Bringing Quang Ninh tourism to affirm its position as a globally competitive destination

With a variety of types such as sea and island tourism, cultural - spiritual tourism, resort tourism, rural experience tourism, border - island tourism..., many entertainment activities, events, and synchronous infrastructure, Quang Ninh has been and is a favorite destination for tourists, gradually becoming a national tourism center, promoting sustainable development.

Constantly innovating

To exploit potential, attract tourists, and create attractive destinations, Quang Ninh has constantly researched, exploited, and put into operation a variety of tourism products. The highlight was the recent April 30 - May 1 holiday, when Quang Ninh organized dozens of attractive, innovative, and diverse programs, events, and products. These include: Carnaval 2024 - Shining with wonders; Beer and squid cake festival, setting the record for "The biggest squid cake in Vietnam"; Lion, lion, and dragon festival; Tran Quoc Nghien Temple Festival; street circus performances; San Co Summer Greeting program in Quang An commune... Thereby, in 5 days, the total number of tourists to Quang Ninh reached over 1.018 million, an increase of 48% over the same period in 2023, much higher than many key tourist destinations in the North such as: Hai Phong, Ninh Binh, Lao Cai. Total tourism revenue is estimated at VND2,210 billion, up 53% over the same period.

In order to increase the attractiveness of sea and island tourism, recently, the 3-day, 2-night "Heritage Journey" cruise with the Grand Pioneers 2 cruise ship with a luxurious, modern design and 5-star international standard service quality of Viet Thuan Group has been launched. These are products and services among 62 new tourism products of Quang Ninh in 2024. Departing from Tuan Chau International Passenger Port, the journey takes visitors through iconic destinations of the heritage and wonders of Ha Long Bay such as Trong Mai Islet, Dinh Huong Islet, Stone Stacking Park, extending to Bai Tu Long National Park and Ban Sen, Quan Lan, Minh Chau islands of Van Don district with diverse historical and cultural values. This is the first product connecting the two bays of Ha Long - Bai Tu Long, linking the seas and islands, enhancing the experience for visitors. This direction is also expected to create a new trend for high-end resort tourism on the bay, associated with green tourism, attracting high-end customer markets in the future.

The heritage journey goes through all the sea areas currently being exploited for tourism, extending the tourism space from Ha Long Bay to Bai Tu Long National Park and Van Don island. With this journey, we hope to bring visitors the most complete experience of the geomorphological forms, values, biodiversity, cultural and historical values, the most special thing is that on the journey, people and nature are blended into one, Mr. Luong Huu Tuyen, Deputy Director of Viet Thuan Group emphasized.

Not only focusing on investing in infrastructure, improving service quality, launching new products, Quang Ninh also focuses on promoting its image, people and destinations. Along with organizing tourism promotion programs, conferences, seminars, seizing the opportunity to expand the connection space from the 4.0 era, from the province to localities, businesses have implemented new strategies to develop tourism, especially promoting tourism through social platforms, applying digital technology...

At the end of 2023, Quang Ninh welcomed a delegation of nearly 100 prestigious and influential content creators and TikTokers from Vietnam and countries in Europe, Australia, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia to explore and promote destinations and experiences such as Ha Long Bay, Yen Tu special national relic site... on the TikTok platform. It is estimated that about 150 million people have accessed the clips introducing Quang Ninh tourism posted by the delegation members on the TikTok platform.

In April, Ha Long City signed a cooperation agreement with TikTok Vietnam and Vitamin Vietnam Media and Entertainment Joint Stock Company to launch the "Happy Ha Long" campaign and the "Ha Long - Food and Music" campaign to promote the inherent cultural and tourism beauty of Ha Long. Ha Long City will be the first locality in the country to replicate the "Happy Vietnam - Happy Vietnam 2024" campaign launched by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Along with that, localities and businesses proactively apply digital technology to promote images, services and destinations.

Mr. Nguyen Thai Linh, Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Co To district, said: Determining the importance of applying technology to promote destinations, especially for island districts like Co To, the district has soon built a specialized website on tourism "Coto.gov.vn", wifi coverage, QR codes for information lookup. The district has upgraded Co To's electronic information page, added a digital tourism map application, digitized information on tourist destinations, helping visitors easily search, contact, and book services. At the same time, promoting digitization, attaching QR codes, bilingual voice explanations on streets, relic sites, tourist attractions, and beaches in the area, creating the Cotoguide app. Hotels in Co To only need 1 employee to advise customers by phone or online because all information has been digitized and encapsulated in 1 link or QR code. Thanks to that, the number of searches about Co To on the internet increased by about 180% compared to the same period in 2023, the number of tourists coming to Co To in early 2024 increased by 160% compared to the same period.

Attractive 4-season destination "not to be missed"

The province has identified the highest goal from now until 2030 as building Quang Ninh into a typical province of the country in all aspects, a model province, rich, beautiful, civilized, modern, improving the quality of life of the people in all aspects, becoming a national tourist locomotive, a tourist center connecting with the region and the world; developing modern, high-quality comprehensive services that increasingly play a leading role; tourism becoming a spearhead economic sector with a high-quality, international-class service system, great added value associated with sustainable development of the marine economy; attracting tourists from all five continents, becoming an attractive destination in all four seasons that is "not to be missed" when coming to Vietnam. Therefore, Quang Ninh is building a tourism development project until 2030, with a vision to 2050.

The project persistently and consistently implements the policy of sustainable and inclusive development of Quang Ninh tourism on the basis of green growth as a requirement throughout policies, strategies and planning; developing green tourism in a professional, modern direction, with a focus and key points associated with preserving and promoting the values ​​and identity of the nation's culture; managing, exploiting sustainably, using natural resources effectively and protecting the environment, conserving biodiversity, promoting the value of the world natural wonder heritage Ha Long Bay; proactively responding to climate change, effectively solving labor, employment and social security issues; ensuring national defense, security and order; making tourism truly a spearhead economic sector closely combined with industry, agriculture and marine economic development, strongly promoting the development of different sectors and fields, improving the quality of people's lives.

It is expected that the project will focus on promoting investment attraction in tourism and service projects; developing golf courses according to the plan; accompanying and removing all difficulties and obstacles in the process of researching and investing in service and tourism projects; speeding up the implementation of ongoing service and tourism projects. Tourism space will be linked to cultural space; locating national-level tourist areas in Ha Long, Cam Pha, Van Don (linked to Bai Tu Long Bay), Mong Cai, Uong Bi - Dong Trieu, Co To. The province will also gradually and effectively implement sustainable tourism models, with circularity, no plastic waste, no lynon bags, no carbon emissions...

Developing the heritage economy, making cultural and natural heritage become a resource and driving force for growth, creating a breakthrough in economic development, enhancing the value of local brands; innovating, improving the quality and competitiveness of existing tourism products and services to increase spending, revenue and tourism economic efficiency are some of the key solutions. At the same time, developing the tourism ecosystem, building the Quang Ninh tourism brand with many new, unique, high-quality, different, high-value-added tourism products, raising Quang Ninh tourism to become a bright spot on the tourism map of Vietnam and the world, affirming its position as a globally competitive destination. In particular, the province will also accelerate digital transformation, develop high-quality tourism human resources, and encourage the participation of local people in local tourism activities.