China and Vietnam launch new sea route to boost tourism HANOI - China and Vietnam have launched a new cruise ship to link the Chinese port of Haikou in Hainan province with the Vietnamese port city of Haiphong in a bid to boost tourist numbers, a report said Friday. The cruise ship is expected to make three trips a week across the Gulf of Tonkin between the two ports, the Vietnamese News Agency reported. Each year around 500,000 Chinese people travel to Vietnam by land, mainly to the northeastern province of Quang Ninh and Haiphong city, it said. Vietnam's tourism industry, which experienced annual growth of 30 percent between 1990 and 1996, has experienced a sharp fall in the number of international arrivals. Analysts say that Vietnam's tourism infrastructure is still poorly developed. International airfares, many of which are set by Vietnam's national airlines in conjunction with foreign carriers, are much higher than comparable destinations elsewhere in the region. Foreign tourists continually complain of Vietnam's dual pricing system whereby foreigners are charged double the price for domestic airline, train and river travel. Agence France Press - June 26, 2000.