Phu Quy rolls out red carpets to woo foreign tourists

5 years ago when I was watching the sunset on Phu Quy beach with the owner of Long Vi tourist resort. In the story of a happy afternoon tea, what he was most worried about a regulation that foreign visitors to the island had been required a travel permit. Since then, the number of international visitors to the island suddenly halved.

According to Decree No.71/CP, foreign visitors must have both a passport and travel permit granted by the police when they visit the sea border areas, or islands, etc. Therefore, international visitors (or overseas Vietnamese) who want to go to the island must go to the Immigration Department (the Department of Public Security) to apply for a travel permit (the procedure takes 3-4 days). The time of staying on the island lasts from 1 to 2 weeks. Only foreign visitors with a travel permit can be allowed to board the ship to the island.

Phu Quy Island has been voted as one of the most beautiful beaches in the East Vietnam Sea by CNN's travel site (Travel.cnn.com) thanks to its beautiful beaches, white sand beaches, and crystal blue sea​​. Foreign tourists are very fond of destinations that are unspoiled, uninhabited, quiet, not polluted, or  peptonized, etc. In the last months of the year, Phu Quy has strong waves and winds, attracting many international tourists to enjoy kite surfing and windsurfing. Each year, there are from several hundreds to thousands of international tourists to the island, many of them stay for a month to chase the waves. The islanders are familiar with the image of foreign tourists carrying windsurfing apparatus to the beach.

The recent event to recognize Phu Quy Island as a provincial Tourism Area has fueled the cancellation of travel permits for foreign visitors to the Island. Nevertheless, foreigners’ activities on the Island are always under inspection and control to ensure order security and epidemic prevention.

The number of visitors, mainly domestic ones, to Phu Quy has sharply increased over the past recent years. Particularly, the locality welcomed 16,600 tourist arrivals in 2017. The figures rose to 20,000 in 2018, and then surged by 42,000 visitors in 2019. Tourist accommodations, hotels, restaurants, motels, home stays, food and beverage services have then rapidly proliferated.  Revenues from tourism hit over VND 100 billion per year, placing many more jobs and livelihoods for the islanders.

Phu Quy is most favored by domestic and foreign tourists thanks to its most-favorite tourism products such as: beach-swimming, fishing, sea-diving, board-surfing, and a variety of fresh seafood specialities. The cancellation of travel permit to the Island started from September 1^st is a step fostering the foreign tourists to the Island in the following years.

With the cancellation of a permit to the island from September 1, 2020, tourism revenues and international arrivals to Phu Quy promises to increase rapidly in the coming years.

The recent 11^th Party Congress of Phu Quy Island District (term 2020-2025) has determined its 5-year-targets of developing sea and island tourism, attracting investment in high-quality sea transport services while prioritizing on high-grade resorts in combination with sea sports.

Under the planning by 2030, Phu Quy boasts to become a national tourist area with a tourist volume of 74,000 turns of visitors, including 6,000 international ones, revenue of VND380 billion a year, and creating more than 2,000 employments.

In the near future, Phu Quy will see many more high-quality express passenger ships, an airport connecting with others nationwide and worldwide; a large enough port to receive sea vessels; and a plants to convert sea water into drinkable water for sustainable development.

Translated by My Thien and Uyen Linh (Source: Binh Thuan Newspaper)