“What a great show, even more exciting than in Las Vegas,” said Selcuk Iscimen, CEO of the famous Turkish travel company Dorak Mice, comparing Phu Quoc to the “world entertainment capital” Las Vegas, USA, after watching the Kiss of the Sea show at Sunset Town.

Mr. Murzabekov Dauren, a businessman from Kazakhstan, shared: “Phu Quoc is not only a destination for entertainment, but also offers a sense of privacy with exclusive experiences - something that high-end tourists and Kazakh businessmen like me value very much.”

Mr. Selcuk Iscimen or Mr. Murzabekov, along with 6 million other tourists coming to Phu Quoc in 2024, will have different feelings about the land. However, there is one thing that all of them must be sure of: Phu Quoc's attractiveness is increasingly rising.

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The show “Kiss of the Sea” and the fireworks show light up the night sky of Phu Quoc. Photo: Sun Group

"Darling" of international and domestic guests

Less than a year ago, Phu Quoc appeared in the media with not so positive images. However, the reversal of Phu Quoc tourism in the last months of the year has surprised many people.

According to statistics from the online booking platform Booking.com, Phu Quoc is in the top 3 destinations most searched by Vietnamese tourists for the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday, with a growth of 180% over the same period last year. The international tourist market has even more good news, as the international airport and international cruise port are always crowded with foreign tourists.

On December 18, Phu Quoc welcomed 2,000 visitors on cruise ships. By December 20, there were 2 new routes, from Singapore and Xi'an, China. Phu Quoc's flight chart is increasing vertically, when each day the "pearl island" welcomes up to 30 international flights, while in 2023 this number is 2-5 flights per day.

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Phu Quoc tourism is bustling with many new international flights. Photo: Sun Group

For domestic media, Phu Quoc is now an attractive destination, a new resort and entertainment center of the region and the world, a destination for high-end global tourists. International media also gives Phu Quoc more "winged" words, such as the prestigious American travel magazine - Travel + Leisure put it in the top most attractive islands in the world after Maldives, or the top 10 most wonderful islands in Asia according to Condé Nast Traveler.

The spectacular journey of "breaking out of the cocoon"

The recent growth in the number of visitors and the trust of domestic and foreign tourists is a testament to the "pearl island's" spirit of learning and determination to restore tourism after the pandemic.

In 2024, Phu Quoc City has taken many drastic actions in the process of urban order improvement, many campaigns to control the quality and services of tourism, as well as promote and advertise tourism products to key markets.

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Having dinner by the sea and watching an extreme sports performance combined with fireworks is the most attractive experience on the pearl island. Photo: Sun Group

The "removal of negative labels" is just one of the city's persistent efforts, in its journey to become a new destination in the world.

If 10 years ago, the island did not have a single 5-star hotel, now the island has 700 establishments with over 24,000 rooms, including 29 4-5 star hotels with over 13,000 rooms, and many high-class entertainment areas have been invested.

Taking the example of a "growth pole" of Phu Quoc, the south of the island, surely no one can imagine that the place that gathers 5-star resorts, magnificent architectural works and entertainment complexes with the highest total investment in Vietnam was previously a poor fishing village with no electricity and zero services.

The milestone marking the transformation journey of the southern island can be mentioned in 2016, when Sun Group inaugurated the first 5-star resort on the pearl island - JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay. Nearly a decade later, the picture of a modern, classy southern island is constantly being painted with new colors.

Bai Kem, Mui Ong Doi and the pristine Dat Do beach now have up to 5 5-star resorts, managed by the world's leading brands such as Marriott International, Accor, Rosewood Hotels, Curio Collection by Hilton.

Bai Dat Do is now Sunset Town, the most attractive destination in Phu Quoc with iconic buildings, Vui Phet night market, international show Kiss of the Sea and Ocean Symphony that entertains visitors with 2 brilliant fireworks displays every night.

In December, Sun Group also started construction of the Aspiration Building in Hon Thom, with a total investment of 13,000 billion VND, expected to become a luxury resort - entertainment - commercial complex with million-dollar experiences in the next 2 years. In the same month, the group also brought the Rixos brand, a brand with "royal" resort experiences for the first time to Vietnam and Phu Quoc, to manage a luxury all-inclusive resort in Hon Thom in the future.

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Khat Vong Building in Hon Thom with a total investment of 13,000 billion VND. Project perspective image: Sun Group

Looking at the graph of the number of visitors to Phu Quoc, from less than 600,000 in 2014 to 10 times more, reaching approximately 6 million in 2024, shows how the island has truly "escaped its cocoon". With the advantage of an ideal location in the center of Southeast Asia, beautiful nature, visa exemption policy for international visitors up to 30 days and little investment in tourism infrastructure, Phu Quoc in the future has the opportunity to become a tourist paradise, competing directly with Bali and Phuket.

Le Thanh