A dozen of sea festivals are organized in Vietnam, in the names of culture-sports-tourism week, sea tourism week, sea festivals, etc. However, these festivals cannot create their uniqueness.

Among sea festivals in Vietnam, only the Nha Trang Sea Festival is a famous and competitive brand. Other events in northern and central Vietnam fail to make its own impression on foreign tourists.

The Ha Long Carnival Festival, which was launched in 2007, is the most outstanding sea festival in northern Vietnam. However, after five years, it is not a carnival, but a street parade. Tourists don’t have a chance to participate in the carnival like those in South America. They can only stand on the pavement to watch the parade.

Alex Chen, who works for a non-governmental organization in Vietnam, said: “I and my family went to Ha Long to participate in the Ha Long Carnival Festival once, but it didn’t impress me at all. Personally, I think it doesn’t reflect Vietnam’s character much”.

Many tourism experts also said that the Ha Long Carnival Festival is attractive to Vietnamese tourists rather than foreign visitors.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Ninh province said that the carnival lured around 500,000 visitors annually, accounting for 8-10 percent of the total tourists to Quang Ninh per year. However, the number of foreign tourists is low. The festival didn’t attract visitors from the markets of high pay like Japan, South Korea, Australia and France.

Quang Ninh has been a destination of many international cruise ships, but the Ha Long Carnival Festival is not an event on the schedule of cruise ships.

This festival is more highly appreciated than Hai Phong’s Do Son Festival, Thanh Hoa’s Sam Son – Cultural Colors or Nghe An’s Cua Lo Tourism Festival.

Notably, all sea festivals are similar. They don’t show the characteristics of each region and as a result, they cannot impress tourists.

Even the Cua Lo Tourism Festival in the central province of Nghe An, which is combined with the special (Fish Prayer), is not attractive since the organizers emphasized modern features than the traditional Cau Ngu festival.

Some travel firms said that they don’t organize tours to the above coastal areas during holidays, because these beaches are always crowded while the service prices are very high during holidays.

Experts say that tourist sites in the north and northern part of the central region are existing based on tradition. They are unable to design their own tourism products based on their traditional and potentials.

Coastal provinces compete to organize sea festivals but sea festivals are considered as a seasonal solution to help attract tourists in the peak season to compensate for the low season. Experts advised these provinces to develop diverse and complete service products for tourists as priority, then organizing festivals.

PV