Kien Giang Domestic flights to Phu Quoc have been cut, making travel companies here even more struggling.
Domestic visitors to Phu Quoc by air now have three options: Hanoi, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City. On average, Phu Quoc receives 3,000 visitors from these three localities every day. Previously, visitors who wanted to travel to Phu Quoc by air also had the option of departing from Can Tho, Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa) and Da Nang, but all three routes have been suspended this year.
Responding to VnExpress , Mr. Nguyen Vu Khac Huy, Vice Chairman of the Kien Giang Province Tourism Association, said that the three routes above do not bring in as many visitors as those from Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. However, all three are important because they connect different regions, for example, visitors from the West can go from Can Tho, visitors from the Central region go from Da Nang. Foreign visitors to Nha Trang also want to fly directly to Phu Quoc to experience two destinations in the same journey.
Phu Quoc night market on September 2nd. Photo: Truong Phu Quoc
Mr. Phan Van Manh, Director of Dragon Gold Phu Quoc Company - specializing in providing services and tours in Phu Quoc - commented that cutting domestic flights makes it increasingly difficult for Vietnamese tourists to visit Phu Quoc. With the cancellation of flights from Da Nang, Phu Quoc will certainly lose a large number of tourists from the central region. Meanwhile, tourists from the north often have to buy round-trip air tickets for about 5 million VND to get to Phu Quoc.
"Adding the cost of services on the island, I think Phu Quoc cannot compete with foreign tours like Thailand or China by land," he said, adding that the company's revenue was only about 50% of last year.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hoang Anh, a representative of a travel agency in Hanoi, revealed that the number of domestic customers booking tours to Phu Quoc from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City of his company is only 10% of last year. International visitors to Phu Quoc are mainly from Japan and South Korea.
According to the Vietnam Airlines Corporation (ACV), on December 12, there were 8 international flights to Phu Quoc, of which 6 departed from Korea. This number is similar to December 13. However, tourism companies in Phu Quoc hardly earn much money from Korean visitors because they often use services in a closed supply chain owned by Koreans.
Mr. Vu Tien Van, Chairman of Adavigo's Board of Directors, commented that international visitors to Phu Quoc at the end of the year may be "warming up" but domestic visitors are "almost non-existent". This year, the company's revenue from domestic visitors has decreased by 70% compared to last year. The company is currently "holding on" by selling retail services to international visitors, but it is not very effective because it is not the main business.
"We only pick up some customers who don't book tours. Some companies that do package tours for international customers don't have enough work to do, so they hire us to operate them," Mr. Van said, but revealed that the profit margin for operating the rental is "very thin", only retaining about 3%.
According to Mr. Van, Phu Quoc tourism still has to rely on domestic tourists and cannot depend on international tourists. Because of holding on to the room fund in Phu Quoc all year, Mr. Van knows that many hotels are in a situation where they have up to 90% excess rooms during the low season. During the end of the year, the number of tourists increases but not significantly.
Phu Quoc has more than 700 accommodation establishments with over 24,000 rooms, 286 tourism investment projects, accounting for 86% of tourism investment projects in Kien Giang province with a total area of 9,656 hectares and a total investment capital of more than VND375,000 billion. However, the number of visitors to Phu Quoc has decreased sharply during many major holidays, especially on September 2 when some accommodation establishments only reached 10-15% capacity. Mustgo's data shows that the 5-star segment has a large room occupancy rate of less than 30%; 4-star in the north and center of the island reaches 30-35%; 3-star about 50%; resorts and villas in the south of the island reach about 20%.
A tourist area in the northern part of the island. Photo: Truong Phu Quoc
Mr. Bui Thanh Tu, Marketing Director of Best Price, said that with 24,000 rooms and only about 3,000 guests per day from Hanoi, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City by air, accommodation facilities in Phu Quoc are always in a state of overcapacity. If this continues, a number of workers may lose their jobs.
Mr. Tu said that Phu Quoc's current lack of tourists is the result of a long period of time. Domestic tourists often travel according to trends, before Phu Quoc, there were Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh), Phu Yen, Nha Trang. However, these destinations do not depend on air routes like Phu Quoc, so they are not in the current situation. In addition, a series of negative information over a long period of time has also caused domestic tourists to visit Phu Quoc less.
Adavigo representative said that the tourism situation in Phu Quoc over the past year still had many problems, requiring regulation from leaders to resolve the problems between travel agencies and airlines. Airlines need to commit to flight frequency and offer reasonable prices. Meanwhile, travel agencies need to commit to bringing a certain number of tourists to Phu Quoc through communication and promotion activities. In addition, Mr. Van expects Phu Quoc authorities to join hands with businesses to attract tourists back to this island city.
Source link
Comment (0)