A seminar was held in Quang Ninh province on April 23 to disseminate information on voting for Ha Long Bay as a world natural wonder with the participation of Vice Minister of Information and Communications Do Quy Doan, leaders from Quang Ninh province and reporters.

Participants said that to make Ha Long Bay stays top among 21 world natural wonders, there should be active instruction from relevant ministries, agencies and localities in the country and the involvement of the international community. In particular, the mass media has played an important role in disseminating information on the voting.

Voting for Ha Long Bay has attracted the attention from both local and international visitors. From February 20 to April 14, 2008, Ha Long Bay has occupied top spot among 77 world natural wonders.

However, from April 7-14, Ha Long Bay was temporarily removed from the list as some Vietnamese websites have copied the content of the website of the New Open World Organisation without its permission. Thanks to a timely and effective response from relevant agencies, on April 18, Ha Long Bay returned to pole position in the list of world natural wonders.

Participants said that the campaign board should further speed up the dissemination on voting for Ha Long Bay and take advantage of support from international organisations and individuals, as well as overseas Vietnamese.

Nguyen Hong Quan, deputy chairman of the Quang Ninh provincial people’s committee said there was brighter news as turnover from tourism activities in the province increased by 59 percent in the first quarter of the year.

On April 31, 2008, the New Open World organisation will announce the 77 nominations with the highest votes. Later, a group of experts will select the 21 world natural wonders to enter the second round on January 2009. After that, the organisation will select seven new world natural wonders and announce them in the summer of 2010.