VietNamNet
Bridge – Vietnam’s natural conditions
are good enough to receive both big cruise ships and yachts. However, in order
to develop cruise tourism, Vietnam would have to settle many problems in port
infrastructure, port management, travel agent management and many others.
The
conclusion can be found in the report on the Vietnam’s cruise tourism
potentials, reflecting the viewpoints of the Singaporean mission which included
private companies in the fields relating to cruise business, the Singaporean
Ministry of Trade and Tourism, the Singaporean Tourism Agency and some cruise
groups such as Royal Caribbean International.
The
report was released after two survey trips to the ports and sea tourism areas
in 2009 and 2010, funded by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism
VNAT.
International yachts evade Vietnam because of
high fees
The
experts said that the long coastline should be seen as the great potential to
develop cruise tourism. From the Ha Long Bay, travelers can travel on cruises
along the coastline to enjoy the beautiful landscapes of the islands in Nha
Trang, or run along the Saigon River. The tours on yachts from the Saigon River
to the beach in Phan Thiet, to the islands in Nha Trang, Hoi An and beautiful
bay in Da Nang and Chan May would attract high income travelers.
However,
to date, Vietnam has failed to attract the high income travelers, because of
the overly high fees. As there has been no perfect legal framework applied to
cruises and sea tourism, the cruises have to pay a lot of different kinds of
fees, if they want to dock and stay at the Vietnamese ports. As a result,
regional cruises try to make a roundabout to avoid the high fees in Vietnam.
Close cooperation needed to develop sea
tourism
The
Singaporean experts have suggested that relevant ministries need to sit
together to discuss the sea tourism development plan, and that there should be
an agency in charge of considering provincial development plans, to ensure that
the development plans implemented by the provinces would not badly affect other
provinces.
For
example, in the near future, when many bridges linking the areas in the Saigon
River basin are built, this may influence the cruise tourism industry, because
big cruises would not be able to go across the bridges to enter HCM City.
HCM
City is really a good tourism destination for many international cruises.
However, since the day the Phu My Bridge was arisen, the ships with the heights
of over 37.75 meters cannot across the Saigon River to enter the central area
any more. They have to go to farer ports namely Hoa Sen or Navi Oil in district
7. Meanwhile, the new cruises which are being built, all are higher.
In the
sea city of Nha Trang, the telpher system has been preventing cruises to enter
the harbor, while cruises now can go ashore from the north.
Tourism ports to be developed
One of
the biggest barriers to the development of cruise tourism is the lack of
tourism ports capable to receive big ships and located near tourism sites. Due
to the lack of tourism ports, cruise ships have to stay at commercial ports or
some tourism sites, where they cannot find high quality services.
However,
the Singaporean experts think that in the current conditions, it would be
difficult for Vietnam to build specialized ports, because the construction
would be very costly. Therefore, it would be better to use the current
commercial ports as tourism ports.
The
report showed an interesting detail that the Singaporean experts, while seeing
the great potentials of the Phu Quoc Island, have advised that it would be
better for Vietnam to maintain its cultural characteristics instead of
attempting to vie to become Phuket, Bali or Koh Samui.
Source:
TBKTSG
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