At the meeting, regarding the operation of tourist boats in Ha Long and Bai Tu Long bays, facing new development requirements in the context of increasingly severe weather changes, the Standing Committee of the Quang Ninh Provincial Party Committee requested relevant units to carefully review the conditions to ensure security and safety for the fleet of boats organizing the tour of Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay.
In particular, it is necessary to deploy the application of science and technology in managing the number of passengers, managing vehicles when leaving the wharf; have specific instructions for ships when incidents and unexpected situations occur so that the authorities can promptly deploy timely rescue and relief measures.
Previously, after the incident of the tourist boat Vinh Xanh 58, license plate QN-7105 in Ha Long Bay that killed 39 people and saved 10 lives, responding to Lao Dong Newspaper, a representative of the Department of Waterways and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection, Quang Ninh Provincial Department of Construction said that the boat Vinh Xanh 58 did not send an distress signal when it capsized. The reason is that the ship has a GPS positioning system but the GPS does not have the SOS signal function.
In addition, the GPS system depends on phone waves while phone waves in Ha Long Bay are flooding, many areas do not have phone waves.
Currently, most cruise ships in Ha Long Bay only install GPS devices for authorities to manage the ship's travel schedules.
At the time of capsizing, the Green Bay 58 ship, license plate QN-7105, also lost its GPS signal.
The Bay of Green ship 58 capsized at around 1:45 p.m. on July 19, 2025, but it was not until 3:30 p.m. the same day that the authorities received the information.
Not only is the technology of managing tourist boats and passengers very rudimentary, but the purchase of tickets to visit Ha Long Bay and booking tourist boats is still basically done by manual methods.
In addition to some shipping lines, especially accommodation ships, tourists can book tickets online through the systems of shipping lines, while others must go directly to the port or book through ship owners and travel companies.
Tourists do not know whether the boat has a seat or not, how many hours to run because this information is not available on the technology platforms of the authorities, even on the information page of the Ha Long Bay Management Board.
Meanwhile, for trains and airplanes, just one click on the homepage is enough to understand all schedules, and you can even check-in for airplanes anywhere.
