Difficulty in Developing Sea Tourism

According to the representative of Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Tourism, long coast creates large potentials for providing tourists travelling on tourist ships and private yachts with wonderful experiences. This is a very popular tourism type in regional countries and worldwide as well. In Vietnam, Halong is a special tourist attraction to tourists arriving here by cruise. From this place, ships can travel along Vietnam’s coast to enjoy beautiful scenery of islands in Nha Trang or even along Saigon River. Yatch-based tourism routes from the Saigon River to Phan Thiet beach, Nha Trang islands, Hoi An, Danang bays or Chan May, etc. are expected to be of great interest to high-income tourists. Nha Trang bay with all year around beautiful weather and pure sea water is also assessed to be appropriate for yachts.

 

However, Mr Nguyen Van Tuan, Head of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) believes that Vietnam is missing this market segment whose expenditure level is high because of too high fees. Meanwhile, the State has not had any regulations for cruise operation. In addition, regulations on beach tourism are yet to be standardized among provinces. Yachts, therefore, are subject to many different fees when arriving at Vietnamese ports. A large majority of yachts in the region opt to avoid Vietnam.

 

In order to tackle the above situation, some tourism experts think that it is necessary that Vietnam reach an agreement on and provide clear regulations on fee rates, tax rates and licences, etc. at all ports and areas within Vietnam so that private yachts or tourism yachts find it easier to travel along Vietnam’s coast.

 

One of the obstacles for cruise-based tourism is the lack of specialized ports for large vessels which are near to tourist destinations. Cruise ships have to dock at commercial ports or a certain tourist destination whose infrastructure system and services are not capable of catering for large cruises and tourists. Construction of specialised sea port terminals is of necessity for cruise tourism development.

 

However, from the viewpoint of Professor Phan Huy Le, a leading expert in Vietnam’s history, given current context, it is difficult for Vietnam’s tourism sector to construct specialised terminals due to very high cost. Another reason lies in the fact that operation of these terminals often generates no profit. Vietnam, therefore, can utilize commercial ports to serve tourist purposes by providing basic facilities such as quays, toilets and parking areas for tourist cars, etc.

 

The South region is assessed to be the gate for cruise passengers to enter the region. The city is an exciting place to tourists and will serve as a destination for tourists from cruises anchoring at ports close to Vung Tau. These localities, therefore, should collaborate to generate more profit. In the short term, they should select a number of wharfs at commercial ports and have simple pick-up points and parking lots for tourist cars built there. However, in the long term, a separate area, as close to Ho Chi Minh City as possible, should be allocated to build wharfs and waiting stations.

 

Singaporean experts give high evalutation of potentials for tourism development at Phu Quoc island and believe that Phu Quoc should maintain its cultural identities in stead of competing against these tourism islands. 

 

However, experts are concerned that if local authorities implement the plan to convert ports into commercial ports and move fishing villages off their existing locations, the plan to turn offshore islands into eco sea parks will be hindered and this will take away the charm of such villages which creates an attraction to tourists.

 

As such, the harmonisation for beach tourism in the current context is of extreme importance. Mr Tuan shares that Vietnam needs more collaboration among ministries, sectors and the Government in developing beach tourism development project. In addition, there needs to be a professional unit to evaluate plans at provincial level in order to ensure that their plans do not cast negative impacts on the others.