Travel

Son Doong Cave attractive to travellers

Many tourists are willing to wait in long queues and pay higher for a trip to explore the beauty of Son Doong Cave inside the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park in the central province of Quang Binh, a local newspaper reported.
Many tourists are willing to wait in long queues and pay higher for atrip to explore the beauty of Son Doong Cave inside the Phong Nha - KeBang National Park in the central province of Quang Binh, a localnewspaper reported.

The Saigon Times Daily quoted Deputy Directorof the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen VanKy as saying that only four tours with limited numbers of travellers areallowed to enter the cave. Bookings for the adventure this year havebeen closed.

According to the portal of Quang Binh province, theprovince only licenses seven-day and five-day tours to Son Doong Cavewith each having a maximum of eight participants.

The allowabletours to Son Doong Cave next year have been almost fully booked althoughdeparture schedules have not been announced by organisers. Travellerscan make bookings for next year based on the “first come, first served”basis.

Ky said tour organisers are finding ways to manage tripsof fewer days to Son Doong Cave but still ensure that participants willbe able to admire all the scenic sites of the majestic cave.

A seven-day tour to Son Doong Cave, inclusive of a one-day course, costs 3,000 USD a passenger.

AsSon Doong has been discovered recently, the local government of QuangBinh province only allows Oxalis Adventure Tours to implement a pilotscheme of organising tours of the cave from March last year. The periodfor such tours this year is from February to August.

In Septemberwhen the wet season begins in the region and the tours of Son DoongCave are suspended, the provincial authorities and Oxalis will discussnext year’s exploring season for Son Doong so as to meet the growingdemand of travellers, especially foreign adventurers. After that,departures and itineraries for the trips to the cave will be publicized.

Kysaid the province has plans to allow more travel firms to arrange toursto Son Doong if they meet the requirements regarding safety fortourists, environmental protection and having specialists in cave andmountain climbing.

Son Doong was discovered by the UnitedKingdom’s Royal Geographical Society in 2009 and is considered theworld’s biggest cave. The cave is about 200 metres wide and over 150metres high.

With the opening of Son Doong Cave in 2013, QuangBinh was instantly catapulted onto the bucket lists of travellers aroundthe world.

Recently, the New York Times named Quang Binh as oneof the most attractive destinations in Asia and eighth out of theworld’s 52 top tourist destinations for 2014./.
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