The Kayak rowing service on Ha Long Bay is going to be closed due to its signals of ripping off tourists, which badly affects the business environment on the bay. This has been an aching problem for tourism services in Quang Ninh province so far. Being affected by that, tourists can hardly find the interesting experiences during such adventurous tour in Vietnam.

On the March 29th, Ha Long People’s Committee announced to cease all the service of kayak rowing activities on Ha Long Bay since April 1st.

According to Ha Long People’s Committee, the number of kayaks working on Ha Long Bay is increasing quickly to meet the demand of the adventurous holidays in Vietnam, whereas the organizations and individuals registering to run the service have not got any approved detailed operation plan. The fact that the organizations running the kayak rowing service do not have a list price or ignore the list price of an adventurous tour in Vietnam and show their signals to rip off tourists has badly affected the business travel environment on the bay.

Before the announcement, there was also a meeting for the urgent solutions for fire and other risks prevention on cruise ships to ensure the safety of tourists coming to visit and stay on Ha Long Bay or Bai Tu Long Bay to enjoy their holidays with adventure activities like kayak rowing in a Vietnam tour. In this meeting, Mr. Nguyen Duc Long, the chairman of the People’s Committee of Quang Ninh Province also said that the service of kayak rowing is also excluded in the Quang Ninh People’s Committee Decision no. 1139 on April 27th in 2015. The Decision is a detailed plan on heritage values preservation and promotion in Ha Long Bay until 2020.

On the other hand, Ha Long province also requires cruise ship owners to implement the announcement of the People’s Committee in Quang Ninh Province. According to the required commitment, they are not allowed to arbitrarily carry on the Vietnam outdoor activities for any business related to kayak rowing service, which directly leads to the possibility to decrease the number of fixed regular sailors on board. If there is any violation on adventurous activities in the area of Vietnam, Ha Long City will request the Port of Inland Waterway to stop the licensing to leave port for at least 30 days.

As reactions to the announcement of the City, some members of Ha Long kayak rowing club expressed their disappointments for an adventurous tour in Vietnam. According to them, kayak rowing has become one of the most outstanding services in Ha Long Bay for a long time. Tourists can both experience and explore the stunningly beautiful place during the very interesting moments of their lives for Vietnam outdoor. Many foreign tourists also considered kayak service their most exciting activity when coming to visit Ha Long Bay. An enterprise representative said: “The prevention makes us unable to offer various products and services to tourists on the bay, except for the solely simplistic journey to sightsee and visit caves before going to sleep.”

However, it should be considered a tough decision of Quang Ninh province to control the activities in Ha Long bay and ensure the rights of tourists to come here to visit. Moreover, Ha Long Bay has become the World Natural Heritage not only for its unique service of kayak rowing. Therefore, tourists also have a lot of other options to fulfill their exciting adventurous tour to Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.