Why is it difficult to convert wooden-hulled boats in Ha Long Bay to steel boats?

According to the People's Committee of Ha Long City ( Quang Ninh ), since 2019, the locality has a policy of replacing wooden-hulled boats with steel-hulled boats to transport tourists on Ha Long Bay. This policy of Quang Ninh province aims to improve the quality of sightseeing boats, with the highest goal of ensuring absolute safety for tourists and protecting the environment of Ha Long Bay.

There are still old wooden boats operating in Ha Long Bay.

Specifically, for sightseeing ships: A wooden-hulled ship is replaced by a steel-hulled ship or equivalent material, with a capacity of 48 - 100 seats. For accommodation ships: a wooden-hulled ship is replaced by a steel-hulled ship, without increasing the number of beds; it is encouraged to replace 2 or more small-hulled ships with larger-hulled ships (allowing the number of beds on newly built ships to be no more than 30% larger than the total number of beds on the replaced ships).

Previously, to improve the quality and reduce the number of tourist ships, Quang Ninh province advocated that new ships replacing old ships must be larger, but not increase the total number of seats and beds in the fleet. Accordingly, in many cases, ship owners had to exchange 2-3 old ships to build a new ship; even ship owners with only one ship had to consider a joint plan with other owners to build a new ship.

The newly built replacement ships come in many designs from traditional to modern and are larger than wooden ships, carrying 48 - 75 tourists with a construction cost of 3 - 4 billion VND/ship.

According to a survey by the Ha Long Bay Management Board, the conversion from wooden-hulled to steel-hulled ships is being delayed because businesses are facing difficulties with capital.

The replacement ships must meet the requirements of the authorities and the Department of Transport of Quang Ninh province regarding the quality criteria, safety equipment and facilities of the ships. The plan to replace the tourist ships must be strictly managed and controlled in terms of quantity and total tonnage of ships operating in Ha Long Bay, ensuring that it is suitable for the load capacity of each area in Ha Long Bay and UNESCO's recommendations to enhance traffic safety and protect the environment according to regulations.

According to statistics from the People's Committee of Ha Long City, from 2019 to now, only about 40 wooden-hulled boats have switched to steel hulls. In addition, nearly 100 other tourist boats have changed their operating areas, mainly to Lan Ha Bay to avoid switching to steel hulls as per the policy of Quang Ninh province.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong, from the Ha Long Bay Tourist Boat Association, said that most boat owners choose to replace two or more small-capacity boats with one larger one. The new replacement boats are all built according to models approved by the authorities.

This conversion also reduces the number of ships on Ha Long Bay but still ensures capacity to serve tourists. Not only that, this is to reduce the load on the world natural heritage of Ha Long Bay, especially in the core areas of the world natural heritage, as recommended by UNESCO.

However, the progress of replacing wooden-hulled ships with steel-hulled ships is slowing down due to the "health" of businesses being weakened after many years of being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Recent boat fires in Ha Long Bay have all occurred on wooden-hulled boats.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung, owner of Bai Tho sightseeing boat, shared: "During the 3 years of the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the sightseeing boats on Ha Long Bay were either docked or operating at a standstill. Many businesses were even forced to sell their boats due to losses. Up to now, very few businesses have enough capital to boldly replace them with iron-hulled boats according to the policy of Quang Ninh province."

Speaking to Thanh Nien , a leader of the Ha Long Bay Management Board said that, through the unit's review, the ship's last expiry date on Ha Long Bay is 2027. When the vehicles expire, they must switch to building new iron-hulled ships, otherwise they must sell the vehicles or move to another area to operate.

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