Inspection conducted of tourist boats in Ha Long Bay

Northern Quang Ninh Province authorities have inspected 135 of the 151 tourist ships for overnight stays on Ha Long Bay.
The remaining 16 ships will be inspected at a later date as they have been under periodic technical check-ups.
The inspectors found all the ships met the required regulations of staff and sailors’ qualifications and the necessary permits for over-night stay.
However, 37 ships were found with unsafe water partitions and 41 ships were found with inadequate fire fighting and pumping equipment.
The inspectors have asked the ships’ owners to fix all technical faults before they return for another re-inspection.
Meanwhile, the People’s Committee of Quang Ninh Province has approved a project to upgrade four anchorages for ships to stay overnight, at a cost of VND9 billion (US$450,000).
At present, about 475 standard tourist boats with 18,600 seats operate within the bay, of which 151 are overnight-sleeper ships with a total of 1,200 rooms.
In 2010, the province received 5.4 million tourists of which 2.7 million visited Ha Long Bay. The year also saw 140,000 boat trips with 300,000 tourists staying overnight in the bay.