The attraction of Ha Long tourism in autumn and winter

In the last week of August and the beginning of September, Ha Long organized two new festivals for the first time, bringing interesting experiences to the people and tourists in this year's autumn-winter tourist season. This is not only a positive move to realize the goal of the project to build "Ha Long - Festival City" but also contributes to the goal of welcoming 10.3 million visitors to the city this year.

Exciting and unique new festivals

Performance vehicles in the Sailboat, Parachute, and Jet Ski Festival with the theme “Overcoming the Waves of Ha Long - 2024”. Photo: Do Phuong

Accordingly, on August 24, there will be a Sailboat, Paragliding, and Jet Ski Festival with the theme "Overcoming the Waves of Ha Long - 2024" with the convergence of 50 vehicles of all kinds. Visitors to the festival will be delighted with the attractive performances of water and air sports . In the air, there will be paragliding performances carrying the national flag, and on the surface of the bay, there will be sailing teams parading, performing artistic jet skis, parading with the national flag, jet skis running in formation, performing flares, national flags with LED lights... The activities will last from Tuan Chau area, Ocean Park beach and the focus will be the coastal area opposite Ha Long Flower Park.

Following that, on September 1 and 2, during the national National Day holiday, visitors to Ha Long City continued to immerse themselves in the colorful atmosphere of the Hot Air Balloon Festival with the theme "Heritage City - Colors of Ha Long", with a variety of activities, such as: Hot air balloon flying, visiting hot air balloons on the ground, hot air balloon lantern night with the participation of 20 hot air balloons of different colors and sizes.

The festival area is also in both tourist centers of the city: Bai Chay side at Ocean Park beach and Hon Gai side at 30/10 Square. Visitors to the festival not only admire and visit but also have the opportunity to experience flying with hot air balloons. On this occasion, besides hot air balloon activities, there are also paragliding activities (Paramotor) flying from Bai Chay over Cua Luc bay to 30/10 Square and vice versa.

Tourists visit and experience the "Heritage City - Colors of Ha Long" Hot Air Balloon Festival. Photo: Minh Duc

This fall and winter, after the two festivals mentioned above, Ha Long City promises to continue the vibrant atmosphere with a series of other cultural and tourism events when most of the activities and events in the 92 programs, events, and tourism stimulus activities at international, national, provincial and local levels will take place in the second half of this year, held in Ha Long, promising great attraction to tourists, such as: Korean and Vietnamese Music Festival, Vnexpress Marathon Amazing 2024, Bay Trianthlon 51.1 Tuan Chau - Ha Long 2024, Quang Ninh Culinary Festival 2024...

Ha Long City also plans to organize more festivals in the last months of the year, such as: Full Moon Festival and artistic light show by the heritage bay in the 8th lunar month, Ripe Guava Festival in September, Flower Festival at Quang La Flower Paradise in December... Thus, the festival space will not only focus on the sea area but also expand to the mountainous area in the North of Ha Long, associated with the special and famous agricultural products of this land.

Tourism stimulus programs and activities in the last 6 months of the year are mainly held in Ha Long City. Photo taken at the Asia-Pacific Robot Contest (ABU Robocon), August 2024. Photo: Hoang Nga

Sharing with the press, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son, Vice Chairman of Ha Long City People's Committee, said that in order to continue creating unique and classy tourism products to attract tourists, the city will also create conditions to attract investors to stage and organize film production programs, music, entertainment, live performances associated with the island culture and traditional culture of ethnic minorities in the area.

The door is open

As the largest tourist center in the province, this year, Ha Long City aims to welcome 9 million visitors, including 1.7 million foreign visitors. In the first 6 months of the year, Ha Long is estimated to welcome 5.8 million visitors, the target of welcoming foreign visitors has been achieved at 1.7 million visitors. Therefore, with the target of welcoming 19 million visitors this year, an increase of 2 million visitors compared to the plan at the beginning of the year, Ha Long is assigned the highest target of increasing by 1.3 million visitors to 10.3 million visitors, including 2.1 million international visitors, an increase of 400,000 visitors compared to the plan at the beginning of the year.

The results of welcoming visitors in the last 2 months of Ha Long show that the local tourism industry continues to have a breakthrough and flourish. In particular, the number of tourists to Ha Long in July reached 1.8 million visitors, in August it is estimated to reach nearly 1 million visitors, the cumulative number in 8 months is 8.7 million visitors, reaching 84.5% of the yearly plan; total tourism revenue reached 19,213 billion VND, equal to 140% compared to the same period.

The long September 2nd holiday this year can be considered the peak tourist season in Ha Long before the low tourist season at the end of the year. According to reports, during the holidays, the occupancy rate of hotels in the area reached about 80-90%. Popular tourist destinations include Ha Long Bay, Sunworld Ha Long Complex Park, Quang Ninh Museum, etc.

Tourist arrivals to Ha Long City reached 8.7 million in the past 8 months. Photo taken at Ha Long International Passenger Port.

Although autumn and winter are the low season for Ha Long tourism every year due to the cooling down of the attraction of island tourism, with the goal of welcoming 1.6 million visitors in the last 4 months of the year, the opportunity for local tourism to reach the finish line early is within reach.

Because from around October, Ha Long enters the peak season for cruise tourists. In the last months of this year, the province also plans to open more sea tourism routes from Beihai City, Guangxi (China) and from Guangzhou City (China) to Ha Long City. And from October 2024, the province will also coordinate with businesses to open more flight routes via Van Don International Airport, such as: Flight route from Wuxi, Jiangsu, China - Van Don, Quang Ninh; flight route from Jeju, Korea - Van Don, Quang Ninh.

At the same time, continue to connect with tourism businesses, open other international tourism routes from China, Korea and domestic flights in the southern region to Quang Ninh via Van Don International Airport. This number of visitors also mainly flock to the tourist center of Ha Long.

Along with that, to continue to increase the attraction of Ha Long tourism, new tourism products in Ha Long Bay, tourism products exploited in the mountainous area north of the city are also being actively deployed by relevant units and localities to be able to remove obstacles, complete, and soon put into operation.

Strengthen inspection and handling of violations

Following the drastic actions in recent times, in mid-August, the city continued to issue documents on rectifying the local tourism business environment. Accordingly, with the view of restoring order in the management of tourism business activities in the area, the city will regularly conduct surprise inspections, strictly handle violations, and resolutely close and stop the operations of establishments that violate the law and negatively affect the tourism business environment in the area.

A delegation of officials from Ha Long Bay Management Board conducted a survey at Lom Bo Island to serve the development of new tourism products on the bay, August 2024.

The city has assigned specific responsibilities to local authorities in managing and implementing tasks such as: Advertising, promotion, and art performance activities; strictly controlling market prices; managing taxi and parking operations; handling the environment and landscape, especially waste treatment; thoroughly handling the phenomenon of touts, customer soliciting, begging, and street vendors; building a culture of civilized behavior in tourism activities; ensuring safety and preventing drowning for people and tourists coming to Ha Long; strengthening the prevention of fraud in tourism business activities on the internet.

The locality also requested the Provincial Tourism Association to strengthen recommendations and information to branches, restaurants, hotels and tourists about qualified business establishments operating in the city to ensure the rights of consumers when coming to Ha Long; at the same time, coordinate to handle tourists' feedback promptly and effectively; direct branches and travel agencies to seriously implement legal regulations in tourism service business activities in the area...

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