Published:  00:00 Monday - February 28, 2011

Foreign cruise ships have continued bringing tourists to the World Heritage-listed Halong Bay since the sinking of a local tourist boat that killed 12 people a week ago.

According to Saigontourist Travel Service Co., the country’s leading tourism company, the international cruise ships Costa Classica and Princess Daphne will cruise to the bay.

The Costa Classica with around 2,150 people on board, mostly from China and Hong Kong, on Thursday anchors in the bay in Halong City, Quang Ninh Province. Passengers will tour the bay and go shopping before leaving for Hong Kong this afternoon.

The ship has several times visited the country. It arrived in the bay three days after the Truong Hai 06 boat incident in which 11 international tourists and a local tour guide are drowned while they were sleeping.

The Costa Classica will be back to the country one more time for a six-day, trans-Vietnam journey.
The Princess Daphne of Portugal with 500 Australian cruise passengers on board will arrive in HCMC on Friday, and other destinations will be Nha Trang, Danang and Halong Bay. It will be in Vietnam for seven days.

Saigontourist has reported it would serve around 12,300 international cruise passengers in the first two months of this year.

Source: The Saigon Times