The Halong Bay Management Department reported that nearly 2.3 million tourists, including 1.5 million foreign tourists, had visited Ha Long Bay in the first ten months of 2008, marking an increase of 49 percent year on year.
Along with tourist arrivals by road, those visiting Halong Bay by sea have surged very rapidly recently. In the first ten months this year, Halong Bay welcomed 183 foreign cruise ships, with nearly 120,000 foreign tourist arrivals.
Some well-known cruise ships such as the StarCruise, the CostaCruise and the Nautica become frequent visitors to Halong Bay.