Central Thua Thien-Hue province will join hands with China's Guangxi Province to open a sea tourism route linking Beihei of Guangxi and local Chan May port, read a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on tourism development recently signed the two sides, a state media said.
Vo Phi Hung, director of the Thua Thien-Hue Department of Tourism, said tourism officials and businesses in Beihei had surveyed the route, adding that his province received good feedback from the partners. They have made a verbal commitment to taking tourists to the province next month.
The new sea travel route will based on the extension of the existing route between Beihei and Halong Bay in Vietnam's northern Quang Ninh province .
When the new route is opened, cruise liners will sail on to the Chan May port in Hue after stopping over in Halong Bay. “Tourists will have a wider choice than the current route,” he said.
The Chinese partners were interested in Hue and neighboring provinces like Danang and Quang Nam, which are attractive places for their guests to visit, Hung said, noting that the province will work with the neighboring provinces to extend the route.
Vietnam-China sea tourism route was reopened in 2006 after a rather long interruption. Since then, the number of sea travelers from China to the country has increased strongly.
The country is expecting sea tourism to recover strongly and develop by leaps and bounds in years to come. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and tour operators will survey dozens of new sea tourism routes linking Vietnam with neighboring countries and territories, including China's Hainan Island, Singapore, Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Cambodia.
These routes will include stopovers in popular Vietnamese tourist attractions such as Phu Quoc, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, Vinh and Halong.
Last year, international cruise ships brought in 140,000 tourists to Vietnam. (VietNamNet, SGT)
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