Typhoon Yagi swept through Quang Ninh, causing numerous infrastructure damages to tourism businesses, including tourist boats in Ha Long Bay. Not only were they damaged, many boats were also sunk by the storm, making the repair process time-consuming and extremely costly. To better understand the tourist boats after the storm as well as the development direction in the coming time, reporters from the Provincial Media Center recently interviewed Mr. Tran Van Hong (photo), Head of the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association.

- Sir, after typhoon Yagi, what is the current situation of Ha Long's tourist fleet?

+ After Typhoon Yagi, the tourist boats operating in Ha Long Bay mainly suffered minor damage, the boat owners took the initiative to repair and fix it themselves, and are now back to receiving guests as usual. However, 28 tourist boats and 6 cargo boats sank, so far, the boats have basically been salvaged. Of these, 2 steel-hulled boats, including 1 accommodation boat with 24 rooms and 1 sightseeing boat with a capacity of 99 passengers, are currently being repaired and fixed at factories in the area, the rest are wooden-hulled boats, most of which are severely damaged due to being submerged in water for a long time.

Tourist boats in Quang Ninh have their own characteristics, however, with the risks from natural disasters, there is currently no support from policies, so we have proposed that the province also propose to the central government to consider amending, supplementing and having a specific mechanism to support transport ships and tourist boats that sank due to storm No. 3, to avoid disadvantages for Ha Long's tourist fleets.

There are no mechanisms or policies yet, so support for sunken ships in the past mainly comes from the joint support of organizations and communities. The Ha Long Tourist Boat Association has used its own funds to support 3 million VND/ship. In addition, it has called on sponsors from members and service providers to support 6.8 million VND/ship, and the Quang Ninh Tourism Association has supported 1 million VND/ship. The Waterway Traffic Police Department has encouraged each ship to share 2 boxes of instant noodles...

- So, the cost is not much compared to the cost of salvaging the ship?

+ Each ship has a different salvage cost, for example, the salvage cost of the sunken accommodation ship mentioned above is 1.5 billion VND, the 99-seat steel-hulled sightseeing ship is 650 million VND, the rest of the sightseeing ships all cost around 100 million VND for salvage.

The damage is huge, the ship owners are in a lot of trouble, the province also sympathizes with the ship owners, but because according to the State's regulations, they are not supported, so the province has requested the association and the ship owners to send their recommendations to the province to direct the State Bank and joint stock commercial banks to have special preferential policies on interest rates as well as support loan packages for ship owners to build new or repair and upgrade their ships to continue operating.

- With such difficulties, do any of the above ship owners transfer the project or are they still trying to maintain it?

+ There are units and families that have 2-3 sunken ships, so they have to transfer some of them because they no longer have the economic capacity to fix it, and transfer them to get funds to pay off the old loans mortgaged with assets and houses, and then use the counterpart capital to build new ships to replace the remaining ships. Those who are capable take the ship's hull to replace it with steel-hulled ships, large ships with a capacity of over 200 passengers as proposed in the draft Plan for developing and improving the quality of the tourist fleet operating in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay until 2030. This is also a trend of changing investors to develop the tourist fleet in Ha Long Bay.

I must also share that after this storm, we have seen that the ship owners are very passionate about their work, partly because they want to work on Ha Long Bay, and partly because they want to create jobs for themselves and their families. There are cases where 2-3 families share a ship, and now we can see that they are so passionate that they are determined to invest. If it were just for the economy, when they have money, they will have plenty of businesses to do, so investing in a large-capital cruise ship, and throwing money into the sea is difficult.

- Cruise ship owners operating services at sea face many risks and impacts from external factors, but many people do not buy hull insurance. Why do you think that is?

+ It is a fact that if ship owners do not borrow from banks to build ships, they do not care about hull insurance. Because the current hull insurance premium is too high, for example, for a 48-seat wooden-hulled ship, the hull insurance premium is up to 50-70 million VND per year, so ship owners cannot access it. Ship owners really want to buy hull insurance, but with a monthly income of about 20 million VND, and after deducting the insurance premium, they are not interested, they can only buy compulsory insurance. Therefore, it is thought that insurance companies also need to review and have appropriate scales and levels for ship owners to care about, ensuring the harmony of interests of both parties.

- The ships on Ha Long Bay are increasingly developing towards higher quality, both in terms of technology, equipment, interiors, etc. So, can long-time tourism business owners with a certain level of economic potential compete?

+ This is also a common trend, a driving force to encourage ship owners to join together to build large-scale ships, because the needs of customers are increasing, in addition to ensuring safety, creating new services for tourists to experience when coming to Ha Long. Even ship owners whose vehicles were sunk by storms still keep their jobs, passionate about their jobs, only reducing their vehicles but no one leaves the game.

In fact, there are families where both husband and wife work together, and if they sell all their ships now, they don’t know what to do. I am the same, I don’t have the finances to spend 20-30 billion VND to build a ship, but due to current market trends, I have to be determined to invest as well as call for capital from relatives, borrow from banks to invest in upgrading my services, otherwise I can’t have a new service.

- According to the draft Plan for development and improvement of the quality of the tourist fleet operating in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay by 2030, the goal is that by 2030, 100% of the number of tourist ships operating in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay will be newly built/replaced with steel hulls or equivalent materials. The construction of new tourist ships will encourage ships with a capacity of 200 passengers or more and accommodation ships to have double bottoms and improve standards, technical safety conditions, environmental protection, and high service quality. What do you think about these goals?

+ I think that trend is completely suitable for now. Because according to UNESCO's recommendation, the number of ships should not be increased but reduced. Secondly, it is also an orientation for businesses to grasp the policy, orientation for sustainable and long-term development of Ha Long Bay and invest in developing the tourist fleet. Without such specific plans, ship owners like us would not know how to develop; with such a policy, we will boldly invest according to the province's orientation to increasingly develop more modern and high-class fleets.

- The above Draft Plan also mentions adding 100 ships to Bai Tu Long Bay by 2025, so how do ship owners grasp this policy?

+ We fully agree, support, and wish to soon develop a fleet of tourist ships on Bai Tu Long Bay according to this draft Plan. However, it must also be shared that, in order to develop 100 ships on Bai Tu Long Bay, the province and related localities need to pay attention to synchronous investment in port infrastructure, anchorage areas, and passenger pick-up and drop-off areas at tourist attractions. Tourist attractions also need to be announced and invested in soon in both Van Don and Cam Pha areas...

- Thank you for the interview!