Quang Ninh(VNA) – Ha Long city, home to the world natural heritage site Ha Long Bay, isworking to turn itself into a civilised and friendly resort destination.
Secretary of the municipal Party Committee TranDuc Lam said in 2017 and the following years, Ha Long – a city in the northeasternprovince of Quang Ninh – will continue developing socio-economic infrastructureand improve management of Ha Long Bay.
It will run campaigns to encourage locals tofollow a civilised lifestyle, clean up the environment, and be friendly towardstourists.
He added authorised agencies will strictlyhandle tourism-related wrongdoings and inspect tourist destinations to combat harassmentor overcharging of visitors. In 2016, the city dealt with 703 administrativeviolations in the tourism industry, collecting total fines of nearly 1.58billion VND (over 69,400 USD).
Last year, Ha Long welcomed 6.3 million touristsand earned 7.7 trillion VND (over 338 million USD) in revenue, respective increasesof 14 percent and 65 percent from the previous year. About 2.7 million of thevisitors were foreigners, a year-on-year growth of 16 percent.
The number of tourists to this city also increasedsharply from the outset of 2017, surpassing 660,000 during the Lunar New Yearholiday alone – up 15 percent from the same period last year.
The municipal administration said it has workedto diversify and improve tourism products, upgrade infrastructure, and bettertourism workers’ capacity. The sense of responsibility of local residents andservice providers has also been improved.
Ha Long also helped to organise some activitiesof the Ha Long-Quang Ninh Tourism Week, the Yen Tu cherry-yellow apricot flowerfestival, Ha Long Carnival, the festival of Tran Quoc Nghien Temple, and aspring flower festival, thereby creating interesting tourism products.-VNA