Promising potential of Van Don - Co To island tourism

In 2025, Van Don and Co To island tourism will have strong movements, creating great attraction for tourists. The prospect of connecting these two sea tourism brands towards different and competitive tourism routes and products is increasingly taking shape, receiving great attention.

Irresistible charm
Coming to Quang Ninh province, especially in the summer, besides Ha Long Bay, people cannot miss the beach destinations such as: Minh Chau, Quan Lan... in Van Don or pristine beaches Hong Van, Van Chay, Thanh Lan... in Co To island. These two sea tourism brands last year had many exciting and innovative activities, elaborate and classy products, attracting tourists.

Van Don is not only a spiritual tourism destination, it has truly become a vibrant, multi-experience tourist destination. In the 2024 season, Van Don organized vibrant cultural, sports and tourism activities in the district. Typically, on the occasion of the April 30 and May 1 holidays, Van Don organized 5 major events with many attractive activities, such as: Gala Dinner music at Wyndham Garden Sonasea Van Don Resort; opening Van Don welcomes summer 2024 at Phuong Dong Urban Area (Dong Xa commune); a series of art performances, cultural, sports and tourism activities at Phuong Dong Urban Area (beach music shows, dance competitions, hot air balloon experiences, grand music festivals, entertainment activities, cuisine...).

Joining the bustling atmosphere, Minh Chau and Quan Lan communes simultaneously organized programs to open the 2024 summer sea and island tourism season, launching the Minh Chau and Quan Lan walking streets. Visitors can visit, experience, and use services at units, businesses, and individual business households.

Not only bustling, Van Don tourism is gradually becoming a "hot" destination with many unique new products. Van Don is renewing itself by putting 13/14 new products into operation, welcoming guests in 2025. These are camping experiences, sports, outdoor wedding parties; high-class resort tourism combined with health training at Sonasea Van Don, Angsana Quan Lan... meeting diverse needs, including high-class guests. At the end of last year, visitors were also immersed in the beautiful space of the Orange Festival (Van Yen commune); the rich identity of San Diu Cultural - Tourism Village (Binh Dan commune)... There are many eco-tourism experiences that are constantly being renewed at Van Yen Resort, Vove Camping (Van Yen commune), Khe Mai Xanh Cooperative (Doan Ket commune), Van Don Farm (Ha Long commune)...

If Van Don brings many impressions with onshore experiences, then coming to Co To, visitors will have a new and unique sea tour. The 2025 Co To tourist season has attractive "one of a kind" experiences that are being piloted or implemented, such as: Diving and cleaning the environment in the sea areas of Vung Tron, Ngoc Trai... (Thanh Lan commune); exploring the sky and landscape of Co To from above with a hot air balloon; a tour through 5 unique beaches in Thanh Lan through the adjacent beaches C76 - C7 - Vung Tron - Tam Thao - Dau Trau, which are full of wildness...

In the 2025 season, in addition to increasing the number of high-speed boats, visitors to Co To will also find it easier to travel by seaplane Hai Au, which operates with a journey of only about 35 minutes, helping visitors admire the majestic beauty of the landmarks in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay. The district also creates maximum conditions for travel agencies and international tourists to visit (international visitors to the island do not need to apply for a permit).

Co To is also accelerating the implementation of a series of 7 new products registered in 2024. Typical are: Camping overnight on Thanh Lan beach; exploring the pristine paradise of the 7-star island; watching the sunset on Tinh Yeu beach; experiencing the "Truong Sa" of the Northeast on Tran island; cycling to experience Co To at night; healing tourism... Many of these products have been and are being implemented to be able to soon be put into actual operation.

Along with sea and island tourism, Co To increasingly focuses on promoting and bringing cultural and ecological environmental values into tourism development. From the beginning of 2025, Co To will start the tourist season with: Sea kayak racing; Thanh Lan commune sea opening festival; Boat racing connecting island districts and many cultural and sports activities.

In recent times, the organization of the National Flag Raising Ceremony, the Incense Offering Ceremony, and the Flower Offering Ceremony at the Special National Monument of President Ho Chi Minh Memorial Site on Co To Island... have become unique events, creating a special mark of Co To in the hearts of tourists. In the near future, Co To plans to organize festivals, complete sacred spiritual sites, such as: Truc Lam Co To Pagoda, Truc Lam Tran Island Pagoda, Whale Temple... to create highlights to attract tourists, create cultural depth, and form meaningful festival and spiritual tours.

At the same time, Van Don and Co To are actively stimulating demand, ensuring a good tourism environment, and protecting tourists' rights. Thanks to that Van Don and Co To sea tourism has achieved many successes. In 2024, Van Don welcomed over 1.8 million visitors, with revenue of VND 2,831 billion; Co To welcomed about 310,000 visitors, with revenue of VND 930 billion. Many products and experiences are highly appreciated, attracting tourists.

Open up the prospect of connection
The transformation and strong development of tourism in Co To and Van Don has opened up many opportunities and great prospects for the connection between these two sea tourism brands. This is considered one of the important orientations and tasks in the short and long term of the two localities, and at the same time the orientation of the provincial tourism industry. This not only increases the attraction but also aims to exploit the sleeping potential of the two localities.

Currently, linkage is a requirement in tourism development. Linkage helps expand space, promote the strengths of localities, form diverse and attractive tourism products, and enhance competitive advantages. Van Don - Co To has great advantages for implementation.

In fact, the potential for connection between the two brands is huge. That is Van Don district with adjacent Bai Tu Long Bay still retains the pristine features of a wild archipelago with hundreds of beautiful rocky islands and beaches. The National Park in the heart of Bai Tu Long Bay has been recognized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as the 38th ASEAN Heritage Park, containing many unique and rare values of biodiversity, landscape, and ecological environment. Offshore, Van Don also has products that have been branded, such as: Quan Lan, Minh Chau, Ngoc Vung...; onshore, there is Truc Lam Giac Tam Zen Monastery - Cai Bau Pagoda... which has become a favorite destination for tourists.

Co To has pristine beaches stretching for kilometers, beautiful white sand, clear blue water next to primeval forests... Co To also has many islands with beaches, wild nature but very beautiful and poetic. Especially here, there is an ecosystem, a clean environment, and quite intact coral reefs. The system of 50 large and small islands in the Co To archipelago still hides many untapped values. Instead of just being a transit point or only going to Van Don or Co To, many travel agencies have started to exploit Co To island tours - experiencing eco-tourism, spirituality in Van Don or vice versa. It can be said that the two localities have many favorable conditions to build unique tourism products, creating a difference.

The marine tourism resources of the Van Don - Bai Tu Long - Co To area are connected to create a large space and contain a huge treasure trove of values serving tourism activities. This is a favorable condition for organizing continuous tours, implementing long-term tourism programs, linking many different types of products and services. Thereby contributing to promoting the full potential of destinations in Van Don, Co To; the values of Bai Tu Long National Park and Co To - Tran Island Marine Reserve. In fact, connecting, developing and building a system of sea and island tourism products, in which linking Van Don - Bai Tu Long - Co To to create a synchronous and continuous chain of tourism products is very promising. From there, orienting long-term tourism programs, increasing the experience for tourists, contributing to increasing spending of visitors in the province.

In recent times, thanks to available resource, the system of sea and island tourism products of Van Don - Bai Tu Long - Co To has been focused on developing relatively diversely. The main tourism product groups: Island sightseeing, resort, swimming; eco-tourism; cultural tourism... Some supplementary tourism products such as sports - adventure tourism, experiential tourism, cultural - spiritual tourism... In addition, the development of specific tourism products, the unique resource values of the area have also been focused on exploiting.

To realize and exploit the value of key tourism routes and the great potential of these two brands, in 2020 Quang Ninh province approved the Master Plan for management and development of sea and island tourism in Ha Long Bay - Bai Tu Long - Co To - Van Don. Previously, in 2014, the province issued the Master Plan for tourism development in Quang Ninh, orienting the development of sea and island tourism products in the Ha Long Bay - Bai Tu Long - Van Don - Co To area.

The results achieved in the past are only the first step, implemented in some routes with full infrastructure and favorable landscapes. There is still a lack of links and connections to the continuous tourism routes in the region such as Van Don - Bai Tu Long - Co To; tours combining sightseeing of islands and destinations on land... The connection of these two brands into tourism products is still slow to be implemented and not yet specified, so the exploitation is still individual, lacking an overall vision, leading to monotonous and repetitive tourism products, low attractiveness and competitiveness, and lack of differences and complementarities.

Another difficulty that needs to be solved is that inter-island sea routes have their own specific characteristics, are highly inter-regional and inter-sectoral. The development space extends to the sea and island areas of the two localities, including issues related to many fields and industries. Many issues are under the authority or regulation of the central level. In addition, there is a lack of tourism infrastructure for routes as well as the interest and participation of businesses... These are issues that need to be addressed, so that the two island sea tourism brands can truly connect, complement each other, and create truly different and competitive products in the future.

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