting the rights of the cruise ships, the People's Committee of Ha Long City proposed that cruise ships that transported tourists (not staying overnight) not be allowed to participate in the tourist routes of the cruise ships on routes 1 and 2.
