Quang Ninh's tourism sector is increasingly prioritizing top quality in its development. Moving beyond traditional products, the province is step by step creating a high-end tourism ecosystem featuring luxury resorts and personalized experiences.
At the end of this past April, Sun Group and Hilton inaugurated the Hilton Quang Hanh Onsen Resort in Quang Ninh. Managed by Hilton Group, the resort comprises 178 villas, 38 Japanese-standard guest rooms, and a public onsen bath area. Notably, Hilton added the brand's exclusive upscale amenities with the Clubhouse—a complex featuring Eforea Spa, a mountain-facing indoor pool, a 24/7 fitness center, yoga, restaurants, and more—aimed at elevating the retreat, recreation, and wellness experiences for staying guests.
Nguyen Viet Dung, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, affirmed: Quang Ninh always prioritizes developing high-quality, distinctive, and sustainable resort products. Sun Group bringing the Hilton brand to Quang Ninh has provided the province with an essential foundation for the tourism industry to tap into a substantial volume of high-end international visitors who have high spending capacity and long stay durations across all four seasons.
In recent years, Quang Ninh's tourism appeal has attracted many renowned international hospitality brands such as Accor, InterContinental, Wyndham, Hyatt, and Radisson, forming a chain of world-class resorts like InterContinental Halong Bay, Vinpearl Ha Long Bay Resort, Tuan Chau International Tourism and Recreation Complex, FLC Halong Bay Golf Club & Luxury Resort, Legacy Yen Tu, and more. In addition, the province possesses numerous advantages for developing the luxury tourism segment. Beyond the World Natural Heritage site of Ha Long Bay, the locality boasts a synchronized infrastructure system with inter-regional expressways, an international passenger port, an international airport, and a chain of upscale accommodation facilities extending from Ha Long and Cam Pha to Van Don and Mong Cai. The locality is also vigorously expanding product lines tailored to high-spending guests, such as luxury island retreats, yacht tourism, golf, wellness retreats, art tourism, and MICE...
One of the clearest highlights is the growth of golf tourism—a form regarded as a "magnet" for affluent travelers. Quang Ninh has established a large-scale golf course system in Ha Long, Dong Trieu, Mong Cai, Tuan Chau, and elsewhere, oriented toward meeting international standards. Under the planning for the coming period, the province will develop dozens of new golf courses linked with upscale tourism and resort hubs.
Furthermore, international cruise tourism also opens up tremendous potential for Quang Ninh in reaching high-spending visitor groups from Europe, North America, and Northeast Asia. During the first months of 2026, consecutive international mega-cruise ships docked at Ha Long International Cruise Port carrying thousands of foreign tourists. This represents a positive recovery signal and demonstrates Quang Ninh's increasingly prominent position on Southeast Asia's premium maritime cruise map.
In reality, Quang Ninh is gradually shifting from exploiting natural resources to tapping cultural and experiential values. Many new products have been invested in to enhance emotional depth for tourists, such as spiritual cultural journeys in Yen Tu, island eco-retreats in Van Don, borderland experiences in Mong Cai, or community-based tourism in mountainous ethnic minority areas.
Notably, MICE tourism has also been identified as a strategic segment to elevate tourist quality. Leveraging modern infrastructure, a large hotel network, and the capacity to host international-scale events, Quang Ninh aims to become a leading MICE hub in the North. According to Nguyen Van Hieu, General Director of Vitamin Tours & Event, MICE travelers represent a segment that delivers very high economic value due to their substantial spending, long length of stay, and high return rate. More importantly, this type of tourism creates strong spillover effects across a wide range of sectors such as aviation, transportation, commerce, services, and event organization.
Moreover, the tourism industry is also actively seeking out and tapping into other potential high-end tourism markets, including the Russian market. Georgiy Chabrov, Managing Director for Southeast Asia at travel company Fun and Sun, stated: The characteristic of Russian travelers is traveling as families with young children, placing high value on privacy. And Quang Ninh is entirely capable of meeting these requirements. In the coming period, we will coordinate with the province to organize Russian famtrips, presstrips, and KOL delegations to survey the market, destinations, and tourism services in Quang Ninh, promote the culture, tourism, and people of Quang Ninh, and thereby build stronger connections with the Russian public and tourist community.
The province has determined that in order to "retain" visitors, it is essential to create a seamless experience from the moment guests land at the airport, board a cruise, and check in at their hotel to their leisure, shopping, and personal care activities. In addition, the trend toward green tourism and sustainable development is setting new expectations. Today's high-end travelers are particularly concerned with environmental factors, local authenticity, and the destination's social responsibility. This compels Quang Ninh to strike a balance between tourism development and resource preservation, while "shifting" from mass service to personalization, and from rapid growth to quality-driven growth. Step by step, this will forge a fresh identity for the tourism industry, enhance its appeal to high-spending visitor segments, and realize the goal of developing Quang Ninh into an international tourism center and one of the nation's premier tourism key areas.
