Overcoming challenges to preserve and promote Ha Long Bay heritage

To ensure that water sources are not polluted, styrofoam buoys are replaced with sustainable floating materials at floating structures on the bay; periodic quarterly monitoring and supervision of the water environment status is carried out at 41 monitoring points on the bay; and 2 automatic coastal wastewater environmental monitoring stations are invested in and operated.

In addition, Ha Long City has also implemented the following projects: Smart City; Building a set of environmental technical standards for Quang Ninh province, including a number of specific environmental indicators, suitable for the ecosystem, specific activities in Quang Ninh province and Ha Long Bay. Strengthening the role, responsibility of inspection, supervision and coordination between localities and sectors in controlling waste sources. Most industrial parks have a system to collect and treat wastewater before discharging into the environment.

The province has also implemented the Ha Long City Domestic Wastewater Drainage and Treatment Project, invested in upgrading wastewater collection and treatment systems in localities along the coast of Ha Long Bay, gradually increasing the rate of wastewater collection and treatment in concentrated coastal urban areas (Ha Long, Cam Pha, Van Don, Quang Yen) currently reaching 48%, striving to reach 65% by 2025, all urban areas in the heritage buffer zone have wastewater treatment systems discharged into the environment.

100% of cruise ships operating in Ha Long Bay have installed oil-water separators, and newly built cruise ships in Ha Long Bay have wastewater treatment systems that meet standards. Implementing a project to treat and reduce wastewater pollution at tourist attractions in Ha Long Bay using Jokaso and Uniship technology.

Implementing solutions to reduce plastic waste at heritage sites, effectively implementing the program "Ha Long Bay without plastic waste" from September 1, 2019 with the content of not using disposable plastic products in service and tourism activities on the bay, has reduced 90% of disposable plastic waste that must be collected at tourist attractions on the bay, replacing 94% of foam buoys on floating structures on the bay.

Fish raft farming area in Cua Van fishing village.

The entire city has formed a synchronous infrastructure, creating a new look for Ha Long tourism, increasing the attractiveness of the Ha Long Bay Heritage destination, bringing the best experiences and extending the visiting time of visitors when coming here.

Ha Long Bay currently has 502 registered tourist vessels, including 323 sightseeing vessels, 177 accommodation vessels, 4 restaurant vessels and 7 discovery cruises. In addition, Ha Long Bay currently has 590 kayaks, 100 rowing boats, 31 speedboats and 134 tenders transporting tourists. The operation of tourist vessels and tourism services are strictly managed. In 2018, Ha Long applied the "Green Sail" Eco-label criteria for tourist vessels in the bay to encourage tourist vessels to comply with environmental protection and sustainable development criteria.

Regarding service business activities on the bay, from being scattered, small-scale, lacking legal procedures according to regulations, and with low service quality, by 2016, all types of kayak, rowboat, and speedboat services were thoroughly reviewed and inspected. The service quality of tourist boats and organizations and individuals doing tourism business on the bay was improved.

Constantly expanding unique tourism products, Ha Long Bay currently has 8 sightseeing and tourism routes and 5 clusters and overnight accommodation points. Tourism products and services on the bay include: cave visits, sightseeing; overnight accommodation; entertainment, swimming; kayaking, boat rowing... Tourism services on Ha Long Bay are increasingly diversified, aiming at sustainable tourism development. In addition to focusing on improving the quality of traditional tourism products such as: cave visits, swimming, kayaking, overnight stays on cruises...

Mr. Vu Kien Cuong, Head of Ha Long Bay Management Board, said that the bay has been developing new routes, destinations, and tourism products and services, such as piloting the operation of a cruise ship with 3 separate sightseeing routes; the Night Cruise product; expanding tourism products based on preserving and promoting the historical and cultural values of fishing villages, archaeological culture, and biodiversity.

“Currently, some world natural and cultural heritages such as Italy and Spain have to close due to the risk of destroying the heritage. We also recognize that with Ha Long Bay. Therefore, we also learn from the experience of other countries not to chase after the number of tourists in a crowded way to overexploit the heritage, but to assess the endurance and carrying capacity of the heritage to see how much it can endure, in order to effectively divide tourism routes, not to put pressure on the heritage, destroy the natural landscape or archaeological sites,” Mr. Cuong explained.

In addition to tangible cultural values, Ha Long Bay also contains unique intangible cultural values of the fishing community that once lived on the bay. With a life closely connected to the sea, the simple fishermen have adapted and found a way to behave in harmony with nature through their rich folk knowledge. Today, although they have moved to the mainland to live, the unique cultural features of the fishing community on Ha Long Bay such as customs, beliefs, festivals, ways of making a living... are still preserved, conserved, restored and promoted, creating unique tourism products, contributing to the unique characteristics of this world natural heritage.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/nhin-lai-hanh-trinh-30-nam-bao-ton-va-phat-huy-di-san-vinh-ha-long-post846905.html