QuangNinh (VNA) – The Tourism Department of the northern coastal provinceof Quang Ninh has reported that the locality greeted 800,000 visitors duringthe week-long Lunar New Year (Tet) holidays.

The number of guests, including 86,000 foreigners, featured a surge of 45percent from the same period last year, and a turnover of nearly 9 trillionVND.

The world heritage site Ha Long Bay welcomed nearly 70,000 visitors while HaLong Ocean Park lured close to 25,000 guests.

Quang Ninh welcomed8.3 million tourists in 2016, a year-on-year increase of 7 percent.

With mainland and sea surface coverage of 12,000 sq.km and a 1.2 millionpopulation, Quang Ninh has long been known as one of the top tourism centres inVietnam with numerous attractive destinations and diverse tourism productsthanks to the province’s efforts to boost tourism’ growth.

It has four majortourist hubs. The Uong Bi-Dong Trieu-Quang Yen area is home to many spiritualand cultural sites, while Ha Long Bay along with the adjacent area is famous asa centre for sight-seeing, culture, shopping and entertainment.

The Van Don-Co Toarea offers spiritual, sea and island and entertainment tourism, and the MongCai area is strong for sea tourism and shopping.

Ha Long city is a big tourism centre of the province. It now has 595 touristaccommodations, including 100 one to five star hotels; 30 shopping centres andrestaurants; 500 cruise ships, including 169 standardised overnight tour boats.Tourism services in the city have increased in both quantity and quality.

Thanks to itsfavourable location, Ha Long has attracted big groups and businesses in tourismwith the most noteworthy projects being the Ha Long Ocean Park of Sun Group,the Vincom commercial centre and the five-star resort in Reu islands, both ofVingroup, and the Times Garden complex of My Way Group, among others.

Ha Long has issued a resolution on turning itself into a high-quality tourismcentre for 2016-2020.

According to the Departmentof Tourism, Quang Ninh currently has 157 accommodation establishments from one-to five-star ratings, along with 47 travel firms and nine beaches for tourists.

Recently, the departmenthas teamed up with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism to organise afamtrip for travel firms and media agencies across the country to a number ofpotential destinations around the Ha Long Bay World Natural Heritage site.

In order to fullytap tourism potential and increase the stay duration of tourists, the provinceis advised to apply comprehensive measures, including reviewing the planningand management of tourism, expand market and diversify tourism products.

At the same time,Quang Ninh is told to invest more in other types of tourism instead of focusingon only the Ha Long Bay, as well as in human resources for the sector. Expertssuggested encouraging the involvement of the community in boosting tourismdevelopment. -VNA