At this year’s Chua Huong Pagoda Festival opening ceremony, Mr. Nguyen Manh Quyen, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, presented the Decision to recognize the Huong Son (Chua Huong) Special National Relic Site as a city-level tourist area to the My Duc District People’s Committee.
A notable highlight of 2025 is the official operation of the Huong Binh cable car route, connecting two famous pagodas: Chua Huong (Hanoi) and Chua Tien (Hoa Binh). This cable car route not only shortens travel time and reduces traffic congestion but also promotes cultural connections and the development of trade, services, and tourism between Hanoi, Hoa Binh, Ha Nam, and neighboring areas.
MORE CIVILIZED SPRING FESTIVAL
For the first two decades of the 21st century, the media was flooded with exclamations about this festival every Chua Huong Pagoda Festival season during the three spring months: congestion, overload, and persistent boatmen asking for extra fare. In those years, National Highway 21B from Ba La to My Duc was often crowded with motorbike drivers offering and soliciting rides to Suoi Yen, much to the annoyance of tourists. Upon reaching Huong Son commune in My Duc district, tourists often experienced traffic jams. Boat rides on Suoi Yen also meant enduring boat congestion as the boats were too crowded. Although tickets for the scenic site and boat rides were purchased, the boatmen still urged and pressured tourists to pay more. However, these issues did not recur this year.
The roads from the parking lot to Ben Yen are quite spacious. Along the Suoi Yen boat dock, there is no more jostling or “middlemen.” Boat rides on Suoi Yen are also quite comfortable, and tourists no longer have to lean uncomfortably as the boats no longer collide with each other as they used to. Everyone is now at peace to admire the picturesque landscape, the clear and clean stream, and the beautiful banners.
Recalling a conversation with Venerable Thich Minh Hien, Abbot of the Chua Huong Pagoda complex, about a decade ago, I asked, “In the North, there are many new spiritual tourist attractions that attract visitors, such as Bai Dinh Pagoda, Ba Vang Pagoda, and Tam Chuc. Are you worried that the number of visitors to Chua Huong Pagoda will decrease due to competition from these new destinations?”
Venerable Thich Minh Hien shared, “I hope the number of visitors to Chua Huong Pagoda will decrease. Reading the newspapers, whenever Chua Huong Pagoda is mentioned, all we see are reports about unpleasant situations: traffic jams, boat congestion, and persistent boatmen. At Thien Tru Pagoda, there are always too many visitors, and it’s very chaotic. People offering prayers crowd the sanctuary, spilling out into the courtyards and walkways. Whenever the pagoda holds rituals or events, it’s challenging due to the excessive number of visitors.”
In a conversation with Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh, former Head of the Huong Son Relic and Scenic Site Management Board, I also asked this question. Mr. Thanh expressed his opinion: “The Chua Huong Pagoda complex is a long-standing relic site located in a mountainous and forested area, requiring strict preservation. Therefore, we cannot expand the roads or construct buildings inside. Consequently, to alleviate congestion and overload, we must reduce the number of pilgrims. However, reducing the number of visitors also means a decrease in revenue and local residents’ income. Reducing visitor numbers while increasing revenue is a challenging problem for My Duc district and Chua Huong Pagoda tourism.”
Now, the issues of congestion and overload have been resolved, thanks to infrastructure improvements, innovative management of docks and boats, and the decrease in visitor numbers. If we look at the period from 2020 and earlier, on the festival’s opening day (the sixth day of the first lunar month), the number of visitors ranged from a minimum of 50,000 to a maximum of 100,000 people. However, on the opening day of the Chua Huong Pagoda Festival in the spring of the Year of the Snake (February 3, 2025), there were only about 15,000 people.
Mr. Bui Van Trieu, Head of the Huong Son Relic and Scenic Site Management Board, informed that from January 28 (the 29th day of the last lunar month) to February 2 (the 5th day of the new lunar year), My Duc district welcomed 87,000 visitors to the Chua Huong Pagoda scenic site. Previously, in 2015, Chua Huong Pagoda received 1.5 million visitors during the three-month festival; in 2023, it attracted more than 1.2 million visitors, and in 2024, it welcomed nearly 900,000 visitors.
INCREASED TICKET PRICES, REDUCED VISITOR NUMBERS, UNCHANGED REVENUE
Explaining the reason for the decrease in the number of visitors on the opening day of the festival this year, the People’s Committee of My Duc district attributed it to the significant increase in scenic site ticket prices and boat ride fees compared to previous years. Specifically, in 2025, the ticket price for visiting Chua Huong Pagoda (including the scenic site ticket and boat ride fee) was 230,000 VND/person, an increase of 25,000 VND from 2024. The round-trip ticket price for the Thien Tru – Huong Tich cable car in 2025 is 260,000 VND/person.
Ms. Vu Thi Dinh from Bac Ninh, who has visited Chua Huong Pagoda five times, shared that three years ago, the cost for each trip to Chua Huong Pagoda was only about 200,000-300,000 VND/person, but this year, the cost has increased to 1 million VND/person, including scenic site tickets, boat rides, cable car fees, parking fees, and food expenses. “My family of six spent a total of nearly 6 million VND. Visiting Chua Huong Pagoda is now very expensive compared to other places, so my family might not come back next year,” Ms. Dinh expressed.
According to the data published by the People’s Committee of My Duc district on the number of visitors and scenic site ticket prices each year, in 2023, about 1.2 million visitors were received, with a ticket price of 80,000 VND/person, resulting in a total ticket revenue of 96 billion VND. In 2024, nearly 900,000 visitors were welcomed, and the total ticket revenue was approximately 108 billion VND.
EFFECTIVE BOAT MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS
One of the novelties of this year’s Chua Huong Pagoda Festival is the innovative management and operation of boats and the integration of scenic site tickets into boat tickets to form a unified electronic ticket. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao, a local boatwoman on Suoi Yen, shared that previously, some people invested in tens or even hundreds of boats and hired people from other localities to row boats.
They even set up a “marketing” system that reached out to potential customers on the roads and stood along Ben Yen to solicit tourists, thus earning substantial profits. Meanwhile, locals like Ms. Thao were at a disadvantage due to the “dog-eat-dog” competition. Ms. Thao added, “My family only has one boat, and because I’m not good at persuading customers, I would wait at the dock from morning to night without any passengers on some days. Some years, I only earned 3-5 million VND during the entire festival season.”
“From 2023 and earlier, there were 5,000-6,000 boats on Suoi Yen. Due to the excessive number of boats, congestion occurred. Currently, only 3,700 boats are allowed to operate.”
Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc, Deputy Director of the Chua Huong Tourism Service Cooperative.
However, since 2024, the Chua Huong Tourism Service Cooperative has been established. The authorities stipulated that only cooperative members are permitted to row boats to serve tourists on Suoi Yen. Each member can register for only one boat. As a result, the large boat owners could no longer hire outsiders to row boats and were forced to sell their excess boats.
“Now, boat operations are organized sequentially, unlike the free-for-all situation before. Each boat rower receives a notification about their turn to receive passengers through a Zalo group. Managing the boat rowers through the cooperative model ensures fairness and provides job opportunities for the disadvantaged, eliminating the previous situation of competing for customers,” Ms. Thao happily shared. She added that on busy days (festival opening day, Saturdays, and Sundays), she rows two trips per day; during less busy periods, she rows two to three days per trip. For each passenger, the cooperative pays the rower 70,000 VND. On average, Ms. Thao rows six adults and two children per trip, earning 500,000 VND.
Additionally, Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc, Deputy Director of the Chua Huong Tourism Service Cooperative, said that this year, each rower has a QR code for cooperative management, and each boat has a QR code for interacting and providing feedback on the rower’s service attitude. “Thanks to the introduction of electronic tickets, the cooperative has eliminated the persistent solicitation of customers and price gouging. The boats are now numbered, and the boat owners have higher and more equitable incomes,” affirmed Mr. Duc…
The full content of this article was published in the Vietnam Economic Magazine, Issue 6-2025, released on February 10, 2025. Please refer to the following link for more details: https://postenp.phaha.vn/tap-chi-kinh-te-viet-nam/detail/1247
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