The world's largest cave tour Son Doong 4 days and 3 nights can be compared to a 10-day vacation in Europe when taking into account the cost of 3,000 USD (69.8 million VND) / person. Many opinions say that the value of Son Doong tour is too expensive compared to reality, only for people with money. Realistically, what does this cost include?
The beauty of Son Doong. Video: Oxalis
The tour is designed according to European safety standards
Currently, Oxalis Adventure is the only company licensed to organize Son Doong cave expedition tours. In 2013, the company was licensed by the People's Committee of Quang Binh province to build an adventure tour to explore this cave.
Each year, the number of visitors limited to entering the cave is 1,000 people. The program lasts 4 days and 3 nights, bringing visitors to explore the masterpieces of underground rivers, magnificent stalactites or even forests, weather and flora and fauna inside the cave.
Mr. Nguyen Chau Asia, Director of the company, shared: "The safety of visitors and staff is our top priority in the adventure tour and no safety requirements are allowed." Howard Limbert, a Royal British cave expert, worked with the company to develop a safety plan. So all the equipment was ordered from Europe and approved by Howard himself.
Photo: Oxalis
In addition, each tour has only 10 guests, but needs 30 attendants. This includes 22 porters carrying luggage and food throughout the journey; 5 safety assistants; an international guide; a British Royal Cave Specialist; 2 cooks and a ranger. They made sure to bring 600 kg of equipment and items into and out of the cave, including human waste. All local porters and guides are regularly trained in safety and rescue. In case of emergency, there will be rescue helicopters.
Vu Ngoc Quang or the one-handed boy who conquered Son Doong in 2020 shared "the journey is easier than he imagined". In fact, because there are dozens of people supporting visitors on the journey, in addition, there is a safety team member for every 1-2 guests.
The porter team is always the first, to camp or prepare equipment on the roads they pass. They prepare visitors delicious meals, bathrooms and mobile changing rooms. Especially, when Quang remembers the most, when he left, everything returned as there was no trace of people, waste was collected, composted rice husks to make fertilizer.
"Each porter carries 30 kg of luggage, many places are slippery and dangerous, they only walk in normal shoes and sandals but fast and safe. This made me admire," Quang recalled.
Photo: Oxalis
Environmental protection costs
In addition to 10% VAT, the tour price includes 390 USD (8.8 million VND) entrance fee paid to Quang Binh province, 210 USD (4.8 million VND) forest environment service fee (7% of revenue). From 2020, the People's Committee of Quang Binh province decided to reduce the entrance fee by 50% to 195 USD (4.4 million VND), the environmental service fee will also be reduced respectively to 175 USD (4 million VND)/guest. Therefore, the tour price was reduced to stimulate demand, to VND 58.2 million.
The tour price also includes full cost of airport pick-up, two nights hotel stay, meal before and after the tour. In addition, many other operating and administrative costs are included.
Photo: Oxalis
Mr. Nguyen Chau Asia shared, although any activity has more or less impact on heritage. Therefore, environmental issues are also factors in Quang Binh province and the company is very concerned when operating tours. Therefore, the People's Committee of Quang Binh province only allowed months 1-8 to organize the route to conquer Son Doong, the remaining 4 months rebalanced. The annual limit is 1,000 people, based on the capacity of camp sites and the duration of non-duplicate tours, i.e. not serving 2 tours at the same time.
According to VnE