VIETNAM: Ha Long Bay Choking With Tourists And Waste

Ha Long Bay’s postcard-perfect karst islets have long attracted travellers to its Unesco-approved seascape. In 2017, the destination, in northern Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province, welcomed almost 7 million international and domestic visitors, according to website Halong Bay Tourism.

The region’s tourism department hopes to receive up to 16 million tourists by the end of next year, and to rake in VND30-40 trillion (US$1.3-1.7 billion) in revenue, it states, on its website.

Taking a major step towards achieving that goal, on December 30, Vietnam opened Van Don International Airport, which considerably cuts travel time to Ha Long Bay for overseas visitors.

What was once an eight-hour round trip from Hanoi is now just over an hour from an airport that, when fully operational, will connect the bay with 35 cities, including Hong Kong, Macau and 10 in mainland China.

The airport was unveiled alongside a new 60km highway, which reduces the drive time between Hanoi and Van Don to two hours and 30 minutes, and an international cruise port capable of simultaneously accommodating two liners with a combined carrying capacity of 8,460 passengers and crew.

If that isn’t a recipe for disastrous overtourism, Destinations Known doesn’t know what is.

As far back as August 2012, travel journalist Mary O’Brien wrote in Australian publication Traveller, the reality behind the picture-postcard views is worrying.

When I visited our boat was surrounded by container vessels, she continued. The beaches near docks and piers are often strewn with rubbish and travel sites have noted complaints from visitors about pollution.

In the years since, similar observations have been made countless times across social-media platforms and on web forums. Tourists complain of being shepherded to the same overcrowded sights – Surprise Cave seems to earn its name more for its hordes and gaudy illuminations than its rock formations – and about the amounts of debris in the sea.

Last summer, volunteers collected 741kg of waste from Coc Cheo and Ang Du beaches, in Ha Long Bay.

And it is not just the visible waste that is a concern. According to English-language online newspaper VietNamNet Bridge, in July last year as much as 80 per cent of local domestic waste water was being released, untreated, into the sea, which does not make an attractive bay.

In the same month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) hired consultants to advise on tourism and waste management at the Unesco site.

Their findings, published on January 5, conclude that rapid increases in visitor numbers and pollution have damaged the reputation of Ha Long Bay, especially in the eyes of foreigners.

Unless the custodians of the destination clean up their act, and quickly, the engine of growth the country is counting on – tourism revenue – risks stalling. Unlike the planes, buses and cruise ships currently bearing down on Ha Long Bay.

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular travel destination in Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam. The name Hạ Long means descending dragon. Administratively, the bay belongs to Ha Long City, Cam Pha City, and is a part of Van Don District.

The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various shapes and sizes. Ha Long Bay is a center of a larger zone which includes Bai Tu Long Bay to the northeast, and Cat Ba Island to the southwest. These larger zones share a similar geological, geographical, geomorphological, climate, and cultural characters.

Ha Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km2, including 1,960–2,000 islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the bay has an area of 334 km2 with a high density of 775 islets. The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments.

The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate. The geo-diversity of the environment in the area has created biodiversity, including a tropical evergreen biosystem, oceanic and sea shore biosystem.

Ha Long Bay is home to 14 endemic floral species and 60 endemic faunal species.

Historical research surveys have shown the presence of prehistoric human beings in this area tens of thousands years ago. The successive ancient cultures are the Soi Nhu culture around 18,000–7000 BC, the Cai Beo culture 7000–5000 BC and the Ha Long culture 5,000–3,500 years ago.

Ha Long Bay also marked important events in the history of Vietnam with many artifacts found in Bai Tho Mountain, Dau Go Cave, Bai Chay.


Tourism Observer

THAILAND: Thailand Approves New Phuket Airport For 10 Million Additional Tourists

Phuket International Airport
Thailand’s Maya Bay, the beach made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio, officially closed to tourists for four months on June 1, becoming the latest addition to a growing list of destinations that have become victims of their own appeal.

Others include Boracay, in the Philippines, which is almost six weeks into its six-month hiatus, and Koh Tachai, another Thai island, which stopped receiving visitors in May 2016, although it has since reopened.

How, then, do officials in Thailand hope to combat the problem of overtourism led by a sharp increase in the number of Chinese travellers? By investing in infrastructure to facilitate yet more arrivals, of course.

Airports of Thailand, which became the world’s most valuable airport services company earlier this year, recently approved second airports for Chiang Mai and Phuket.

With a combined budget of 120 billion baht (US$3.7 billion), construction on both is expected to begin next year, with completion slated for no later than 2025.

Any one of the 3.5 million passengers who passed through immigration at Phuket International Airport in the first four months of this year might welcome the news.

That figure represented a not insignificant 19 per cent rise on the same period in 2017, according to a report by hospitality consulting firm C9 Hotelworks.

But Phi Phi Leh, home to Maya Bay, Koh Racha Yai and Koh Khai Nok – all favourite destinations for Chinese tour groups and individuals from Phuket – may be less accommodating to an additional 10 million visitors a year.

The economic rewards for such investments are obvious the tourism industry accounted for 9.2 per cent of Thailand’s GDP in 2016, a contribution that is expected to grow to 14.3 per cent by 2027, as detailed in a report by the World Travel & Tourism Council.

However, even high-ranking officials have expressed concerns over the country’s aggressive approach to tourism.

Science and technology minister Suvit Maesincee said: Our strategy was more for less, not less for more, so we invited a lot of tourists from China. I think in the near future we need to change from volume to value.

We are trying to push for CBT or community-based tourism to disperse tourists away from popular sites beyond Bangkok, Chiang Mai or the beaches to promote the unseen Thailand, said Jiraporn Prommaha from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, speaking to travel industry publication TTG Asia.

Building additional airports at two of the country’s most popular entry points might not seem an obvious strategy for the dispersal of tourists, but who are we to judge!


Tourism Observer

ITALY: Overtourism Impacting More And More Destinations Worldwide

Experts who gathered in Italy for the 25th World Travel Monitor Forum® in Pisa last month agreed that the travel and tourism industry must draw up new strategies to manage the phenomenon of overtourism impacting more and more destinations worldwide.

In view of protests by residents at popular destinations across the globe, the Pisa forum – initiated by consultancy IPK International and supported by ITB Berlin – found that diverse measures and solutions must be taken by local authorities to manage visitor numbers without restricting growth.

The international travel industry must act together with destinations on coordinated strategies including managing seasonality and visitor flows, spreading tourism benefits such as jobs and revenues more widely among local communities, and investing in infrastructure and protection of tourism assets, the experts suggested.

According to the findings, overtourism affects travelers as much as it does residents, the destinations, tourist attractions and local infrastructure.

Indicatively, approximately 25 percent of all international tourists felt that their destination had been over-crowded this year, according to a World Travel Monitor® survey of 29,000 travelers in 24 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas conducted in September 2017.

With 9 percent – equivalent to around 100 million tourists – admitting this over-crowding had affected the quality of their outbound trip.

Ski resorts were the most crowded tourism locations with one in five (19 percent) saying their winter sports holiday had been impacted affected by overtourism.

As for the most affected cities these were: Guangzhou (24 percent), Shanghai (23 percent), Beijing (21 percent), Amsterdam and Istanbul (both 19 percent), and Barcelona, Florence and Venice (18 percent), according to the survey

Overtourism is clearly not good for nature, culture, locals and tourists alike. However, global tourism has not reached its limits.

Many destinations would be happy to see more visitors, either throughout the year or in the low season.

So tourism does not have a growth problem but rather a regional and seasonal problem, said Rolf Freitag, CEO of IPK International.

The 25th World Travel Monitor Forum was supported by ITB Berlin.




Tourism Observer

UNWTO & WTM Ministers’ Summit To Discuss Overtourism Caused By Overbookings, Like In Barcelona

The UNWTO & WTM Ministers’ Summit will debate the so-called “overtourism” at this year’s World Travel Market (WTM) London on Tuesday, November 7.

The so called ‘overtourism’ has become a hot topic in the news in recent months, with reports from around the world speaking of “tourism-phobia” and showing pictures of citizens protesting against the “invasion of tourists” and the expulsion of locals by tourism businesses.

Tourism growth can and should lead to economic prosperity, jobs and resources to fund environmental protection and cultural preservation, as well as community development and progress needs, which would otherwise not be available,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, underlining that “growth is not the enemy”.

The Summit will discuss how managing the growth of visitors to many popular destinations is critical for both hosts and visitors. It will look at how tourism growth and sustainability can and should go hand in hand.

According to Rifai, strong, sustainable tourism policies, practices, and the engagement of national, as well as local governments and administrations, private sector companies, local communities and tourists themselves, are demanded to ensure that tourism is an enriching experience for visitors and hosts alike.

The topic will also be the key theme of World Responsible Tourism Day – the largest day of responsible tourism action in the world – on Wednesday, November 8 and will feature throughout the responsible tourism program across all three day of WTM London.

“The so called ‘overtourism’ is the key issue in the industry at the moment, so it is right that ministers and senior private sector leaders debate the topic as part of the UNWTO & WTM Ministers’ Summit,” WTM London, Senior Director, Simon Press, said.

In previous years, the summits have offered insights into issues such as terrorism, crisis management, seamless travel, social media, branding and the legacy of “mega-events” such as the World Cup and Olympics.

“This year’s summit will discuss the so called overtourism the impact it is having on both tourists, destinations and local residents and look for solutions to help minimize the problem,” Press said, adding that WTM London is the only forum offering so many ministers alongside senior industry leaders discuss the big issues affecting the global tourism business.

WTM London 2017 will take place November 6-8 at the ExCeL exhibition center.



Tourism Observer