Filling the 'gap' for waterway tourism

Although considered a highly safe form of tourism, recent incidents, typically the serious boat capsize in Ha Long Bay on July 19, have sounded the alarm about shortcomings in management, disaster warning and rescue, raising the urgent need to tighten measures to ensure safety for tourists.

“Gold mine” of Vietnam tourism

With the advantage of a 3,200km long coastline, a dense river system and a deep-water port system that is convenient for large ships to anchor, Vietnam has great potential to develop waterway tourism, including sea tourism and river tourism. According to Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh, waterway tourism is a "gold mine" of the Vietnamese tourism industry, bringing in a large number of international visitors with high spending capacity.

According to the General Statistics Office ( Ministry of Finance ), in the first 6 months of the year, the number of visitors to Vietnam by sea reached more than 181,000, accounting for 1.7% of the total number of international visitors to Vietnam. Major markets continued to maintain high growth rates, with China leading with 2.7 million arrivals, accounting for 25.6%, followed by South Korea with 2.2 million arrivals, accounting for 20.7%.

According to the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, since the beginning of the year, Vietnam has continuously welcomed luxury cruise ships and cruise ships to ports in Ha Long (Quang Ninh), Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa), Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. Typically, the Celebrity Solstice ship brought more than 3,000 European and American tourists to visit Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta provinces in January; the Adora Cruise ship docked at Tien Sa port (Da Nang) in February, bringing 2,400 international tourists.

Localities have recorded a high increase in the number of cruise ships compared to the previous year. In the first two months of the year alone, Khanh Hoa welcomed 7 international cruise ships with more than 12,500 tourists. Meanwhile, Quang Ninh province recorded about 70 international cruise ships registered to dock in 2025, an increase of about 30% compared to 2024, with nearly 90,000 international tourists from Europe, America, Australia, Northeast Asia... Tien Sa Port (Da Nang) is estimated to welcome about 76 cruise ships, with more than 70,000 visitors, an increase of 64% compared to 2024.

Not only cruise ships, but also sea and river tourism have also developed strongly in recent years, bringing in large revenues for localities. Typical examples include overnight cruises, sightseeing cruises on Ha Long Bay (Quang Ninh); cruises on the Han River in Da Nang; cruises on the Saigon River in Ho Chi Minh City. In Hanoi, tourism on the Red River is also considered an advantageous product, which is being promoted and renewed by the Hanoi Department of Tourism in coordination with the Hanoi Tourism Corporation.

Need to raise awareness and tighten management

According to experts, cruise tourism has a high level of safety but still has unexpected risks. The capsized boat in Ha Long Bay on July 19, causing many casualties, although considered a rare accident, also sounded the alarm about the need to tighten management processes, licensing, ship standards, disaster warning, rescue and safety instructions for tourists on the sea and river.

Mr. Pham Ha, Chairman of LuxGroup Corporation, the unit that manages and operates many cruise ships in Ha Long Bay and Nha Trang, commented that there are still loopholes in the design of cruise ships when there is no automatic warning system. In addition, weather forecasting and warning for extreme weather is still slow. Many ship owners are quite subjective when there are no clear and specific instructions on how to escape for tourists before boarding the ship.

To overcome this situation, Mr. Pham Ha said that all ships need to be monitored via GPS, AIS (a system for monitoring ships to help track location, direction, speed and many other information) directly connected to the control center managed by the local Destination Management Board. In case of a ship accident, the control center will have a timely support and rescue plan.

According to General Director of Mekong Rustic Tourism Company Nguyen Ngoc Bich, there should be many channels to work with ship owners and tourists such as SMS system, phone numbers of ship owners, contact channels with ship owners so that in case of an incident, the rescue department can be contacted immediately. In addition, travel companies need to regularly equip knowledge, skills, and train staff to respond to emergency situations.

It is known that after the ship capsized incident in Ha Long Bay, the Ha Long Bay Management Board was assigned to immediately research a 24/7 ship positioning system to ensure monitoring and communication with ships in case of emergency. Ships are required to provide information and safety instructions to passengers before departure.

Regarding the issue of improving management procedures and ensuring safety for tourists, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration Pham Van Thuy said that the Administration requires localities and units providing cruise and river services to review their operating procedures, establish a warning system for natural disasters, unusual weather, and standards for qualified cruise ships to ensure safety for tourists.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/lap-lo-hong-cho-du-lich-duong-thuy-post879215.html