Quang Ninh: Promoting exploitation of cruise and border tourism

During the fall and winter, Quang Ninh creates attraction with a series of vibrant activities, focusing on exploiting the advantages of ships and borders to welcome guests, especially high-paying international guests.

According to experts, international cruise ships are the focus of tourism strategy, targeting high-spending customers.

To welcome this influx of visitors, Quang Ninh has implemented many solutions such as promoting the fall-winter 2025 season, working with shipping lines to increase port calls, taking advantage of new visa policies, building new 99-seat cruise ships, and increasing safety patrols in the bay.

At the same time, shore products are also renewed such as Yen Duc village tour, cultural performances, local cuisine , to increase tourists' experience and spending.

The peak season at the end of 2025 will see a series of major shipping lines return to Quang Ninh. Among them, the Bac Hai-Ha Long route, which stopped operating around 2008, has now restarted, expected to operate 3 trips per week from November 2025.

In addition to bay and city tours, the parties are studying expanding the Ha Long-Hanoi-Ninh Binh route, or even further, to increase options for tourists.

In the first 6 months of the year, the province welcomed 33 trains with nearly 47,000 passengers. It is expected that by the end of the year, there will be about 70 international trains, with nearly 90,000 passengers, from European, North American and Hong Kong airlines.

Behind the development of cruise tourism is the effort to promote, upgrade services and expand the market. Ha Long International Cruise Port has good specialized infrastructure, becoming the destination of many large brands such as Mein Schiff, Celebrity, Westerdam... Tourism products are also renewed, from experiencing nature, culture to local cuisine, serving high-class customers and extending their stay.

Along with cruise ships, border tourism is also a priority development direction. At the Hoanh Mo (Vietnam) - Dong Trung (China) border gate pair, in March 2025, a Vietnam-China friendship cycling race took place with more than 300 athletes participating. In early August, a group of 45 Vietnamese tourists organized by Ha Long Tourist also departed on a 3-day, 2-night tour of Ha Long - Binh Lieu - Nanning.

Recently, the two sides have had meetings and friendly exchanges, and are urgently completing tourism and transportation infrastructure to soon realize the goal, opening a new milestone for cross-border tourism.

At Mong Cai-Dongxing international border gate, an important connection point between Vietnam and China, the restoration of tourism and reopening of passenger transport routes are clearing the flow of border visitors.

The two sides coordinated to deploy smart border gates at Bac Luan Bridge I and II to digitize procedures, shorten customs clearance, and improve tourist experience.

At the same time, Mong Cai invested in expanding Tra Co beach, building walking streets, cuisine, night markets; developing "1 day 2 countries" products, self-driving tours, experiencing border rivers..., diversifying and increasing tourism attraction.

Innovations in immigration procedures and infrastructure are also important. The modern Bac Luan II border gate supports customs clearance of goods and seafood imports; self-driving tourist cars are being piloted; the Ha Long-Van Don-Mong Cai expressway helps shorten travel times, providing a seamless experience for international visitors.

In addition, Quang Ninh promotes and expands international markets, especially towards Northeast Asia, China, India, Europe, etc.; at the same time, it invests in event products, festival tourism, and high-end resort tourism to retain international visitors.

However, cruise and border tourism still faces many challenges such as uneven safety and service management, sometimes cumbersome immigration procedures, international visitors' demands for higher quality services, and cross-border coordination still facing problems with procedures, language, and regulations.

One of the important points is to design, renew or extend new, attractive itineraries and tours imbued with cultural identity... to attract and retain tourists longer.

Therefore, the province is making efforts to overcome shortcomings, speed up the implementation of plans to attract international visitors via cruise and border tourism, aiming to welcome 20 million visitors by 2025, including 4.5 million international visitors, while expanding the market, improving service quality and diversifying products./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/quang-ninh-day-manh-khai-thac-du-lich-tau-bien-va-bien-gioi-post1063243.vnp