This evening (December 14), in Ha Long City, there will be a ceremony to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Ha Long Bay being recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage (December 17, 1994 - December 17, 2024).
This is the first international "crown" of Ha Long Bay and also the first World Natural Heritage of Vietnam, and the second World Heritage of Vietnam recognized by UNESCO, after the Ancient Capital of Hue.
According to the Ha Long Bay Management Board, after being recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage, on December 9, 1995, Quang Ninh province established the Ha Long Bay Management Board to stabilize order in the work of preserving and promoting the value of Ha Long Bay Heritage. The first head of the board was Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan - who later became the General Director of the General Department of Tourism.
According to the Ha Long Bay Management Board, it was not until 1996 that this unit began selling tickets to visit Ha Long Bay.
Previously, people built their own boats and took tourists to visit the bay. Due to the lack of unified management, this led to competition for customers and arbitrary tour prices, causing chaos...
According to the Ha Long Bay Management Board, from 1996 to the end of November 2024, Ha Long Bay has welcomed over 57 million visitors, including over 26.1 million Vietnamese visitors and over 30.8 million foreign visitors. The total revenue from entrance fees to Ha Long Bay from 1996 to present is over VND 8,608 billion.
At first, the total amount of money earned each year from selling tickets to visit Ha Long Bay was only a few tens of billions of VND, because there were not many visitors and the ticket prices were low.
After several adjustments to ticket prices and a gradual increase in the number of visitors, revenue gradually increased and reached VND1,000 billion in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, 2021 achieved the highest revenue - nearly VND1,200 billion, with the reception of nearly 4.4 million visitors, including nearly 2.9 million international visitors.
During the 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were years when revenue was only a few billion VND and now it has returned to nearly 1,000 billion VND. Revenue in 2023 will reach nearly 800 billion VND.
Currently, the ticket price to visit Ha Long Bay during the day is from 200,000 - 250,000 VND/person/time, depending on the tourist route.
Meanwhile, the entrance fee for overnight guests in Ha Long Bay ranges from: 500,000 - 550,000 - 650,000 - 750,000 VND/person/time, depending on the tour.
According to Resolution No. 88/2017/NQ-HDND dated December 13, 2017 of the People's Council of Quang Ninh province, 11% of the total amount collected from selling tickets to visit Ha Long Bay is reserved for the Ha Long Bay Management Board; the remaining 89% is allocated to Ha Long City.
By the end of 2023, Ha Long City has allocated more than VND 2,936 billion from Ha Long Bay entrance fee revenue to invest in projects to restore and renovate works on Ha Long Bay and related onshore infrastructure works.
Among these are key projects such as: 10-lane gateway road project to Ha Long city; Project to expand and upgrade Tran Quoc Nghien coastal road...
