In her opening speech, Ms. Tran Thi Hoang Mai - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong said that the workshop was organized to implement the direction of the Secretary of the City Party Committee on building the Hai Phong tourism brand with key, unique products bearing the cultural identity of Hai Phong, prioritizing attracting typical projects on urban areas, services and tourism along the river; implementing the project to develop Hai Phong tourism until 2030.

According to Ms. Tran Thi Hoang Mai, river tourism has been exploited for a long time in the world, but research on this type of tourism is still relatively limited. In the world, many countries have successfully developed river tourism such as Switzerland, France, Australia, Sweden, Italy, China, Thailand... In Vietnam, when talking about river tourism, many people often think of tourism on Nho Que River (Ha Giang), Saigon River (Ho Chi Minh City), Huong River (Hue), Han River (Da Nang), Hoai River (Hoi An) and Hau River (Can Tho) but no one has mentioned river tourism in Hai Phong.

With a dense river network, the largest river density in the North, rivers surrounding every neighborhood, every village, Hai Phong is called the city of rivers, the city of bridges. These rivers not only carry many cultural and historical values ​​but also play an important role in the socio-economic development of the city. The city has more than 50 large and small rivers, of which 16 are main rivers, the most famous of which are: Bach Dang River, Cam River, Lach Tray River, Van Uc River and Thai Binh River.

The rivers in Hai Phong have long been "witnesses" of history. Bach Dang River is the most legendary, sacred and heroic river in Vietnam, associated with three famous battles. Cam River is a symbol of the harmony between the past, present and the bright future of the city. The three river landscape corridors: Cam River, Lach Tray River and Van Uc River will be the corridors for economic and service development, and at the same time, the focus of Hai Phong river tourism development.

Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong Tran Thi Hoang Mai hopes that after this seminar, everyone will have a different perspective on Hai Phong river tourism, which will contribute to positioning Hai Phong river tourism as a unique, strong product of national and international stature.

At the workshop, Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Van Sau, Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi University of Culture shared that Hai Phong City owns a rich river network, playing an important role in the economic development, transportation and cultural life of the locality. Therefore, Hai Phong waterway tourism has many favorable conditions for development. However, the development of waterway tourism also poses significant challenges for the city. Issues related to building tourist destinations; developing inland waterway tourism routes on rivers, coastal tourism... along with investment in building technical facilities, tourism service infrastructure such as ports, waterway transport vehicles along with a compatible and synchronous service system on each means of transport and at tourist destinations and accommodation... These are particularly important issues when wanting to develop waterway tourism in Hai Phong city.

To develop Hai Phong waterway tourism, according to Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Van Sau, it is necessary to have a scientific, synchronous and specific development strategy and plan. Including tasks such as: Investing in upgrading specialized tourist ports, developing a modern tourist fleet. Upgrading and effectively exploiting existing wharves. Improving the infrastructure of tourist wharves such as Ben Binh, Ben Tam Bac, Ben Do Son to meet the needs of tourists. Expanding and upgrading the quality of Cat Ba and Dinh Vu wharves to welcome large tourist ships, connecting with international shipping routes. Adding yacht mooring points in Lan Ha Bay and Do Son to develop resort yachts.

Develop typical waterway tourism products (cruise on Cam River, experience fishing villages, cuisine on the sea...). Diversify waterway tourism products. Create cultural and ecological highlights to explore nature and ecology. Including visiting ecological conservation areas, wildlife observation activities, especially birds or aquatic species in mangrove areas. Honor the culture of Hai Phong residents by having ships organize programs to introduce Hai Phong culture, such as folk art performances, traditional music, or telling local historical stories to tourists during the trip.

Link with neighboring localities to develop cross-regional waterway tourism. Create regional links with Ha Long and Ninh Binh to develop cross-provincial waterway tours. Develop the Hai Phong - Ha Long - Ninh Binh routes. Build an experience tour combining Lan Ha Bay, Ha Long Bay, and Trang An. Hai Phong - Hanoi waterway route: Develop a river route connecting Hai Phong to Hanoi via the Red River.

Proposing some specific tourism products to promote Hai Phong waterway tourism, Mr. Nguyen Quy Phuong, head of the Department of International Relations and Tourism Promotion (Vietnam National Administration of Tourism), said that Hai Phong needs to develop a variety of tours and routes with topics such as history - origin, cultural experiences combined with enjoying the scenery on the river, visiting eco-tourism areas, craft villages, and garden houses such as:

Inner-city river tourism route: Connecting from the city center via Cam - Lach Tray - Tam Bac rivers, introducing the history of the city's formation, experiencing the unique cultural and architectural space.

Inter-provincial tourist route: Hai Phong - Bach Dang Giang - Yen Tu - Ha Long by waterway, forming a spiritual - ecological - island tourism chain.

Island and sea discovery tour: Departing from Cat Ba port, Do Son, combining sunset tour on the bay, night squid fishing, experiencing the life of fishermen.

To improve the effectiveness of promoting and advertising the waterway tourism market in Hai Phong, Mr. Nguyen Quy Phuong said that the digital transformation of promotion and advertising activities must be implemented in a diverse and flexible manner. Develop a standard set of explanations about waterway tourism routes, digital maps of waterway tourism routes and destinations. Closely link with other forms of tourism and strengthen the implementation of digital marketing campaigns targeting target markets on digital platforms. Promote digital marketing before, during and after the trip, support customers in building travel programs.

In addition, strengthen cooperation with travel agencies and domestic and international cruise lines to exploit specialized tours, connecting customers from large cruise ships to short-term river tours in Hai Phong; Organize unique cultural, entertainment and artistic activities taking place along the river, combining experiential activities, shopping promotion programs, stimulating ticket discounts, unique art performances; Organize to welcome foreign famtrip/presstrip delegations and public relations...

In his closing remarks at the workshop, Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Trung Khanh welcomed the initiative to organize the workshop “Developing waterway tourism in Hai Phong - Scientific basis, orientation and solutions”. This is an extremely meaningful and practical event to find solutions to build a brand for Hai Phong river tourism in the new context.

After listening to the opinions of experts at the workshop, Director Nguyen Trung Khanh affirmed that the reports and discussions clarified the concepts of waterway tourism and river tourism; characteristics of waterway tourism; factors affecting the development of waterway tourism; development trends of waterway tourism in Vietnam and around the world. At the same time, he affirmed that Hai Phong has enough theoretical and practical basis to develop waterway tourism.

Regarding identifying bottlenecks and development orientations, Director Nguyen Trung Khanh said that reports and discussions have clearly identified five bottlenecks that hinder the development of Hai Phong waterway tourism. These are bottlenecks in awareness, institutions, infrastructure, environmental landscape and destinations.

Regarding policy recommendations, many discussion opinions said that the city government needs to provide preferential packages on land rental prices, interest rate support, tax incentives and financial support for investment projects in waterway tourism infrastructure as well as businesses operating in the waterway tourism sector; reduce port and wharf rental costs for companies exploiting tourism services, service infrastructure associated with waterway tourism (including accommodation facilities, entertainment facilities, etc.); clarify the public investment sector and the sector attracting private investment.

Regarding proposed solutions, Hai Phong waterway tourism has all the conditions to become a key tourism product, some routes have the potential to develop into international-class products. The workshop mentioned solutions on institutions, infrastructure, means, environment and landscape, planning, developing riverside destinations, building products, promoting, inter-regional cooperation, and training human resources.

In particular, Director Nguyen Trung Khanh emphasized solution group number 6 on product development, which tourists expect to experience in their journey of discovery. Building rich, quality products that meet the diverse tastes and needs of customers is an urgent requirement in the current context of fierce competition. It is necessary to study and learn from the experiences and models of waterway tourism development in some countries, closely combining with promoting national cultural identity, creating unique products, paying attention to the factors of developing diverse products associated with eco-tourism, community tourism, adventure tourism, cultural tourism, and culinary tourism in developing Hai Phong waterway tourism. In addition, product development needs to focus on investment encouragement, technology application, digital transformation, strengthening regional linkages and especially promotion and advertising.

Director Nguyen Trung Khanh suggested that the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong absorb the results of the Workshop to develop the Project and Projects for developing Hai Phong waterway tourism, contributing to positioning Hai Phong tourism on the national and international map, worthy of the potential strengths of the Red Flamboyant City.

Source: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/mo-ra-huong-di-phat-trien-san-pham-du-lich-duong-thuy-o-hai-phong-2025042310375453.htm