Quang Binh becomes prominent on tourist map

Over the past five years, the central province of Quang Binh has created a new image on Vietnam’s tourism map and become a favourite destination of foreign tourists. Vietnam Economic News explains what has made Quang Binh such a popular tourist destination.
Over the past five years, the central province of Quang Binh has createda new image on Vietnam’s tourism map and become a favourite destinationof foreign tourists. Vietnam Economic News explains what has made QuangBinh such a popular tourist destination.

Tourists already booked tours for 2015

Quang Binh has 116.04 km of coastline with a diverse terrain includingplains, mountains, rivers and lakes, the sea, islands and caves,providing the full range of natural environments that can be foundthroughout Vietnam.

Phong Nha-Ke Bang has beenrecognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site thanks to it being home tothe world’s biggest cave dating back more than 400 million years. Thecomplex includes over 300 large and small caves such as Son Doong, PhongNha, Thien Duong (Paradise), En (Swallow) and Tu Lan caves.

Over recent years, Quang Binh Province has mobilised resources toprioritise investment in tourism infrastructure such as roads,electricity supplies, wharfs, airports, clean water and medical care.Tourist accommodation has been built and upgraded. Many new tours havebeen put into operation and obtained initial positive results such asSinh Ton valley – Thuy Cung cave, Rao Thuong natural tourism discovery –Swallow cave, Chay river – Dark cave, and Tu Lan and Son Doong caves.

The exploration of Son Doong cave discovery tourcosts 3,000 USD per person, but despit the cost a large number ofdomestic and foreign tourists have registered to take in its wonders,with over 400 tourists having already booked the tour for 2014 and 2015.

Some 20 km from Phong Nha on the Ho Chi Minh CityHighway to the west, Paradise Cave after receiving hundreds of billionsVND in investment has become a paradise in the true sense of the word,attracting hundreds of thousands of domestic and foreign tourists eachyear.

With such a large tourist potential, in 2013Quang Binh tourism industry has attracted 1.2 million visitors, ayear-on-year increase of 15 percent. Among them, the foreign touriststotaled 36,700, up 23 percent, earning revenue of 1.2 trillion VND.

Boosting connection for further development

Apart from diverse potential, the success of Quang Binh tourism wasattributed to the efforts of functional agencies to implement tourismpromotion programs such as organising tourism promotion conferences inHo Chi Minh City, Thailand and Australia, introducing tourism productsin Cambodia; connecting tourism activities between the north centralprovinces; conducting surveys on tourist destinations in Quang Binh;promoting tourism on the East West Economic Corridor and promotinginternational cooperation in tourism with ASEAN countries, the Republicof Korea and Japan.

In 2014, Quang Binh sets atarget to attract 1.3 million visitors, including 40,000 foreigntourists, and earning revenue of 1.3 trillion VND. At the same time, itstrives to gradually transform provincial tourism into a spearhead ofthe local economy. According to Deputy Director General of the VietnamNational Tourism Administration Nguyen Manh Cuong, to realise theseobjectives, the connection of tourism activities between Quang Binh andthe northern province is an important measure to boost the developmentof the sector.

Deputy Director of the Department ofCulture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Binh Nguyen Van Ky said also in2014, the key connection orientation of Quang Binh tourism is Hanoi andthe northern provinces, where there are tourist companies organisingtours to Quang Binh and Phong Nha - Ke Bang (accounting for the highestpercentage in recent times) in particular.

Inaddition, Quang Binh tourism industry will also focus on implementingmeasures such as making continued efforts to innovate and draftmechanisms to attract investment in tourism, developing tourism productsand infrastructure, strengthening regional links, promotinginternational cooperation and tourism promotion and expanding tourismmarkets to attract more visitors with priority given to the domesticmarket, the northeast region of Thailand, Laos and other traditionalmarkets.

Quang Binh tourism remains as a potentialgold mine. It is expected that with enthusiasm and dedication ofbusinesses in the Quang Binh tourism sector and Vietnam tourism ingeneral, Quang Binh will become a tourist hotspot.-VNA

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