Published:  08:51 Thursday - May 02, 2013

Quang Ninh province has been famous for the Ha Long Bay, one of the world’s natural wonders. However, over the last two years, the thing that attracts tourists to the locality is the spiritual tourism.<br>

A report showed that the number of tourists to Quang Ninh in the first three moths of the year increased by 1.2 times more than the number of tourists to the Ha Long Bay. The figure can show the attractiveness of the spiritual tourism, though the product is still in the first stage of development.

Together with Ha Long Bay which is always chosen as a stay in the itineraries of cruise tourists, the pagodas of Long Tien or Yen Tu have become better known to foreign travelers. 

Travel firms, which well understand that cruise tourists want to discover the local culture through their daily activities, history, religion and superstitions, usually arrange the trips to Long Tien and Yen Tu pagodas for cruise tourists.

At first, spiritual tours were offered only to Vietnamese travelers who have the habit of visiting temples to pray for good luck. However, the success of spiritual tours have prompted travel firms to design the tours for foreign travelers as well.

Besides the Yen Tu Buddhist relics, which has become too popular to travelers, travel firms have also begun organizing tours to other sites which witness the historical events of the nation. 

These include the historical relics of the Tran dynasty in Dong Trieu district, the Bach Dang River area, the place where a historic battle took place in 938. The Vietnamese forces led by Ngo Quyen defeated the invading forces of the Southern Han state of China, putting and end to the centuries-long Chinese imperial domination in Vietnam.

Tourists can also be led to the Cua Ong Temple in Cam Pha district, Tra Co communal house in Mong Cai, Cai Bau Temple in Van Don. The time of tourists staying at the tourist sites tends to be prolonged. Travelers tend to spend as much time on visiting the spiritual relics as the time on relaxing on the Ha Long Bay.

The visits to the tourist sites have been offered in the tours Hanoi – Ninh Binh – Ha Long Bay – Yen Tu pagoda designed by One Travel, the Ha Long Bay – Tra Co of Vietravel, Yen Tu – Cua Ong – Con Son –Kiep Bac of Nam Chau Travel, the Hanoi – Yen Tu – Cua Ong of Railtour.

A senior executive of One Travel said that in the newly designed tour, travelers would stay at Yen Tu more time, while the time on the Ha Long Bay has been shortened, affirming that the new design has pleased the travelers.

He said that tourists nowadays tend to travel more to have more discoveries. This really has much significance especially to the people from other religious cultures. The visitors to the religious centers are mostly the ones from Europe, the US and Japan.

The above said executive also said that it would be boring if the tours focus on the activities at the Ha Long Bay. 

“Spending a night at the Ha Long Bay proves to be the most interesting activity of the tours. However, it would be very boring to stay there for many days, if travel firms cannot design attractive activities ashore,” he explained.

Vietnamnet