Each tour at the world's largest cave only welcomes 10 guests, but has 30 waiters, in addition to entrance fees and environmental services.
The world's largest cave exploration tour Son Doong 4 days 3 nights can be compared to a 10-day vacation in Europe when it comes to the cost of 3,000 USD (69.8 million VND)/person. Many people think that the value of Son Doong tour is too expensive compared to reality, only for people with money. What does this cost actually include?
Tour is designed according to European safety standards. Currently, Oxalis Adventure is the only company licensed to organize Son Doong cave exploration tours. In 2013, the company was licensed by the People's Committee of Quang Binh province to build a project to build an adventure tour to explore this cave.
Each year, the number of visitors to the cave is limited to 1,000 people. The program lasts 4 days and 3 nights, bringing visitors to discover the masterpieces of underground rivers, magnificent stalactites or even forests, weather, and their own fauna and flora inside the cave.
Mr. Nguyen Chau, Director of the company, shared: "Safety for visitors and employees is our top priority in adventure tours and it is not allowed to haggle any requirements related to safety. ". Mr. Howard Limbert, a British cave expert, worked with the company to develop a safety plan. Therefore, all equipment is ordered from Europe and approved by Mr. Howard.
In addition, each tour only has 10 guests, but needs 30 waiters. Including 22 porters carrying luggage and food during the journey; 5 safety assistants; an international guide; a Royal British cave expert; 2 chefs and a ranger. They made sure to carry 600 kg of equipment and supplies in and out of the cave, including human waste. All local porters and guides receive regular training in safety and rescue. In case of emergency there will be rescue helicopters.
Vu Ngoc Quang or the one-handed guy who conquered Son Doong in 2020 shared "the journey is easier than he imagined". In fact, because there are dozens of people to support tourists on the journey, in addition, for every 1-2 guests, there is a member of the safety team following closely.
The porter team is always the one to go first, to set up camp or prepare equipment on the roads they go through. They prepare guests with delicious meals, bathrooms and portable changing rooms. In particular, Quang remembers that when he left, everything returned as if there had never been a trace of people, waste was collected, rice husks were composted to make fertilizer.
"Each porter carries a 30-kilogram luggage, in many places it's slippery and dangerous, they only wear normal shoes and sandals, but it's fast and safe. This makes me admire," Quang recalled.
The path to the Vietnam Wall in Son Doong cave. Photo: Tran Tuan Viet
In addition to 10% VAT, the tour price includes 390 USD (8.8 million VND) entrance fee to Quang Binh province, 210 USD (4.8 million VND) translation fee forest environment service (7% of revenue). From 2020, the People's Committee of Quang Binh province has decided to reduce the entrance fee by 50% to 195 USD (4.4 million VND), the environmental service fee will also be reduced to 175 USD (4 million VND)/guest. Therefore, the tour price was reduced to stimulate demand, to 58.2 million VND.
The tour price also includes the full cost of airport pick-up, two-night hotel stay, meals before and after the tour. In addition, many other operating and administrative costs are also included.
Mr. Nguyen Asia shared that any activity has more or less impact on the heritage. Therefore, environmental issues are also a factor in Quang Binh province and the company is very interested in exploiting tours. Therefore, the People's Committee of Quang Binh province only allows 1-8 months to organize the route to conquer Son Doong, the remaining 4 months to rebalance. The limit of visitors per year is 1,000 people, based on the capacity of the campsites and the time of the tours does not overlap, it is not serving 2 tours at the same time.
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