Poor infrastructure drives cruise ships away

CA - Vietnam’s lack of tourist ports and poor traffic infrastructure have driven many international luxurious cruise ships away from visiting the country.

Although Vietnam has been receiving high-class tourism cruise ships over the last decade, not a single tourist port has been built along the country’s 3,200-km coastline.

As travel agencies catering to international tourists travelling on cruise ships are waiting for a tourist port, the luxury cruises have no choice but to dock in cargo ports alongside other transport vessels.

“That the cruise ships have to share the ports with cargo vessels is a big inconvenience,” Le Quang Thang, head of cruise ship tourism of Saigontourist, told Tuoi Tre.

“Stepping out of the luxurious space of the cruise ships, tourists may find it hard to adapt to the messy atmosphere of the cargo ports with annoying sounds and smells.”

At present, most cruise ships with loading capacity of above 1,000 tourists visiting Ho Chi Minh City have to dock at the municipal Navi Oil and Lotus ports, or the Ba Ria-Vung Tau-based Phu My port.

However, tourists often have to wait for a long time to reach the ports, which are always busy with cargo-loading activities.

Should tourists wish to visit Ha Long Bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh, which has been named among the world’s new seven wonders of nature, according to the global poll conducted by New Open World Corporation, as the Cai Lan Port, the only docking place there, is always packed with cargo ships.

Cruise ships thus have to dock off the port and tourists have to go ashore by small boats, which tour organizers say is inconvenient, costly, and unsafe.

Tour cancellation due to congestion

Inconvenient and congested traffic has also prevented cruise ship tourists from visiting more attractions in the country.

For instance, tourists to HCMC cannot travel further to the Mekong Delta provinces since it will take a lot of time while tourists’ staying time is limited.

Similarly, tourists to Hai Phong and Ha Long Bay wishing to visit Hanoi usually cannot make it since they would not arrive in the capital until half a day later.

In the most recent case, international five-star cruise ship Silver Shadow, operated by Monaco-based SilverSea Cruises Ltd, has announced it would cancel all visits to Hai Phong next year due to severe traffic congestion at the local Dinh Vu port.

Le Dinh Tuan, director of Viet Excursions Co, the travel agency to receive the Silver Shadow cruises, said it often takes tourists as long as 3 hours to get through the 3km-road from Dinh Vu port to downtown Hai Phong.

“The cancelation is of no surprise as we did expect it,” Tuan said.