Quang Ninh (VNA) – Authoritiesof Ha Long city in the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh will coordinatewith relevant agencies to evaluate service quality of tourist boats operatingon Ha Long and Bai Tu Long Bays from November 15 to December 25.

The inspections will focus ontechnical safety, firefighting, search and rescue capacity, and environmentalprotection equipment, and other facilities of the boats, as well as labour lawenforcement of boat owners and crew members.

Ha Long city is managing 504tourist boats, with 478 on Ha Long Bay and the others on Bai Tu Long Bay.

Ho Quang Huy, Vice Chairman ofthe People’s Committee of Ha Long city, said the locality has so far this yearsuspended operations of 36 tourist boats and 15 crew members, and forced 41boats to stop operations.

Since 2017, Ha Long has destroyed80 vessels that violated regulations on managing, protecting and promoting heritagevalues of Ha Long Bay. 

HaLong Bay literally “descending dragon bay” is a must-see destination in QuangNinh. It was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 and 2000.

The bay spans 1,553 square kilometres andincludes 1,969 islands of various sizes. It features thousands of limestonekarsts and islets in various shapes and sizes. The limestone in the bay hasgone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions andenvironments. The geo-diversity of the environment has created biodiversity,including a tropical evergreen biosystem, oceanic and sea biosystem. Ha LongBay is home to 14 endemic floral species and 60 endemic faunal species.

ThePrime Minister has approved a master plan for Ha Long city to 2040 with avision towards 2050, aiming to develop the city into a world-class tourism andservice hub. 

The master plan targets to raise status for HaLong city in particular and Quang Ninh province in general in the region andthe world by developing the locality in a sustainable manner, meeting greengrowth and climate change adaptation related-requirements. 

Under the master plan, Ha Long will be convertedinto a civilised and friendly sea tourism city with synchronous and modernsocio-economic infrastructure systems, where the World Natural Heritage Site HaLong Bay is preserved.

The city, which has an administrative boundaryof 27,753 hectares, is expected to become a national service-tourism urban areaand a driving force for regional growth.

Endowed with natural advantages for sea andisland tourism, Quang Ninh is working to promote its tourism brand abroad andbecome an international tourism hub by 2030.

Lastyear, some 9.87 million tourists visited the province, including 4.28 millionforeigners. More than 70 percent of the tourists took in sea and island tours.The province raked in nearly 18 trillion VND (792 million USD) fromtourism.-VNA