According to data from the Kien Giang Department of Tourism, in 2024, Phu Quoc is expected to welcome about 6 million visitors, of which international visitors are estimated to reach 1 million, surpassing the peak in 2019, an increase of 73.4% over the same period in 2023, and exceeding the annual plan by 44.4%.

Statistics from the online booking platform Booking.com also show that Phu Quoc is in the top 3 destinations most searched by Vietnamese tourists for the Lunar New Year holiday of At Ty 2025. These signals continue to promise many breakthrough prospects for Phu Quoc tourism in the coming time.

Mr. Cao Tri Dung - Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association - shared a more comprehensive view of Phu Quoc's tourism development picture.

“2024 marks a breakthrough development of Phu Quoc tourism”

- As someone who has closely followed Phu Quoc tourism activities in recent times, how do you evaluate the dramatic changes of this island? And in your opinion, what is the reason that Phu Quoc has been able to achieve such remarkable achievements in such a short time?

The year 2024 has recorded a breakthrough development of Phu Quoc tourism. To achieve this result is the combination of many factors. In particular, it is impossible not to mention the special attraction of Phu Quoc's natural resource system that is rare in our country. The nature here is always fresh and the sea is beautiful all year round.

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Mr. Cao Tri Dung - Chairman of Vietnam Tourism Association (Photo: Khanh Hung)

In addition, Ngoc Island also owns a complete, high-class, modern tourism service system, with many accommodation facilities and entertainment complexes with investments of thousands of billions of VND stretching from the north to the south of the island, meeting the increasing needs of tourists.

Furthermore, Phu Quoc is still considered an emerging destination, so it has become a good "drop point" for many sources of visitors in recent times, and in the coming time will continue to be the choice of tourist markets from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Australia, America, and South Asia.

The breakthrough growth of Phu Quoc tourism also needs to be mentioned due to the drastic participation of local authorities in urban planning, destination management, creating a safe, secure, friendly and hospitable environment, contributing to increasing the attractiveness of Phu Quoc. Recently, the city has begun to deploy waste treatment, wastewater treatment and clean water supply projects, contributing to making Phu Quoc tourism environment greener and cleaner.

In addition, it is necessary to emphasize the special mechanism for Phu Quoc such as the special visa policy (foreigners and Vietnamese people with foreign passports entering, exiting and residing on Phu Quoc Island are exempted from visas with a temporary stay of up to 30 days, which has helped increase Phu Quoc's competitiveness compared to other destinations in Vietnam and the region. This is a factor that Phu Quoc has exploited and utilized very successfully to create a breakthrough in the number of visitors in 2024.

- So, in your opinion, with the current conditions and progress, is Phu Quoc strong enough to compete with famous island destinations in the region such as Phuket (Thailand) or Bali (Indonesia) and why?

Although Phu Quoc has had a spectacular development in recent times, it still needs more time to be on par with regional destinations such as Phuket or Bali. Phu Quoc needs to have new and larger product orientations. Along with sea tourism products, there also needs to be products related to indigenous culture, entertainment, an ecosystem for organizing events, and products that can meet more specialized needs of tourists in terms of cuisine, ecology, shopping, etc.

In particular, Phu Quoc needs to have a synchronous development of both product systems and infrastructure systems, service facilities systems, urban planning to aim for sustainable development based on the internal strength of the destination and supporting industries. Only then can we hope that in the near future, Vietnam's Pearl Island can stand shoulder to shoulder with sea tourism centers such as Phuket and Bali.

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Phu Quoc tourism has grown remarkably in recent times. (Photo: Anh Tuan)

The important role of strategic investors

- Sir, in recent times, Phu Quoc has proven to be “hot” with many investors. How do you evaluate this remarkable development of tourism on the “Pearl Island”?

For Phu Quoc to have a remarkable development in recent times, especially in 2024, it is necessary to affirm the great and important role of strategic investors in Phu Quoc destination. They have invested huge resources to change the appearance of the destination towards making Phu Quoc a high-class beach resort center.

Not only leading the ecosystem of products that highlight Phu Quoc, strategic investors are also affirming their leading role in major promotional activities for Phu Quoc tourism on the basis of accurately identifying short-term and long-term visitor sources, implementing traditional promotional activities and directly spending large resources to promote tourism, helping to attract a large number of domestic and foreign tourists to Phu Quoc.

In particular, recently, investors have made great efforts to help Phu Quoc have attractive cultural industrial products, especially with the continuous launch of international-class shows such as "Kiss of the Sea" or "Ocean Symphony" ..., contributing to making Phu Quoc tourism always "lit up" at night.

“Pearl Island needs to invest in indigenous cultural tourism products”

- In your opinion, what lessons can Phu Quoc learn from other island destinations in the region and the world to become a "hub" of Asia?

With beautiful beaches, beautiful forests, increasingly improved infrastructure and high-class entertainment complexes, Phu Quoc already has outstanding products associated with its strengths in natural resources. However, what Phu Quoc lacks are typical products with indigenous cultural colors, while this is something that is being exploited very well by Bali and Phuket, which is also a factor that makes tourists want to stay longer at the destination.

The current trend of tourists is towards in-depth, highly personalized experiences, so Phu Quoc must find ways to have products that help increase the value of the experience for tourists. And to do that, there must be investment in cultural tourism products with indigenous identity, based on the direction of the government, the participation of state management and especially the participation and response of the local community.

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Phu Quoc has great potential to become a regional sea tourism center (Photo: Anh Tuan)

- Many opinions say that Phu Quoc still needs more new and superior mechanisms to be able to develop to match its current potential and be competitive with major destinations in the region. What is your opinion on this issue?

Phu Quoc has received great attention from the Party, State, Government and local leaders in recent years. I assess that the current mechanism is sufficient to create a clear competitive advantage for Phu Quoc compared to other sea tourism destinations. This factor, combined with natural resources such as infrastructure, services, and the determination of investors, will soon make Phu Quoc a sea tourism center of the region. And if it is possible to expand the transportation network in Phu Quoc, I think it will create a much larger support and launching pad for tourism on the Pearl Island in the future.

Another thing that Phu Quoc needs to pay attention to is the issue of human resources. In my opinion, Phu Quoc does not have a competitive advantage in terms of local human resources compared to other destinations, because skilled and highly specialized workers are almost all from other places. This is likely to be detrimental to the sustainable development of tourism on the Pearl Island.

Tuan Hung (performed)