Vietnamese Island lacks hotels

KIEN GIANG, 21 May 2013: An island destination near the Mekong River delta, Phu Quoc, needs more hotel rooms and better airline connectivity from neighbouring countries.

Kien Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism director, Le Minh Hoang, told the local media that due to the growth in tourism, Phu Quoc Island needed around 3,000 new hotel rooms over the next two to three years to meet increasing demand.

Phu Quoc Island welcomed around 38,000 tourists per month at the start of the year, but the monthly visits are now 70,000. The island has approximately 2,900 rooms, with only 600 rooms that are star ratings.

Phu Quoc International Airport opened at the end of last year creating the platform to expand tourism.

The director added: “By the end of the year, Phu Quoc will have two to three new hotels, but the number of rooms is still small with only 100 to 200 rooms in each project. We need big hotels with 500 to 600 rooms to meet demand.”

The hotel room shortage has made the province reconsider plans to attract overseas tourists to Phu Quoc Island, he said.

“We have to build road and sea routes from Phu Quoc to Thailand and Cambodia, but first we have to deal with the accommodation problems… Thailand and Cambodia have prepared a plan to open up sea tourism, but we want to reconsider it and cooperate with other provinces in the Mekong Delta first,” he said.

In addition, the province will propose that the government open an air route between Phu Quoc and Thailand to promote tourism development. The airport in Phu Quoc  can now handle large aircraft.

Located in the Gulf of Thailand, Phu Quoc island lies just 12 km south off the Cambodian coast, west of Kampot, and 40 km west of  Ha Tien, the nearest coastal town in Vietnam.

Roughly triangular in shape, the island is 50 km long, north to south and 25 km east to west in the north at its widest point. It is located 62 nautical miles (115 km; 71 mi) from Rach Gia and nearly 290 nautical miles (540 km; 330 mi) from Laem Chabang, Thailand.

Sourced: ttrweekly