First Chinese cruise ship docks in Ha Long Bay after 3 years

Zhao Shang Yi Dun, with nearly 800 Chinese tourists, became the first Chinese cruise ship to dock at Quang Ninh province’s Ha Long International Port in three years.

Soon after disembarking Tuesday, the tourists will visit the UNESCO heritage site of Ha Long Bay, famous for thousands of limestone karst mountains rising out of emerald waters, before going to Hanoi, around two hours east.

Then they will proceed to the central beach city of Danang before leaving for Hong Kong.

Zhao Shang Yi Dun plans to carry a total of over 12,000 visitors to Quang Ninh by March 2024, local authorities said.

Built in 2017, the Chinese cruise ship is 228.3 meters long and 32 m wide. The ship, called a “floating hotel”, has an elegant Nordic-style design. All room types on the ship have balconies with sea views. The ship has seven restaurants, serving Chinese, South Korean, Japanese, French and Italian cuisines.

A representative of the Quang Ninh Department of Tourism said the return of the Chinese cruise passengers was a positive sign of post-pandemic tourism recovery.

China used to be Vietnam’s largest inbound tourism source before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Quang Ninh aims to turn tourism into an economic spearhead, attracting at least 25.5 - 26 million visitors, including about 8.6 - 9 million foreigners, by 2030.

It targets 16 million and 17.5 million tourist arrivals in 2024 and 2025, including at least 3 million and 4.5 million international guests, respectively.

A steady stream of luxury cruise ships with international visitors have docked at Vietnamese ports since the beginning of the year as tourism picks up post-pandemic steam.

Nguyen Trung Khanh, general director of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT), said that the country has paid a lot of attention to upgrading and developing infrastructure at seaports in Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Ha Long, Quy Nhon and Danang.

According to VNAT, October was the fourth consecutive month that Vietnam welcomed more than a million foreign visitors this year at 1.11 million.

China was the second biggest market with 1.3 million arrivals, well behind South Korea with 2.9 million arrivals.

The year before the pandemic, Vietnam had received a record 5 million Chinese tourists out of a total of 18 million foreign arrivals.