Many tourists in northern Vietnam have changed their plans after the northern provinces and popular tourist destinations have been hit by a heatwave and power blackouts.
According to Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Pham Minh Chinh, the provinces’ grid receives electricity from hydropower, however due to a heatwave and subsequent drought, low water levels at hydropower reservoirs mean that northern cities are facing outages of up to seven hours.
Ha Long, a Unesco World Heritage Site with beautiful bays and beaches, has been experiencing outages for several days, with more predicted, leading to tourism being negatively affected.
Vietnam has currently received 4,6 million international tourists this year, which is about 60% of the annual target of eight million arrivals for the year. Many northern provinces that depend on the tourism peak during summer are rapidly losing their expected arrival numbers.
According to the Von Don People’s Committee in the popular tourist destination Minh Chau-Quan Lan in Von Don District, an estimated 35% of the average tourist arrivals have already been lost, and the district is receiving only 12 700 of the normal 25 000 tourists per week.
The heatwave may be a result of global warming and El Nino weather patterns, bringing temperatures of 40C and significantly less rain.
