According to information from the People's Committee of Ha Long City, currently, on Ha Long Bay and the coast of Ha Long City, there are 502 tourist ships, including 324 sightseeing ships, 174 accommodation ships and 4 restaurant ships, operating on 8 routes.
In particular, the accommodation ships with the main function of transporting overnight guests on the bay, mainly operate on routes 2 and 4 on Ha Long Bay.
Sightseeing boats transporting tourists during the day mainly operate on routes 1 and 2 in Ha Long Bay.
Restaurant boats mainly operate on route number 8 on Ha Long Bay, combining coastal lighting services to create a night view of Ha Long city.
According to data on visitors to Ha Long Bay in 2024 and visitors using dining services on shore restaurants in 2024, the total number of visitors to Ha Long Bay is 3,216,484.
Of which, the number of visitors on route 1 was 742,287 (accounting for 23.07%); route 2 was 2,366,464 (accounting for 73.57%); route 3 was 11,608 (accounting for 0.36%); route 4 was 93,203 (accounting for 2.9%); route 5 was 2,922 (accounting for 0.09%).
The total number of guests using the dining service on the restaurant ship on route 8 (without applying the entrance fee) was 118,023 guests (835 trips for 4 restaurant ships.
According to the People's Committee of Ha Long City, regarding the transportation of tourists on Ha Long Bay, the number of tourists using the service on cruise ships mainly participates in route number 2, Ha Long Bay, leading to overload at some times at tourist attractions on the route.
Apart from route number 5 (route from the port through Ha Long Bay to Gia Luan wharf, Cat Ba, Hai Phong), routes number 3 and 4 to Ha Long Bay have very few passengers.
In particular, line 3 will have only 2,922 passengers in 2024.
For the coastal routes of Ha Long city: Currently, there are only 4 restaurant ships operating along the shore, serving guests with food and sightseeing combined with lighting to create a coastal landscape of Ha Long city. According to the data issued by the Quang Ninh Inland Waterways Port Authority in 2024, the average occupancy rate of these vehicles is only 49.5%, which is only concentrated on days in the summer months (occupancy rate is about 80-90% of the total number of seats), leading to not fully exploiting the operating capacity of the restaurant ships, causing waste of business resources.
To overcome this situation, Ha Long City People's Committee is developing a regulation plan to submit to Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee.
