The sea tourism service connecting Beihai in China's Guangxi to Halong City in the northern province of Quang Ninh, will be opened late this month with one journey per week.
Ha Quang Long, director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Quang Ninh Province, said that the service was scheduled for opening on January 25. In the first phase, there will be a ship transporting around 500 tourists from China to Halong every week, he added.
In addition to this new service, a sea route from China's Fangcheng nearby to Halong was opened last month, bringing hundreds of Chinese tourists to Halong each week.
Currently, the number of Chinese tourists coming to Halong by sea is growing well, with regular journeys of international cruise lines from China.
Specifically, StarCruises is operating weekly journeys from China's Sanya Island to Halong. From last November until this April, StarCruises will have 88 journeys to Halong with over 1,000 tourists each, mainly coming from China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.
According to the department, there were over seven million tourists coming to Quang Ninh Province last year, up 8% from the previous year, with international tourists accounting for around 2.4 million. The province's tourism revenues obtained last year were estimated to reach VND4.1 trillion, up 16%.