Domestic visitors exploring Son Doong tour increase in 2016 (Photo: Oxalis)

The balance of visitors booking to Son Doong Cave Expedition from February to April of 2016 made a considerable change. Accordingly, the US had the highest number of travelers with 95 tourists booking to the cave, followed by Vietnam with 33 holiday makers and Australia with 123 people.

In 2015, the number of Vietnamese travelers booking to Son Doong Cave Expedition only ranked the third, the first and the second were the US and Australia respectively. Thus, the number of domestic visitors to Son Doong Cave saw a sharp increase in the beginning months of 2016, said Mr. Nguyen Chau A.

Reportedly, Son Doong Cave Expedition welcomed 504 visitors in 2015, including 67 Vietnamese visitors. The usual tour, operated by Oxalis Adventure Tours since early August, offers five-day and four-night service, including a maximun number of 10 people at the cost of 66 million VND (roughly 3,000 USD) per person during the February–August period. Each tour requires a team of more than 25 porters and cooks, a tour guide, two cave experts and two park rangers.

According to experts, Son Doong will not receive adventurers in the last months of the year for its environment protection and biodiversity conservation as well as giving porters and guides a chance to have a break.
Son Doong cave tour is not a pleasure trip or vacation, it is an exploration trip being full of obstacles and challenges, hence it requires participants to have physical and mental abilities, goals, and determination, stressed the Oxalis’s director.

Son Doong cave located in Quang Binh Province’s Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park that was recognized as a world natural heritage site by UNESCO. The scientists believe was formed 2-5 million years ago, was first discovered by a local resident in 1991. In 2009, a group of British scientists from the British Cave Research Association prepared the cave for public access, in a limited capacity, after extensively surveying the area.

Son Doong is at least 6.5km long, 200m wide and at least 150m high. Its largest chamber is a whopping 250m high - high enough to accommodate a 40-storey skyscraper.

By Nhu Y
(Source: To Quoc)